Harry lifted his head slowly off the pillow as the alarm buzzed annoyingly, it was exactly five a.m. and it was still quite dark outside. He'd have to do something about that alarm clock one of these days. Groaning loudly he fell back lazily onto the soft warm pillow again and closed his heavy eyelids, he was too tired to get out of bed just yet. I only need a few more minutes of sleep he thought to himself and he would get up then.

Ten minutes later the buzzer went off again! This time he had to get up. No, please, just another ten minutes and he promised himself then he would definitely get up. He began to think about his life and how dreary and monotonous it had become.

"Another day, another dollar," he said out aloud. Why was there such a thing as work anyway, especially at his age. Harry had just turned fifty and he felt very old. He'd worked very hard for the past thirty years and what for? He ran his fingers through his thick curly grey hair and then patted his slightly protruding stomach. He suddenly felt quite depressed as he thought about the last twenty years of his life. What had he achieved in that time? Nothing much at all really!

If he had his own way he'd be living amongst natives on some lovely island somewhere, where the native women did all the work. He would thoroughly enjoy being pampered and just lounging around doing nothing. There would be an endless supply of tropical fruit and plenty of seafood, all of which Harry was very partial to. Lot’s of relaxation, swimming, snorkelling, fishing or whatever else that took his fancy. The more Harry thought about it the more he liked the idea, it sounded good to him. One can only dream he thought as it would be impossible to ever become a reality.

Harry had been a taxi driver for about fifteen long years and he was getting rather bored with doing the same thing day in and day out. The same sort of dreary people getting into his well looked after taxi. They would get in and leave rubbish on the floor and put their feet up and scratch the vinyl on the back of the front seats, especially the little children. Some of their parents would not even stop them and would only laugh at Harry. They would tell him that they were only little children when he told them to put their feet down.

He hated the way they chatted to him and most of it was rubbish and nearly always on totally boring subjects. Things like, what the weather was like as if he didn’t know himself. Or what was he going to do when he retired and so on. He would always say "uhuh," or "oh, really," and hoped that that would keep them quiet. There were the other sorts of people who wouldn't say anything at all, and that really annoyed him as well.

People had become numbers to him unfortunately he thought to himself. Harry used to care about his passengers and used to help them into the taxi with their bags and even hold the door open for them while they hopped into his taxi. But those days were gone now; he just sat in the driver’s seat and waited impatiently while they got into the taxi by themselves. If they took too long he would sit there strumming his fingers on the steering wheel and then would breathe a sigh of relief when they eventually hopped in and closed the door.

Even the 'poor old dears' suffered by his no care attitude. The worst were the silly talkative women and their squawking infants that cried continually. Harry had no children although he had been married up until five years earlier. So he was totally unaware of children’s behavioural patterns and consequently a little intolerant of their strange antics and tantrums. He really could not work out why they had to cry so much sometimes.

It took him all his self-control to stop himself from stopping the car, turning around and telling them to please get out of his taxi and to buy a car of their own if they needed to go anywhere! Then he would bring himself around by telling himself that he still needed the money for the rent, his take-away food he bought each week and running his beloved taxi around. Harry loved his blue and white taxi. It was no wonder that he had an ulcer with all these worries to deal with.

Harry got a bit worried about some of his passengers sometimes. Some of them were rather rough and he wondered if they were after his money, so far he had been lucky. One of his friends was held-up at knife point and robbed a couple of months earlier. His friend Robert had not been the same since the attack and only would go out driving his taxi during the day after that incident.

Julie, Harry's wife had left him about five years earlier supposedly because of his lack of love and support and no care attitude. She had told him that he was lazy and selfish as well. Boy he thought to himself you just can't win in a situation like that. What on earth did she want from him anyway? He used to bring home his pay-packet and hand it over to her so that she could pay the bills and bank the remaining money, if there was any left over of course.

Julie simply had had enough and packed her bags after ten years of marriage and walked out the front door "to a new life," as she had put it. Thankfully they had no children as things could have been rather messy in a case like that. The courts might have given full custody to the Julie and he might not have been able to see them much at all. Harry wouldn’t have minded a couple of kids but Julie did not want any.

