I drive mostly at night. My routine is to keep driving until coffee runs out or I stop getting rides. If I get home before another ping I logoff and call it a night. As you might expect, the later it gets the more interesting it gets.

I arrive at a house in a dark quiet neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning. Shortly a group of young people walk toward the car. I count five, four girls and a guy. I can only take four because of four available seat belts. Its the law. As they open the doors and start to pile in I inform them of this. The guy and three of the girls are already in the car. The fourth girl is obviously quite drunk and very angry standing outside shouting “I’m not getting in the car with him!”. I figure problem solved but the girls in the car are shouting at her to get in. I repeat the seat belt rule and the guy says he’ll stay behind and gets out. As he walks away the drunk girl follows him. The girls in the car keep shouting for her to get in. I’m sure the neighbors are loving this. One of the girls says “I’m gonna kill her.” Another says lets just go. I don’t need to hear that twice so I put the car in gear and we’re off.

Clearly that drunk girl needs to get home but at least she’s not alone even if it is with the guy she hates. There’s only so much a driver can do. End of story. Well, not so much. This is where things get a bit fuzzy so bear with me. Girl in the car makes or gets a phone call. Talks to the guy. The drunk girl has wandered off into the night. The three girls in the car implore me to go back and get her. The ride fee is all time and distance so what the hell. None of the three know exactly where the house is so we circle the neighborhood for a bit and when we find it of course the drunk girl is not there. One of the girls calls her and she doesn’t know where she is. I told you it wasn’t the end of the story.

We continued to roam the neighborhood. It was like what another rider said that I told this story to, “Like looking for a drunken needle in a haystack”.  Finally found her sitting on the curb a short distance away. With some encouragement she finally gets in and I am hoping that’s the end of the drama. Nope. She just keeps going on with the loud profane drunken rant. Apparently she’s angry about being rejected. As you can imagine its a real downer in the car. I can tolerate just about anything as long as there is no puking involved. I say “Some one should record this”. After a moment of silence the girl in the front seat turns to me with a smile holding up her phone and says someone is now. Giggling ensues. I suggest they play the recording for her tomorrow and maybe blackmail her by threatening to play it for her mother. I like laughter in my car.

We get to their destination, they thank me and we say good night. I end the ride on my phone and drive down the street a bit before making a U turn. Passing back by the house I see the girls still huddled around the front door. I remember them talking about how they were going to get in the house. One assured the others she could break a window if need be. They’ll be fine.