The Impossible Quest Of Hailing A Taxi On Christmas Eve Read Online Free PDF

looked towards the racket at the entrance. A Santa
was going inside, a pack of children all around him, screaming and
laughing and waiting for their turn to get a present from his bag
of gifts.
    It was
his cousin! He was throwing out little presents and sweets and
chocolates out of his bag in handfuls. The children were ecstatic,
going back to their parents to show what they got, wide smiles in
their faces. Camera flashes were going off constantly, as if Santa
was a celebrity. The kids were taking selfies with their Santa, or
between themselves. Apart from the Greek kids, some were Asian,
some black. A few Pakistani with their ears refusing to stand
anywhere near their skull. A pale ginger one who could only be
British. Some of them had tiny little crutches, others had
bandages, but they were all having fun as if everything would be
alright.
    "Ho ho
ho! I think you've been naughty," cousin Santa said to a girl and
pointed at her.
    "No
Santa, I promise you! I've been nice all year. Ask my teachers,"
she protested.
    "Oh OK
then, here's your candy," Santa said and picked her up for an
impromptu photoshoot as she laughed.
    Scrooge
stooped down and said, "I don't really want him to see me here,
please let us go."
    The
young driver tapped a button somewhere and a slight pop came from
the windows. "There. They are tinted now, he can't see
us."
    Scrooge
disbelieved that for a second but he could notice a slight change
in the light coming in the window. He stood up again and
watched.
    His
cousin Santa managed to get inside without trampling any of the
sick kids, and went to talk to some lady in the reception. After a
few minutes, the whole chaos had been moved to the first floor and
the kids who had been properly sweetened up had dispersed along
with their parents.
    Scrooge
was still looking outside. "OK fine, I can see the joy my blasted
cousin brings to the sick children. Are we done?"
    "A few
minutes more," the young driver said and sat comfortably in his
seat.
     
     
    Scrooge
looked around absent-minded. Then he noticed his assistant Clara,
holding some papers in her hand and talking on the phone. She was
quite close to him but he couldn't hear clearly. The driver pressed
the button and the window lowered a few centimetres so the outside
sounds could be heard clearly, but was still blocking them from
being seen.
    "But I don't make enough money to cover that. Those amounts
are insane! Who can actually pay that much health insurance?" Clara
said on the phone, very upset. "No, that was my Christmas bonus. No I can't
make a payment before the end of the month. No, you listen to me.
This is my son's treatment we are talking about. You can't- Yes,
I'll hold."
    Scrooge
watched her with interest, as if it was the first time after seven
years that he laid eyes on the woman. She was thinner than the
video of her last year. He hair was untended, simply brushed back.
Her eyes were sunken. She was snapping angrily at
everything.
    She was
in despair.
    He tried
to dig out his memories. Had Clara asked him for money to cover her
son's treatment? She must have, but he had dismissed it. Probably.
Deep in his own accounts, his balance sheets. He was paying her
what was due, what the law dictated and a good enough raise as she
was getting experience. But had she explained to him how much she
needed the money? She must have tried. The woman was spending half
her day in an office right next to him, for God's sake. An
opportunity would have arose. Or was she so scared she might lose
her only job that she didn't even dare to ask. To ask him. The bad
man. Scrooge rubbed his face hard, as if scratching away the layers
to get down into his memories. He couldn't even remember. Such an
important fact about the only other person that was so close in his
life, and he didn't even remember. He dug up some calculations he'd
done at some point about her salary, he had given her some extra
pay for overtime. But it was nothing, a few euros here and there.
The health