Quick Witted Passenger

In the years that I drove passengers to and from appointments, I have completed between 20,000 to 25,000 trips. Many of those trips were with the same passengers, but, even so, there have been thousands of different people I have met during these transports.

I transported this particular passenger just one time. I do not remember exactly where the trip began, and certainly not where it ended, but the route we took involved coming down the James Street hill in Seattle toward the southbound on-ramp to I-5.

The road is quite steep and is full of bumps from years of erosion and wear and tear. That makes it difficult to stop quickly, especially with anti-lock brakes as the bumps seem to lighten the van sufficiently to kick in the anti-lock feature. It is also heavily travelled, so it is important for pedestrians to use cross walks to avoid being run over.

As we were descending the hill, we made the light at 9th Avenue. I noticed a guy on the sidewalk who apparently hadn’t received the memo on how dangerous that street is, and hit the brakes as he darted across the street in front of us mid-block. The person in the right lane had also noticed what the idiot was about to do, so he made it across the street despite his obvious lack of good sense. Luckily, neither of our vehicles were rear-ended.

To make light of the near accident, I told my passenger, "I’m just going to take a guess that he did not give the speech at his high school graduation."

Without any hesitancy, she replied, "I’m going to guess he didn’t even hear it."

I don’t remember anything else about the trip, except that it was enjoyable and was uneventful the rest of the way. However, I cannot forget how quickly she replied with her witty comment!

It was impressive, to say the least!