A New Life
By Donald WicklanderAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Donald Wicklander
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-1868-9 Chapter One
The New Job
New good jobs are sometimes hard to find, but I continue to look. My name is Don Olsen. I am a twenty-five year single male living in North Altadena, California. Presently I am working as a waiter in a cheap diner in Altadena to earn an income. I find the job completely boring. Most of the people who come in to eat are old and not my age. I have worked here for five months now and have only seen a couple of dozen pretty girls coming into the diner during my work hours.
I live in a nice house on an eight-acre ranch enclosed by lots of trees. I have a poodle I named Peaches. She is not much of a protector because she is very small, but she lets me know if anyone is around. She is a very good companion for me and she loves me.
This was a fun ranch with many horses when my parents where alive. I had a great life with my family. My dad and my mother died six years ago in a tragic automobile accident. My parents previously told me that if they ever died that they wanted cremation and to be placed side by side in the local cemetery vault. That is exactly what I did and I have been by myself these past years. The ranch is now free and clear of debt due to the inheritance they left me. Now I only pay utilities, maintenance and taxes. I have no horses now since I needed to sell them to get the extra money needed to pay my way over the last few years and they were expensive to keep also.
I have been checking the newspapers for different jobs during my breaks and lunch periods not finding anything exciting until I noticed an advertisement for independent cab drivers in the Los Angeles area. It was by an existing cab company trying to sell off their old cabs so they could buy new ones. I said, "Big deal all they want to do is get rid of their used cabs." The idea did sound good to me because then I would be my own boss, do what I wanted to do and go where I wanted to go. I would still make money, be independent and not have to work at that cheap dinner.
This would mean buying an old cab from the company in the newspaper. I decided I did not want to do this. I still had money left over from the sale of the horses. I made the decision to buy a new car and convert it into a cab myself if I could find the equipment. Checking around I found out where I could get the equipment within two days. I was good at modifying my old clunker of an Oldsmobile and keeping running smoothly.
I decided to buy a new four door blue Ford Saturn and convert it myself into a cab having my own cab company logo on the doors. The logo chosen for my cab was Rancho Cab Company hoping the name would catch on when I advertised it in the yellow pages of the local telephone book. I had to get a cab license from the state of California DMV and any permits as required from the counties I wanted to work in. It took me one week of shopping to get my car plus another three weeks to convert it to a cab as well as wrangling with DMV.
I started my job using my new cab and felt alive for a change. It was a thrill for me. I was already acquainted with the territory around the Los Angeles area. Driving people to places in and out of the city was a challenge, but I was making decent money and loved the job.
Two weeks later, I picked up a man by a nearby garage. He wanted me to take him to some restaurant. I drove him to the restaurant and he paid his fair. He gave me a $10.00 tip telling me to pick him up in one hour to take him back to the garage to pick up his car that was having a flat tired. Needing to take a break, I decided to go get pizza down the street. I told the man, "Yes sir, be back in an hour for you."
I took my time eating, and returned on time to pick up the man as promised. He was waiting for me in front of the restaurant as I drove up. I then drove him back to the downtown garage when he said, "Wait for me to make sure my car is ready".
The man was in the garage about ten minutes and drove out in beautiful silver Porsche. He stopped behind my cab, walked up to me giving me my fair plus a twenty-dollar tip for waiting. He asks me, "Are you interested in picking up people from the airport, or other places and taking them to other locations on call from me"?
I said, "Yes I am, but don't know where I'll be and can't assure you of my availability to do that on an on going basis." I also said to myself, "That did sound like a good idea, but I spoke up too soon, no chance now."
The man said, "If I gave you a cell phone for contact, $500.00 a day and gas expense debit card on a bank account to keep available just for my requests would you work for me?" My thoughts were, "I can't make that kind of money in a day unless I work hard in the cab. This sounds too good to be true." I replied, "Yes." He said, "Good meet me here in the morning at ten and I will give you the cell phone plus your first full days wage, plus the gas card to assure your sole availability to me."
He continued, "Some days you may have very little to do and other days you will be very busy driving around in Los Angeles. We will need you for picking up, or dropping off people or business materials for us, see you tomorrow."
The man drove off in his Porsche leaving me to do what I needed to do until the next day when we would meet again at the prearranged location. I said, "Wow, can this be for real?"
I drove to Altadena for dinner enjoying a rather large porterhouse steak at a good restaurant with all of the trimmings to go with it. I then drove home to the ranch, fed Peaches and then let her outside to go to the toilet. I watched television for a couple of hours. I thought to my self, "Being alone is not a very exciting life. What I need in my life is a good woman, but finding one is another mater because I am a little shy. Maybe I will tomorrow." I let Peaches in, and set up the coffee pot to start by itself in the morning. I decided it was time to go to bed for the night.
I woke up the next morning early and let Peaches out. I showered, shaved and dressed. I made myself a quick breakfast consisting of three fried eggs, potatoes O'Brien and toast to go along with the coffee. I let Peaches in and fed her. While she was eating, I filled her bowl with water. Then I was all done.
The drive into Los Angeles in the morning was non-eventful. I actually enjoyed the drive going against the sun. The traffic was the normal workday congested slow paced freeway flow I was now used to and thought to myself, "Lucky for me I don't mind this kind of driving, or I'd go buggy in a couple of months." Arriving just a little early, I turned the radio off and put in my favorite cassette to listen to while waiting for my boss to arrive.
Fifteen minutes later, I noticed the silver Porsche in my rear view mirror knowing it had to be my new boss. He pulled in just behind me. He motioned for me to come to the Porsche and get in which I did immediately. He handed me my full days pay, a cell phone and told me to go the Little Italy restaurant on fifth and Bell Street in Los Angeles. He said, "Wait outside of the restaurant for additional instructions as needed. If you are not called with further instructions by five o'clock this afternoon you can go home for the evening." My new boss continued, "You are to return to the same location at eight in the morning and by the way you can call me Steve from now on, see you later." Steve drove off.
I said to myself, "Man what a soft job this will be and...
