Tales From Taxi World, "Well, here comes life!"
Jann Burner
December 06, 2006
I got a call in the deep Richmond district of The City, out by the beach. It was five a.m.. I rang the bell and out came a young woman, maybe twenty-one. She was carrying an overnight sort of bag and she was extremely pretty. As we proceeded to her destination I couldn't help but stare at her in the mirror. Was she a hooker, I thought? No. Her spirit was too new. She glowed. She was too pretty, especially for five in the morning. So the questions begin to come. Where was she from? What did she do? Where was she going at five in the morning?
She lived in Salinas. She worked in a laundry. One day six months before her boyfriend had sent in a photograph of her to a large casting agency in San Francisco. A week ago she got a call. They wanted her to come to the city to interview for a commercial. She was interviewed and she got the job. This was the first day of her very first job in The Business. She was not sure what she was supposed to do or what sort of a commercial it was to be, other than it was for a wine company. She seemed so very calm. And that...glow. And then it hit me. This woman was a STAR. The world didn't know it yet, but she did. Somewhere deep in her genes she knew this and it radiated from her like a heat.
We finally turned a corner onto upper Grant Avenue in the North Beach area of the city. I slowed the cab. The entire street had been transformed into a Paris street scene from the 1930's. The curb was lined with old classic automobiles and the sidewalk was set up as an outdoor cafe. A large camera was on a crane and all the extras were milling around in period costumes. I was impressed. She seemed a bit stunned.
"I didn't realize..." she said, gesturing at all the trouble they had gone to in creating a little Paris in San Francisco.
This was obviously The Big Time. A man opened the door of the cab and helped her out, calling her by name. He was the director, he said, and he was very pleased to finally meet her. As she turned back to pay me, she had a startled expression as if she was just beginning to awake from a long sleep. And then she looked directly into my eyes and smiled. I could see the glow. I could feel her heat!
"Well," she said with a smile, "Here comes life!"
She lived in Salinas. She worked in a laundry. One day six months before her boyfriend had sent in a photograph of her to a large casting agency in San Francisco. A week ago she got a call. They wanted her to come to the city to interview for a commercial. She was interviewed and she got the job. This was the first day of her very first job in The Business. She was not sure what she was supposed to do or what sort of a commercial it was to be, other than it was for a wine company. She seemed so very calm. And that...glow. And then it hit me. This woman was a STAR. The world didn't know it yet, but she did. Somewhere deep in her genes she knew this and it radiated from her like a heat.
We finally turned a corner onto upper Grant Avenue in the North Beach area of the city. I slowed the cab. The entire street had been transformed into a Paris street scene from the 1930's. The curb was lined with old classic automobiles and the sidewalk was set up as an outdoor cafe. A large camera was on a crane and all the extras were milling around in period costumes. I was impressed. She seemed a bit stunned.
"I didn't realize..." she said, gesturing at all the trouble they had gone to in creating a little Paris in San Francisco.
This was obviously The Big Time. A man opened the door of the cab and helped her out, calling her by name. He was the director, he said, and he was very pleased to finally meet her. As she turned back to pay me, she had a startled expression as if she was just beginning to awake from a long sleep. And then she looked directly into my eyes and smiled. I could see the glow. I could feel her heat!
"Well," she said with a smile, "Here comes life!"