I’m in my friend’s building, in her apartment in fact, as she’s calling a cab for me. We have chosen another cab company. She gives them her phone number, and is surprised when they ask if it’s for me.

Me: Oh, shit, I just remembered - Yellow Cab and Graytop are the same company.
S: No way.
Me: Yeah, they share dispatching. I’ve called one company and had a cab from the other show up.
S: It’s fate.
Me: I guess it is.

At least this time I’m ready with plenty of fives and ones.

We gather up the tasty leftovers and the huge pile of books I’m borrowing from S, and head out the door to wait for the cab.

It shows up minutes later...a Yellow Cab like the others, even though S called Graytop. It is not, however, a minivan. From a distance it looks like it could be the same driver, but as I get closer I see it isn’t.

This driver sounds exactly - I mean exactly - like the actor Sam Elliott. He even looks a little like him. We have nice cab conversation about things like where the city stores the books while they’re rebuilding the Capitol Hill branch of the public library, and the advantages of the George Foreman Grill. When he says he should spend more time cooking and would probably do so if had a big, white chef’s hat and do I know where he could get one, it is actually funny, and not creepy.

If he's stalking anyone called Jenny, he didn't mention it.