by Abderrezak Merebbah
PureTravel Writing Competition 2024
On that evening, the sky was overcast with dark clouds, aligned like rows in a funeral procession, gradually swallowing that glowing yellow disc. Samira, the taxi driver, sat behind the wheel of her car, eagerly waiting for a customer, but the wait was in vain. Finally, she decided to head home.
The light drizzle, falling like sad tears from the sky, was enough to prompt her departure. She didn’t like driving in the rain; she felt there was an imminent danger threatening her life. She gently started the engine of her small car and set off towards her small town outside the city. Cold breezes blew in through the car window, making her close it quickly as a shiver ran through her, and tears streamed down her face from the cold wind.
Suddenly, she heard a whistle and saw a young man running towards her. He was a customer in a hurry. He got into the back seat after throwing his large black bag inside, and lay down, using his bag as a pillow. He said to Samira, “I’m tired, ma’am. I’ll take a nap, and when we reach the city of Boumerdes, wake me up.”
At that moment, Samira felt a wave of panic. She couldn’t move her car, nor could she wake the man or refuse to take him. She was seized with intense fear; she was not used to her customers sleeping in the car. She felt that something bad was going to happen to her because of this strange man. Maybe he would strangle her to steal her car, or maybe he would force her to change her route. She felt like she was trapped in a terrifying nightmare.
But Samira was smart and knew that there was a solution to every predicament. After quick thinking, an idea occurred to her that could get her out of this mess and dispel the frightening thoughts. She decided to pick up another person along the way. If there were two strangers, it was unlikely they would conspire to harm her. When she saw the first person on the road, she opened the front door and invited him to get in. She then felt a deep sense of relief.
Samira wanted to start a conversation with the new customer, to feel some reassurance and to send a clear message to the sleeping person in the back seat that she was protected. She said to him, “The weather is bad today, you’re lucky! You got a ride at the right time!”
The new customer looked at her in surprise and said, “What did you say, miss…?” Then he fell silent.
Samira felt a chill run through her body, and she realized that this person was another nightmare no less dangerous than the first. It was as if fate had sent this mysterious person to add to her misery.
The new man said in a strange tone, “Do you have a little lion’s blood?”
Samira answered nervously, “No, sir, I don’t have any lion’s blood in my car!”
The man laughed harshly and said, “Ha ha ha, do you really not have lion’s blood? Or do you not know what lion’s blood means, you fool?”
The man’s strange words increased Samira’s suspicions that something bad was going to happen to her. She found no way out of this situation but to increase the speed of the car, ignoring the slippery road due to the rain.
The man said in a threatening tone, “Do you know how much time you have left before you die, woman?”
Samira couldn’t believe this question was directed at her. She couldn’t answer, and sweat began to pour from her forehead as she drove frantically, not knowing where she was exactly.
The man shouted, “Answer me, you fool! How much time do you have left before you die?”
Samira started crying, tears streaming down her face: “I don’t know… I don’t know, please, sir… don’t hurt me… don’t hurt me…”
The man said in a terrifying tone, “Now I’ll tell you how much time you have left before you die! Five centimeters! Yes… it’s just five centimeters between this sharp knife and your belly, dear… How about you pull over so we can talk a little?”
Samira saw her life flash before her eyes. She remembered her family, who were eagerly waiting for her return, her small children, and her bedridden husband. What would happen to them without her? She was thinking of them as she pulled the car over to the side of the road, hoping that the man would be satisfied with stealing her car without killing her.
At that moment, the man felt the cold metal of a gun barrel touching the back of his head. He turned to find the barrel pointed at him, held by the person who had been sleeping. The sleeping man said in a calm voice, “And you? Can you calculate the distance between you and death?”
Photo by tahir khan on Unsplash
