How not to bum a ride.

Two in the morning is not a time I expect to get text messages. Not on weekdays, at least. And not from numbers I don't recognize. And especially when they read like this:

U want to make 7 bucks wen between 3 and 4. Need a ride from Harlem green line to sayre and diversy

That's a word for word, misspelling by misspelling copy of the text I got about 20 minutes ago.

For about a minute after I got it, I just stared at that first sentence. It took me that long to even get to the rest of the message. At first, I wondered why 7 bucks. Seems like a weird number to offer someone. The lack of a question mark threw me off too. Then I started wondering if I'd suddenly found myself in some kind of movie, cuz that's the only place I could think of where bizarre things like this actually happen.

At first I thought about ignoring it. Then I decided to respond, just in case it was a wrong number and it was some guy trying to get a ride from a friend. So I said "Who is this?" I get a reply that it's this new guy at work. So I realize that the message was indeed meant for me.

I gave him a polite brush-off, without saying what I was actually thinking: "Yeah, that's just what I wanna do. Pick up someone who's essentially a stranger from the train, and drive him to some strange neighborhood." Especially since this guy doesn't seem like an upright citizen. I could be wrong, but I don't want to find out the hard way.

Also, Harlem Ave. is a real hassle that time of day.

-Long Days and Pleasant Nights