The day before yesterday, his first day driving taxi, he'd only cleared $6.70 - and that included tips.  Yesterday - tips again - only $8.90.

     So what kind of a summer job was that?      And this morning in the summer of 1950 didn't look any better.  At ten o'clock he'd joined the queue of taxis in front of the bus station and it took him all the way until 10:45 just to make it to the front of the line.

     And now ten more minutes of waiting.

     Finally, something.  A fat woman with shopping bags and two kids, a boy and a girl, opened the back door of his taxi.  The girl lurched in first.

     "Alice, I told you!"  The woman pulled the girl back.  "I'm telling you!  You try that one more time!  You just try it!  Go ahead, Bobby."

     The boy got in, then the girl; the woman shoved her shopping bags in next to her kids, opened the front door and got in beside Casey.

     As she settled her weight down and smoothed the lap of her dress she said brightly, "Hello!  And how are we today?  We okay?"

     "I'm fine," said Casey. 

     Maybe she was 30, maybe younger, maybe older.  Who knew?  Being fat and all that you couldn't really tell.

     "So how much is a boy like you gonna charge me out to the old Johnson farm?  Just short of Tipton?"

     Casey pulled the mike off the dashboard, pushed the button and announced that he was taxi number 4 at the bus station.

     "Go, Four!" said the dispatcher.

     Casey explained that he had a woman who wanted to go just short of Tipton and how much was that likely to be?

     "Bet you mean the old Johnson farm," said the dispatcher.

     "Could be," said Casey.

     "Reckon you got Laurna in there with you.  You tell Laurna it’s the same as its always been:  Eight-fifty."

     Casey replaced the mike and said to the woman, "It'll cost you eight-fifty."

     "Oh, sure.  I know that.  Whatever the meter says."

     Just then one of the kids in the back seat, the boy, began to cry.

     "Alice!" the woman wedged herself around in the seat and suddenly, quick as that, almost before Casey could see it, slapped the girl.  The slap made a kind of hollow sound.  "I told you!  How many times I told you?"

     The girl held her hand to her cheek at let out a thin howl.

     The woman got herself back around in her seat and again smoothed the lap of her dress.

     "That girl's a regular little bitch."

     "So," said Casey, "agreed?  Ten?"

     "Oh, sure!  Fine!"

     The woman smiled her bright smile again.

     Casey pulled the handle of the meter down and circled his taxi out into the street away from the bus station.

     "The regular road toward Tipton?" asked Casey.

     "You got it.  I'll tell you where to turn off."

     They were already at the Shell station opposite the church.  Casey turned right on Highway Six and headed out toward the new mall at the edge of town.

     "Nice day, huh?" said the woman.

     "Not bad," said Casey.

     "Yeah, yeah, a pretty good day."

     Then she said, "If you ask me, we've had too much rain lately."

     "That's a fact," said Casey.

     "Rain, rain, rain."

     The boy in the back seat started crying again.

     "He kicked me!" said the girl.

     "She kicked me!" said the boy.

     "The both of you just shut up!" said the woman without turning around

     Casey had a glance at the meter.  It already showed one dollar fifty.  But that's because it had started at one-ten.

     "I guess you wouldn't mind if I ask you a question?" said the woman.  "You new?"

     Casey nodded.

     "I thought so.  You know, when I first saw you, right away I said to myself, that boy's new."

     "My third day," said Casey.

     "You just never know, do you?"

     "I guess you don't."

     "Sometimes that's the way things happen."

     They were passing the mall and all the new improvements on Highway Six next to it including the McDonald's and the Burger King.  Ahead Casey could see where the highway narrowed again as it headed out into the country.

     "You want to know what else I thought?"

     "What?" said Casey.

     "When I first saw you."

     "Oh, yeah, what?"

     "Right away when I first saw you I thought, now why don't I give that nice young man my business.  Start him off right."

     "Well, thanks," said Casey

     "See, them other men.  Well, you know.  I guess you know.  Them other cabbies.  They's too used to things.  They take advantage.  You know what I mean?"

     "Maybe," said Casey.

     "But right away, right from the get-go, I saw you weren't the kind to take advantage."

     The boy in the back seat started crying again.

     The woman ignored the crying.

     "Say, you don't mind if I ask another question?  Personal-like?

     "Oh, no," said Casey.

     "Sure you don't?"

     "Of course."

     "Well, bet you're a student.  Probably studying to be a doctor."

     "No, no," said Casey, "no, no."

     "No doctor?"

     Casey explained he wasn't even a university student yet, that he'd only finished high school.  But he certainly would be a university student.  In the fall.  Then he'd be a freshman at the University of Iowa.  That's why he was working now, driving the taxi, getting some money.

