Strange but Thrilling Stories from a Sophomore Writing Class

Miranda Laws and Steady Driving

I had two choices that night. I was either going to get captured on the street or make a run for it with the money in hand. For the sake of the mission, I took the latter, and my brother knew that I was going to leave him for the cops. He told me "Don't worry about me Little Mike, do it for the mission, do it for us man." He usually influenced what I did next, I mean, he was the puppeteer of the mission that night. After being shot at a few times, I managed to get in the nearest car (which was a cab) with only a bullet in the leg and I drove on into the night, without looking back at my brother. But I knew that he was being escorted to the squad car, and the police officer that stared at me driving away must've sworn to find me and catch me. I like to believe I chose the better decision, cause I would be disobeying my brother if I did that. And he was the one who had the best plans.

I had two choices that night, and I thank my lucky stars I chose the best of the two.

"Oy vey! Are you gonna move or what?" I snapped back out of my daydream to see a green traffic light in front of me and a line of honking cars in the rear mirror. "Oh yea man, I'm moving." I tap on the gas and glide through the intersection, managing to get away from the noise behind me.

The man in the back seat shouted "For Pete's Sake man, what happened back there? I know you're better than this man, you should be I mean... How long have you been a taxi driver for?" That's what I am now, to lay low I became a taxi driver to blend in to the city, and I'm just waiting to know what to do next.

"A few months ago, I just got off a driver's violation. If that answers why I've been rusty, then yea, it's because of that." I lied on the violation part, but I've been a bit rusty lately. It's been a few months down the road and the manhunt still continues, and that really is stressing me out. Luckily, he didn't spot the whiskey in the back seat or the stash of cash on the dashboard, so I'm really in trouble. I'll make sure I thank God for that too, at least I'm not on his hit list recently.

"Alright, my stop is over here. Thanks for the ride bub." I pull up to a curb and he crawls out of the cab. I roll down the window and yell "Hey, bub's an extra five dollars dude!" He holds up the finger and walks around the corner, and I chuckle to myself and start to pull out, only to see the street I was on.

I was on the same street that fateful night, and there were notices posted almost everywhere I looked.

"Wait! Hold it!" I stop and a woman enters the car, panting and thanking me as she got herself together. I look in the back to see who's there and my heart skipped a beat.

The woman was a police officer, and not only that, the same one that shot me in the leg and took my brother away from me.

"To the police station sir, I got more of these copies to make of these notices hanging around. Well actually, have you seen this fellow around lately?" She held up the poster and the poster was of me. Luckily, the picture showed a masked convict with bright blue eyes, and today was a great day to have brought my sunglasses. Also, it made my response much more convincible.

"No mam, I haven't seen him." I quickly sat upright in my seat and gassed my way down the street. My passenger looked out the window and sighed. "I caught someone down this road you know, he was a member of that Irish brother gag that robbed that bank over there." I looked over at the bank, still covered in crime tape and a broken door in its wake. I was suddenly transported out of my car and saw myself running with my brothers. I saw my older brother leading the way in his Leprechaun mask and my other brother running behind me with the bag of money. When I reached the crosswalk to the getaway car, I could hear a sharp electronic noise and heard my brother fall to the ground, not before throwing the bag of money to me. I stopped in my tracks and thought whether or not to grab the money or get the hell away from the guards chasing us just about a few yards away. I stopped and stared, and I knew just what to do, I knew what my brother wanted me to do...