Well, at first when Julie had left Harry had felt most hurt and neglected and thought that he would never get over it. But as time went by he found out that it wasn't so bad after all. Besides he could have a drink with the boys, get home when he liked, and even stay out all night if he wanted to. He wouldn’t have to listen to Julies nagging anymore! "Get this Harry." "Do this Harry." "It's late Harry, come to bed." “Don’t watch so much television; you'll end up with square eyes Harry." Well, Harry thought that it was nagging anyway. Why, he could even sleep on the lounge all night if he accidentally went to sleep while watching the television without getting into trouble from Julie in the morning.

The local Pizza shop owners loved Harry, as he almost kept them in business. He ate a lot of take-away; it was easier that way, as there were no dirty plates to wash up. That was the one thing did missed about Julie, her great cooking and the washing up that she did afterwards.

As Harry lay there he wondered how many other fifty year olds were in the same predicament as himself. Something ought to be done about it. He could always start an over fifty's club and call it the How To Grow Older Rather Disgracefully Club or something similar. He thought that he was over-worked, underpaid and he thought about the under-fed bit as he touched his well rounded stomach. Better forget about that one he mused!

"Bother," Harry said out aloud as he glanced at the clock, it was five twenty a.m. and it was time to get up as he was now going to be running late for work. He stumbled out of bed and groped the wall for support as he clumsily staggered down the hallway until he reached the kitchen.

He must be getting old, even his bones ached. As he switched on the kitchen light he stretched and yawned loudly. On went the jug of water to make his cup of tea. He didn't have his usual plate of cereal this morning as he was running quite late for work now and wouldn't have time to eat it. In fact he just reached for the cookie jar and took a couple of biscuits from it.

Nancy his sister had baked them and had dropped them off the day before when she had come around to see him. She came around at least once a week to see how Harry was and to do a little bit of house-cleaning for him while she was there. How nice was that he used to think to himself just sitting there watching her fuss around the place doing the vacuuming or putting the washing on for him. One of these days he will tell her not to worry over him and that he really could take care of himself and then he laughed out loudly.

The jug boiled annoyingly, and Harry slammed the switch off. He poured the steaming water over the tea bag in the mug and flopped into the lounge-chair and immediately bent over and turned the television on. What on earth was he doing he thought to himself, switching it on this time of the morning, he really did have to go to work soon. Maybe Julie was right in a way; he may be watching too much television after all. It might be why he always felt tired and annoyed and why he was also very reluctant to get up in the mornings. But what else was there to do in life he wondered.

It was now five thirty a.m. and it was time to start work. Harry hurried into the bedroom and dressed quickly. He opened the cupboard door and grabbed the loose-change tin that he kept in there and put it into a small felt green bag and headed for the front door. It's a pity people weren't more considerate and have the right change for once he mumbled to himself as he quietly closed the front door so as not to disturb his neighbours living in the flat next door. Down the stairs he tip-toed, holding the green felt bag in one hand and his keys in the other. Harry shivered as he stepped down the last step and out the door into the darkness.

The milkman should be starting his rounds soon. Sometimes they would see each other and if they had time would have a chat for couple of minutes. But not this-morning even the milkman must have been running a little late. It was still quite dark and even eerie as Harry walked to his car. Not a bad fellow Mack, the milkman, he would sometimes give Harry a carton of chocolate milk to make sure he got his daily intake of calcium and to keep up his strength.

Harry spontaneously shuddered, not knowing why. There was something unusually quiet about this morning he thought to himself and he shuddered again. As he reached his car he quickly looked about him and went to unlock the car door with his keys. He had no sooner unlocked the door and suddenly a voice came from behind him, this time Harry froze, he could actually feel the hairs on his head stand on end.

"Freeze, mate, don't turn around, just open the door, nice and easy and do exactly what I say any funny business and you'll be sorry. Just do exactly what I tell you and maybe you might just make it," he said in a gruff voice. Harry was ordered to open the back door as well while he was at it and to get in the front and to drive. It was impossible to get a glance of the man at all, because every time Harry tried to look side-ways the man would move so that he couldn't see him.

By the way my name is Fred now start the engine and drive to the aerodrome and never mind trying to look at me in the rear-vision mirror either," he added. All this time Harry was speechless for the first time in his life. Actually Harry had never been so scared in his life.
 
