Will You Ride With Me?

Reading this essay will open your eyes to the types of tricycle drivers that you’ll encounter in Mintal. You might wonder and ask “What do you mean types?” It’s because like typical Homo sapiens sapiens, different tricycle have different personalities. Have you ever encountered a tricycle driver wearing slippers and sando with an awkward smile and cunning, he is waiting to take lots of money from you because you don’t know how the exact amount of fare to pay. They often start with a nice little chat with you while traveling to your destination and they pretend that they can be trusted. They usually tell you about the history of the place and how bumpy the road was at their time because of the big rocks and then blabber about how lucky you are because the road now is cemented. And when your little road trip is done and you ask the driver how much to pay, you’ll be shocked at how expensive it is to ride a tricycle nowadays. And when you try to ask for discount and argue with them, they’ll just answer you with; “There are many of us here so we take turns in getting passengers and what we earn by the day isn’t even enough.” Then their voice starts to get cranky and their faces like a lion ready to bite off your head and then you have no choice but to pay their overpriced fare. They are called Swiper and in this case it’s not like in Dora where you can just yell “swiper, no swiping.”

                Drivers who run like Bolt disarrange everything as they pass by. Girls’ skirts would even fly in the air like flowers blooming. There drivers are commonly minors while some are in their mid 20’s. Most of them wear accessories or bling-bling like chunkyfaux silver necklaces, big diamond earrings, and sometimes bracelets. You can observe that their tricycle carts have big speakers called “boom-boom” for the min-aching, eardrum-cracking sounds that produce noise pollution. They always act as if they are the king of the road, not minding what others would feel, showing how insensitive and arrogant they are. They are so competitive it seems as if Death were chasing them. The weirdest thing is they intentionally burst into laughter and feel glorious whenever they’ve overtaken other tricycle drivers. Be cautious and afraid when crossing roads because of these drivers why are classified as BOLT.

                Among the many tricycles that crowd streets in Mintal and providing the major means of transportation are old-timers without any thought of haste when transporting passengers. These small movers are commonly seen to be wearing dirty wrinkled polo shirts and driving tricycles which should have been have been scrapped at a junk shop a long time ago. A characteristic this old slowpokes have in common is that they can never seem to count your change right, always taking more than is rightfully theirs. A good example of one such slow driver is a man in his late forties, Garfield, a dark skinned annoyance to the society. He is the type of person who finds offense when none is intended and enjoys boring his passengers with boastful, unimpressive stories of his life. Garfield, along with majority of the slow drivers of his type are usually very careful when handling their motorcycles on the road that it makes you wonder whether it would have been faster to reach your destination on foot.

                Despite all of those tricycles drivers, there are also some that you would love, those who are friendly. As you approach their motorcycle, their smile welcomes you. You can notice that they wear neat attire: faded polo jeans, rubber shoes. Then, they assist you where you can sit comfortably. As the tricycle starts to move, they begin to ask you questions or they tell their own story and sometimes, they even tell jokes to entertain you. In driving, you can notice that they are careful; they know when to speed up or to slow down. They are also patient and understanding especially when you ask for a discount in fare. When riding with a friendly motorcycle driver, it’s like you’re with a friend because he makes the ride enjoy able, worthwhile, and entertaining. After the ride, you can’t deny that you would love to ride in Winnie the Pooh’s tricycle!

                Among those different tricycle drivers with different personalities you have to ask yourself, “Whom will you ride with?” Yet sometimes, you don’t really have a choice.

Duane Emmanuel Benegrado

Maria Angelynne Anne Alapag

Joseph Valena

Geallaika Delideli

The people behind MetaForces