Excert from The Roseman's Poetry and Musings, Volume 2

An excerpt from pp. 57-59 volume 2, The Roseman's Poetry and Musings.
Adventures in Taxi’s 3

It was a cool and clear summer night as I drove the taxi I was assigned to back into town after dropping a fare off in the countryside. On the edge of town was a four way stop and then a bridge over the river. I stopped and looked around, I was first at the intersection. I rolled forward to cross the bridge, when I was suddenly cut off by a black tow truck that sped through the stop sign from my right and then swerved recklessly onto the bridge ahead of me. I sped up to follow, looking for a license plate to jot down the numbers and ease my angst at being so rudely cut off. Suddenly the tow truck slammed to a stop in front of me, so I swerved to his passenger side to avoid hitting him and to inquire what was going on. The driver of the truck opened his passenger window and glared at me as I asked if there was a problem. He then gunned his motor and cranked his steering to ram the side of my cab. I was a bit put off by this time, and didn’t want the taxi damaged further, so I hit the gas and shot ahead down the road. The next instant, the tow truck rammed me from behind. I spun the car across the railroad tracks and onto another road past a line of other taxi’s parked in front of the town’s busiest bar. The tow truck rammed me again, and continued to chase me as I swerved again and managed to raise dispatch on the radio. Dispatch told me to head for the police station, saying the police were on the phone and waiting for me to show up. I turned onto the road leading to the police station with the tow truck in hot pursuit. He rammed me again and began pushing me through the center of town, faster and faster. I stayed off the brakes and concentrated on steering straight down the deserted nighttime roads. A few blocks from the police station, a truck pulled out of a side road in front of us. I leaned on the taxi’s horn, warning the driver ahead to clear the way. Then at that instant, the tow truck pushing me from behind suddenly back off. I slammed on the brakes and slid into the police station parking lot, nearly running down the officers coming out the front door of the station. They asked me where the tow truck was… as it hadn’t passed yet. Then suddenly with a roar the tow truck appeared from behind the hedges and buildings and raced down the road past the police station with half a dozen other taxi’s in hot pursuit. My car shuddered and died in the parking lot of the police station, so I stayed put, but I heard the rest of the story later. The taxi’s in pursuit cornered the tow truck in a cul-de-sac and where in the process of being rammed by the angry tow truck driver as he attempted to force his way out when the police arrived.

What I learned later… The taxi I was driving was written off, it had a bent frame and severe damage underneath and in the drive train from being rammed and pushed.

The driver of the tow truck was known as a troublemaker to police. His nickname was “Spider Williams“. The night he came across me, he had been out with a girl who wasn’t his wife, and getting drunk and stoned. He cut me off at the 4 way stop because he was rude, and in a hurry to get to the next party. When I pulled up alongside of him, he thought I saw the girl in the truck with him, and would tell his wife. He got mad. Apparently, when he went for my fenders and I sped away, I inadvertently sprayed his truck with gravel from the side of the road… which only served to enrage him further. His wife found out about the girl, but not from me. It was in the police report. His wife then proceeded to sleep with another guy, which “Spider” discovered. He then thought it would be fun to flip his wife’s car on it’s roof and drag it down the highway, trailing a stream of sparks. He was given more time to serve in jail for this stunt, on top of the time he was serving for trying to kill me. After he got out (again), he was doing some repairs and welding on the bottom of his pride and joy, the aforementioned black tow truck. His truck caught fire and burned to the ground. I heard it was a total loss. In his attempt to put out the fire, he was injured and ended up in a wheelchair, and shortly after that he was killed - but I don’t know the details of his death. Some of the older natives from the reserve who I had as regular passengers in the taxi told me that they had heard of my adventure and put a hex on the “spider” and his black truck.