Harry wondered if his name was really Fred!  Fancy calling your baby Fred or Fredrick as it would have been.  Anyway he might find out what his real name was later because he might have to give his name to the police if he lived through this ordeal.

"Sorry, I haven’t any money to give you," Fred chuckled. Harry tried to ignore this comment. "You’re wasting my time buddy, get moving I haven’t got time to spare, I have a plane to catch," Fred added. Slowly Harry did as he was told and started the engine and headed off towards the aerodrome.

It would take about twenty minutes to get there and Harry's brain was working overtime trying to think of what on earth he was going to do. Should he just drive like crazy and give his unwelcome passenger a rough ride or even try to turn around and try and hit him one. Knowing Harry's luck he would have an accident, write his car off and be the only one to get hurt if he tried it. He restrained himself from doing anything at that stage as the situation was too precarious. Harry contemplated opening the car door and jumping out a couple of times but he thought of his beloved taxi and didn't want anything horrible to happen to it. After all he had bought it a long time ago now it seemed like part of the family now.

Harry went off into sort of a trance as he drove. His mind went back over his life and he thought about quite a few things that he could and should have done. If he got out of this scrape then he promised that he would change his whole life around. He would care about people more; start opening the taxi doors more for the more elderly passengers. Harry even thought that he might start chatting to his customers again and even being nice to the children.

He could even ask his sister Nancy to move in with him and then she could care for him properly. Why he might even start that diet that Julie had tried to put him on all those years ago. Gosh, what was he thinking! For a moment he thought he was going mad. All these thoughts came quite quickly to Harry as he drove on towards the aerodrome. Suddenly Harry loved life and wanted to live. Please God don’t let me die!

"Stop, driving all over the road, you call yourself a taxi driver. My brother is a taxi driver and can drive better than you mate! He was actually going to let me drive his taxi to the aerodrome and said that he would pick it up from there later. I told him not to worry as it would be too inconvenient all round. May as well give you the worry eh!" Fred said angrily. Every time Harry tried to glance at Fred in the rear-vision mirror he would spot him and give the back of the front seat a kick and was told to keep his eyes on the road and look straight ahead instead. This really made Harry angry when he kicked the back of the seat and felt like telling Fred what he thought of him. Harry immediately had second thoughts about doing that especially when he was the one who was under threat of being attacked from behind, he would be the one that would come off second best knowing his past history.


All this time Harry said nothing, he was just driving his car and thinking about the serious predicament he was in. There was a bit of movement in the back of the car and Harry instinctively turned around and saw that Fred was opening a black attaché case. He caught a quick glimpse of Fred and observed that he was actually very clean-cut and dressed very well, almost like an executive of some sort not at all like a crook. Harry wondered what Fred had in the attaché case as he noticed that it had been opened and closed very quickly indeed. Strange!

They were now only about ten minutes from the aerodrome now and Harry was quickly running out of any more ideas. Harry noticed that every now and then Fred would glance out the back window and if any cars came up behind the taxi that Fred seemed to get a little nervous and when they passed he would relax a little until the next time a car came up close behind them. Mysteriously almost out of nowhere, or so it seemed a big black car came speeding up beside the taxi.

To Harry's horror he realized that the driver of the black car was trying to ram his taxi at the side to try and force him off the road. Well, Harry was not having this happening to him so he sped up a little bit more. The black car sped up too and came up beside the taxi again and this time the passenger had his window open and was leaning out the window pointing to the back window with something that looked distinctively like a gun. A gun Harry thought, yikes! The shot rang out without warning loud and clear smashing through the window of the taxi with an ear-piercing sound. Harry swerved and almost ran off the road and wondered what he would do next. Almost immediately the black car sped off and disappeared almost into thin air, or so it seemed to Harry.

There was an uncanny silence in the back of the taxi and Harry looked around to see what Fred was doing. As he turned around he could see that Fred was actually slumped sideways and lying on the back seat in what seemed to be a sleeping position. "Fred, are you alright, did you see what just happened?" Harry blurted out in fright. There was no answer from Fred so Harry reached over and shook him a little and nothing happened he seemed to be rather lifeless.

