Inadvertently Entangled: Day 5

Word Count: 27,045

Summary of Events:

Pierson was able to stay on the train by finding an unused ticket from Gdańsk to Warsaw in his coat pocket for the conductor to punch, who didn't notice the incorrect locations, before managing to sleep in his seat on the train. The next day Pierson determined that the train was travelling south and mused on what he should do about that fact, as well as on his lack of hunger despite how long he'd been awake without eating, and also on how boring riding a train was. Eventually the train stopped at a major city — where Pierson hoped he could find a currency exchange office so that he could change his money and buy a ticket back to Kraków after spending a night in a hotel — and approached a taxi driver just to ask directions, as he was unfamiliar with where he was and what language was spoken there, but the driver insisted he get in the taxi, and when Pierson saw the man he was afraid of exiting the station, he was grateful that he'd conceded…

Excerpt of the Day:

Hardly had Pierson closed the door before the driver pulled away from the curb and accelerated quickly, not unlike the time Pierson had been in New York to visit one of Mom’s cousins, whose daughter had implored Pierson to go on a taxi tour of New York with her, which had been a harrowing experience of he’d ever had one.

He watched the man he was afraid of as the car pulled away and saw the man rush to a taxi, pointing forcefully as he spoke to the driver. He was ordering the driver to follow them, which the taxi soon did.

“Take me on a tour of… wherever we are,” Pierson said.

“You not know where you are?” the driver asked.

“No,” Pierson replied.

“You are in Budapest,” the driver replied. “You never visit Budapest before?”

“No,” Pierson replied. “No, I haven’t.”

“But why you want tour of Budapest when so late?” the driver asked.

“Well, um, just… I think… we’re being followed,” Pierson replied.

“Ah, yes, I notice,” the driver replied.

Pierson startled. Maybe this driver wasn’t the novice he’d supposed.

“You want us to lose them?” the driver asked.

“That would be appreciated, yes,” Pierson replied.

Pierson startled when the driver — instead of accelerating and turning sharply as he’d expected — suddenly braked sharply three times, almost pitching him into the front seat of the car, and making his wrist feel a little shot of pain again as he put out his hands to keep from smashing his face into anything.

The fourth time the driver braked gently, coming nearly to a full stop before carrying on.

“Who taught you how to drive!?” Pierson exclaimed.

The driver laughed, which made Pierson feel even more indignant. “I just signal my friend who driving taxi behind us so he know he supposed to lose us.”
“Oh,” Pierson said. “Couldn’t you maybe give those signals a bit more gently? I just got a bad whack on the head recently, and I don’t really want to suffer another one.”

“Oh, I am sorry,” the driver said. “What happened?”

Pierson hesitated. He wasn’t sure what he should — or could — tell the driver about what had happened. He should be able to make it vague enough.

“Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve been followed lately,” Pierson replied. “And last time I was being followed I ended up getting into an accident that caused me to hit my head.”

“You be followed often,” the driver said.

“Yes, I have something of a penchant for being followed,” Pierson agreed.

“Penchant?” the driver asked.

“Yes,” Pierson replied. “It’s something that happens often, almost as if I like it, except that I don’t.”

“Ah,” the driver said.

Since the driver had resumed a consistent forward motion — and had even accelerated beyond the speed he’d been travelling before — Pierson relaxed against the back of the seat, hoping that the driver, with the help of his friend in the taxi behind, would soon help the man he was afraid of to lose track of him so that he could exchange his currency, find a hotel, and get some sleep.