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The Bright Star Burns On
Another tale from the life of a rideshare driver
The sun was up and I had just dropped off a very nervous and bright-eyed young man to take his SATs. He had a 3.5 GPA which seems good enough, but in California it leaves you on the outside looking in for the highly competitive UC schools, so he felt a lot of pressure to perform. I tried to level him down a bit which was helped by my low-key demeanor as I had been working and driving all night (well, most of it), so I was pretty calm and relaxed. This bus was reaching the end of its line.
It had been a strange night indeed. I had been lured off the clock briefly by a couple of drunk Armenian guys on their way from a house party in Glendale to a warehouse party up a dark alley in East LA. We had a good talk on the way to our destination and as we pulled up in front of a beefy private security guard standing sentry at the entryway to an alley, they said “Hey bro. Why don’t you come on in and party with us? It’ll be a blast and we can get you in for free. It normally cost 40 bucks. I’ll buy your drinks inside too.”
I was visiting from out of town and had nowhere to stay that night. I was going to burn the midnight oil and work through to the morning dew and rest at my cousin’s apartment tomorrow afternoon. When I had previously lived in LA, I had been a school teacher and married so I had never really…