Almost immediately Harry saw one neat little bullet hole in the middle of Fred's forehead and that he was quite dead in fact. Harry then saw the attaché case still in Fred's hands and wondered what was in there. Must be full of money he thought and wondered what part Fred had to play in this bizarre set of events that had just taken place. Harry was quite annoyed at his taxi being damaged like that. People have no respect for other people’s property these days Harry thought to himself.

Harry at this stage was wondering whether to turn around and go to the police station and tell them what had happened or to continue on his journey to the aerodrome. On the other hand if he did go to the police with Harry's luck they would not believe his story and would have him arrested for murdering Fred.

It all got the better of Harry and he decided to keep driving in the direction of the aerodrome. His heart was pounding now and he found it hard to breathe properly. He was quite close now to his destination and as he came closer he could now see some small lights flickering in the distance. Harry kept his eye on the rear-vision mirror in case he was being followed. A couple of times Harry thought that he could see the black car, maybe he was imagining it.


Finally the aerodrome came into full view and Harry sped towards it. As he approached the entrance gate Harry saw a man waving at him as if trying to hale him down. The man was pointing in the direction of a small plane, and it had its engine running. It looked as if they were waiting for someone to arrive so that they could take off in a hurry. Impulsively he turned around, grabbed the attaché case out of Fred's grip, opened the taxi door and ran towards the man who was waiting at the gate.

"John, isn't it Sir, I am glad you made it? My name is Garry,” the man said with a smile and proceeded to shake Harry's hand. Harry was dumb-founded and just nodded at this question and decided not to say too much at this point as he really trying to work out what was happening.

Well! So John was Fred’s real name thought Harry to himself and he smiled. He would have to get used to being called by that name now. His father’s name was John so that wouldn’t be so bad after all. Harry liked that name anyway.

"We’re glad you turned up when you did, you just made it on time. We had explicit instructions to take off at six o’clock even if you were not here. Just follow me, quickly, we are not expecting any trouble but you can't be too careful." Harry followed Garry and quickly boarded the small plane. As Harry looked around he could see that he was the only passenger and wondered what on earth was going on and what he was doing on this plane. Oh well, he would just go along with it all and pretend that he was John for awhile to see what happened next. Anything was better than having to work and this was getting to be quite exciting and full of adventure, a game in fact.

Garry had disappeared into the small cockpit to talk to the pilot. Harry suddenly remembered the attaché case he was holding and started to slowly open it. He thought that he was dreaming when he at last he saw the contents of the case. There were a lot of important looking papers there sitting on the top and loads of money underneath it. There must be thousands of dollars in there Harry thought to himself in utter disbelief. Quickly he closed the attaché case and kept it sitting on his knee holding it very tightly in his hands. No wonder John wouldn't let it out of his sight Harry was thinking to himself.

Garry appeared from the cockpit and promptly sat down beside Harry and began to talk to him as if filling him in on some big event. "Hope the plane is okay Sir; it was the only one available at such short notice. Can I get you anything to drink at all?" he asked Harry.

"No thanks, not yet anyway, maybe a little later on, I think that I will rest for awhile. I have had quite an eventful and a most extraordinary morning." Replied Harry, which of course was an understatement!

"Just as you say John, and I'll go through some important papers with you after your rest. I will have to fill you in on a few details and what is going to happen. We also hope that you like your position as Manager at your new bank and that it’s better than the last one you were Manager of. Everyone is very keen to meet you. The only days you will need to work will be Monday to Wednesday each week. The rest of the week is your’s to do whatever you want. How does that sound?"

"Oh, by the way we found a most suitable house it is quite big and luxurious. We also found a couple of servants for you to do the house chores and cooking so you have more leisure time. Sounds too good to be true eh! Garry said. Wish that I was in your shoes Sir."

Still too stunned for words Harry just said thanks to Garry and immediately rested his weary head on the back of the seat and closed his heavy eyelids. Was he dreaming all this he wondered? He had to pinch his arm just to make sure. He felt really tired now and was ready for a sleep and he felt as though he needed plenty of it. Harry made sure he was holding his black attaché case tightly and would not put it down or let it out of his sight. Now he knew how John had felt, and he almost felt sorry for him.

Ah, yes he must write to his sister Nancy to let her know that he wouldn't need her to come over to cook or clean for him anymore! Also that he would be changing his name to John!


By
Sandy