I arrived at the address and sounded the horn(喇叭). After waiting a few minutes I sounded the horn again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift(换班), I thought about just driving away, but instead I knocked on the door. "Just a minute," answered a weak, elderly voice.
After a long pause, a small woman in her.90's stood before me. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, "Could you drive through downtown?"
"It's not the shortest way, "I answered quickly.
"Oh, I don't mind," she said. "I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice(临终关怀医院). I don't have any family left. She continued in a soft voice, "The doctor says I don't have very long." I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator, the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds, a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
As the dawn came, we got to the hospice. Two nurses came out to the taxi as soon as we pulled up. The woman was seated in a wheelchair in no time.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. "You gave an old woman a little moment of joy," she said. "Thank you."
I drove into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. What if I had refused to take the run, or had sounded the horn once, then driven away?
