Taximeter, 1934.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright Roger-Viollet (RV-352432):
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 9

The doctor

I remember the bewildered stares of some customers when I replied to them in a way that to me couldn�t have seemed more natural; this method of expressing myself earned me several visits to the police station, but happily in each case all ended well.

These annoyances, and I had a lot of them, began the day a passenger � a doctor, as I learned later � whom I picked up from the station with two enormous suitcases claimed that the meter showed too high a fare.

I told him that he was wrong and that there was an additional two franc charge � one franc for each suitcase. He was scandalized and announced that there was no way he would pay me the two francs.

"It�s robbery!" raged the doctor. "You won�t get a centime more!"

"Very well. Would you like me to make you a present of them? I give two francs to anyone who asks me for a handout. I see no reason to refuse you the same amount, but you�ll have to beg for it like the panhandlers do."

He looked at me with his mouth open and stammered that there must be some mistake, that he was a doctor � it was then that I learned this � and that I understood nothing.

"You�re a doctor," I said, "but you have the mentality of a panhandler. It seems strange but it�s true."

"No, no!" Confused, he paid me the two francs and went off, looking back at me as he did. A policeman who was watching the altercation in case things turned ugly looked at me.

"You�re not crazy, by any chance?"

"I don�t think so. But anyway, less crazy than my customers." [196]