It’s a Small Drunken World After All

A rideshare driving story of coincidence and serendipity

As a rideshare driver, my experiences are quite varied and often fantastic. Sometimes the stars align and coincidences occur that are hard to explain and fathom. However, I have come to the point where little surprises or shocks me when I am out there cruising around, for it is a wild and crazy world that we live in. “There are a million stories in the naked city,”[1] and many of them seem to find their way into the back of my cab.

A few years ago, I was working in Santa Cruz on an off-brand, ordinary weeknight quickly approaching last call for alcohol. I was by the Red Room, one of the busier bars in Santa Cruz, waiting for a ride, when I finally received a summons; a request for a pick-up on Pacific Avenue in the direction of the waterfront — not far from The Catalyst Club, the famous Santa Cruz music venue and after-hours meeting point serving pizza from a sidewalk window. I pulled up to the designated pick-up point at the corner of Pacific and Cathcart Street and saw no one in the vicinity that looked like they were waiting for a ride.

You can usually spot your next rider from a distance by looking for the person standing on the edge of the sidewalk staring at their phone with alternating glances up and down the block. However, the…