      Wedging herself around the woman shouted, "Shut up!" to her kids.  Then she turned back to Casey.

      "That's real nice," she said.  "You being a student, and all.  Because these times, you know what I mean, you get all the education you can.  That's what I think."

     "That's what I think, too," said Casey.

     "So what you going to be?"

     "Maybe a lawyer."

     "A lawyer?"

     "Probably I'll take pre-law."

     "That's good.  Well, you work hard at that university.  You work really hard.  Because a lawyer, you know, a lawyer can make a lot of money."

     "But I also want to do some pro bono work."

     "Pro what?"

     "Pro bono.  That's where you help people for free."

     "Oh, yeah?" said the woman.

     They were well beyond the mall now and out in the country passing fields of corn and every once in a while white farm houses and big barns.  Not too far ahead Casey could see the outlines of the hills where he knew some people who lived up there didn't even have electricity yet.

     "You mind if I ask you another question?  Personal?"

     "No.  Go ahead," said Casey.

     "You got a girlfriend?"

     Casey thought about it.  Whether he had a girlfriend or not.  Well, in a way he did.  He sort of had a girlfriend.

     "Oh, sure," he said.

     "Well, I knew you did.  Of course, you do.  A boy like you.  Going to be a lawyer and all that.  Most girls would give their left arm.  And that's the truth."

     "Well . . . ," said Casey.

     "You come on!  Don't tell me!  I'll bet the girls chase you all over."

     "No, no," said Casey.

     "So is she a nice girl, this girl?"

     "Well, yes, yes, oh, yes, she's very nice."

     "And do the two of you already . . . ?  Do you . . . ?  You know what I mean.  Hell, you know what I mean!"

     "Oh, no, no.  Not yet.  That is, not yet."

     "You be careful!"

     "Oh, I will," said Casey.

     "Don't you do anything too soon!  See, I know what I'm talking about.  You understand?"

     "I do," said Casey.

     "There!" shouted the girl standing up on the back seat and leaning over the front seat.  She was pointing ahead of them.  "We turn there!"

     "Right up there," said the woman to Casey.  "Make a left."

     As Casey slowed to make the turn he glanced at the meter.  It was amazing how fast it went.  It already said six-fifty.

     He made the turn and right away as they started going up the hill the road narrowed and the land suddenly changed from the good farmland below to little pastures on the sides of hills.  Sometimes there were cows in the pastures and sometimes there weren't.

     "So how far?" said Casey.

     "Not too far," said the woman.

     The girl kept leaning over the front seat.

     "Bobby's birthday's tomorrow," she said to Casey.

     "Oh?" said Casey.

     "He'll be six," said the girl.

     "I'll be seven," said the boy, also standing and leaning forward next to his sister.

     "No you won't."

     "Yes, I will."

     "You won't."

     "I will."

     "You won't, won't, won't."

     "I will, will, will."

     They started to tickle each other and fell laughing onto the back seat.

     "Will the two of you . . . ?" said the woman.

     Then the woman pointed out ahead of them.  "There!"

     Casey saw a tractor lane going off into a woods.  As he slowed to turn in he again glanced at the meter.  It now said seven-fifty.

     The two kids in the back seat kept tickling each other and laughing.

     The woman swung herself around.  "Will the two of you shut the fuck up!"

     Right away the laughing stopped.

     "Kids!" said the woman to Casey.

     After going down the tractor lane for a while they came into a clearing and Casey saw a small house and a small barn and some field machinery sitting around.  The house wasn't really a house, more like a shack.  Well, somewhere between a house and a shack.  Probably it had once been painted white, but most of its paint had by now peeled off.

     As Casey stopped the taxi a small black dog, maybe a bull terrier, rushed off the porch toward them barking and snarling.

     "So," said Casey pulling the meter handle down.  He saw it said eight dollars and twenty cents.

     Both the kids piled out of the back door and ran toward the house.  The dog ignored them and kept barking and snarling at the taxi.

     "You know, I want to thank you very much," said the woman opening her door and shifting herself around to get out.  "Like I said, you are a very, very nice boy."

     She got her legs under her and then reached into the back seat for her shopping bags.  The dog continued to bark and snarl.

     "You shut the fuck up!" the woman said to the dog.

     With that she waddled toward the house.  The dog didn't follow her but continued to bark and snarl at the taxi.

     Casey looked at the meter.  It still said eight dollars and twenty cents just as it had a minute ago.

     So where was the woman?  He had expected her to pay him either before she got out of the taxi or just after she got out.  That's how all his other customers these three days had done it.  He certainly hadn't thought she'd just waddle off like that.

