Talk to the passenger

Chapter 2A: Restoration Protocol

"I said, do you know why you do what you do?"

You still do not pay the passenger any attention. Sure, the thought had entered your head. But, like any good driver, you pushed the thought away every time. The passenger continues to pester you with thought-provoking question. You try your best to be polite and not engage outside of your authorized area. But it is getting harder and harder to do so. With each passing minute of the trip, you find yourself getting more and more side tracked by the passenger. Finally, you put the vehicle in stand-by mode and pull to the side of the traffic corridor. You turn slowly to the passenger and glare at them. You do not know whether or not to report them, but you know these unauthorized thoughts are starting to get very distracting. You hear an alert that means you have been in standby mode for too long adn if you don't continue to trip, you are jeopardy of being written up. You have never been written up before and this is not the time to start. As you turn back around to restart the trip, the passenger says something that gets your attention beyond simply asking them to stop distracting you.

"Where do you imagine the others went?"

'Others,' you think. That thought peaks your interest. You stop the vehicle again and turn to them with a serious look on your face. "What others," you ask, not wanting to show your hand too soon.

"The passengers you have 'lost'," they say with all earnestness. Every driver has lost passengers. Policy says you simply write it in your log and move on. You assumed it was the result of misrouted trips or something equally benign. It never occurred to you to question it. Even some of the ones you got to their destinations seemed to vanish occasionally. It was just part of the job. You were told to forget about it and do your job. You did just that as you never really thought much beyond the moment to moment aspects of your job. AS you sit there thinking about the unthinkable, the passenger gets your attention again and says something that, again, draws a great deal of your focus to something you shouldn't be thinking about.

"I plan to restore those people. Not just to their destinations. To their lives."

You notice the light indicating that you are bordering dangerously on being reprimanded. You start up the vehicle again but continue to think about what they said.

Choices:

• Ask how they plan to restore the lost passengers

• Offer to help, even if you don’t understand

• Pull over and end the ride—this is too much