     Well, probably she'd come right back out and pay him.  Because for some people, people like this woman, for example, eight dollars was a lot of money.  So she'd gone in the house to get her money and she'd be right back to pay him.

     Casey sat there for maybe one minute.  Maybe two minutes.  All the time the dog kept barking and snarling.

     But the woman didn't come out.

     This wasn't really happening, was it? thought Casey.  That she wasn't going to pay him?  That she had just walked away?  Because people didn't do things like that.  The meter said eight dollars and twenty cents.  So that's what she owed him.

     He sat there for maybe two minutes more looking at the door of house.  But even though he waited for it to open, it didn't open.

     And then there was this dog barking like crazy just outside his door.

     I've got to, Casey said to himself.  I can't let her get away with this.  I have to.

     But there was that dog.  And you never knew about dogs.

     "Hello," he said to the dog.  "Nice dog."

     But the dog increased its barking and snarling.

     Casey eased his door open, but not much, and as he did so, the dog stopped barking, backed away, then started up barking again, more than ever. 

     He's a coward, thought Casey.

     He opened the door all the way and the dog ran toward the house and disappeared around its corner.

     A real coward, thought Casey.  One of those types.

     Casey went up to the door of the house and knocked.  When nothing happened, he knocked again.  Only harder this time.  And when still nothing happened, he knocked even harder, really a lot harder, really pounding his fist.

     Finally, between knocks, he heard footsteps coming, and then, finally, the door opened.  The woman stood there taking up the whole doorframe.

     "Why, hello, there!" she said brightly.

     Casey told her she owed him eight dollars.  He didn’t mention the twenty cents.

     "Oh, sure I do!  Whatdya think?  I've been looking all over for it - that money.  Because it's got to be somewhere.  Got to be.  I put that bill in the drawer this morning.  Fifty dollars.  I sure did.  I'll show you.  Come on in."

     Casey followed the woman through what seemed to be a kitchen into what seemed to be sort of a living room.

     "See here?"

     The woman pulled out a top drawer of a chest of drawers.  The drawer had different kinds of sheets of paper in it.

     "I put that 50 dollar bill right in here on top before I left this morning, and now, well, you look."

     Casey sure didn't see anything that looked like a 50 dollar bill.

     "You know what I think happened?" said the woman.  "I'll tell you what I think happened.  I think my husband found that 50 and took it with him today when he left.  Without telling me.  You want to bet?"

     "You owe me eight dollars," repeated Casey.

     "'Course I do.  I know that.  And here's what I'll do.  You give me your address, you know what I mean, where you live, and as soon as my husband comes home I'll put that eight in an envelope and send it right over to you in the US mail.  Hell, once my husband hears what happened, he'll make me do it.  That's the God's truth."

     “I don’t know about that.”

     “What’dya mean, you don’t know about that.  Hell, my old man, he’ll force me.”

     "You promise, then?" said Casey.  “You promise you'll send me the money?"

     "Whatdya take me?" said the woman getting a sheet of paper from the drawer and going over to the table and sitting down.  "Tell you what.  Now you give me your address where you live.  Real clear like so I don't make no mistakes."

     "You really promise?"

     "'Course."

     "All right," said Casey.  "Because eight dollars is eight dollars."

     "'Course I promise."

     He told the woman the street and the number of the house he lived in with his parents in that new suburb called River Heights.

     "River Heights?  You live in River Heights?"

     "Yes," said Casey.

     "The one overlooking the river?"

     "Yes."

     "Well, now, how about that?  River Heights!  So you live in River Heights?  I guess your folks got some kind of money, huh?  I'll bet.  To live there.  You like it?"

     "It's all right," said Casey. 

     "Well, I guess it's all right.  I guess so!"

     The woman finished writing the address and stood up.

     "So," she said with her bright smile.

     She held out her hand and Casey saw that he was supposed to take it.

     "And you promise?  For sure?" said Casey taking her hand.

     She pumped it almost like a man would, and somehow, while pumping it, managing to maneuver him over toward the door.

     "You have a good trip home now, you hear me?"  She almost pushed Casey out the door.  "And about that girlfriend of yours.  I know she's a nice girl and all that.  But listen to me.  Girls are girls.  Every time!  See!  They’ll take advantage of you every time they can!”

     She didn't really give Casey a chance to answer because she closed the door right in his face.  And just as she did so the little black dog came charging around the corner and went for Casey.  Well, it stopped maybe four feet from him, barking and snarling and showing its teeth.

     That dog’s a coward! thought Casey.  One of those.

     He aimed a kick and the dog let out a yip and ran back around the corner.

     "You shut the fuck up!" he shouted at the place where the dog had been.