Got into conversation at breakfast this morning with Vera, a soft-spoken widow from Georgia who told me a story that makes her my hero and role-model.
It happened in Sharm-el-Sheikh. She wanted to get a quick tour of the town and agreed with one of the many taxi drivers on the pier that he would drive her around the town for an hour for $5. She got into the taxi, and he drove for several minutes before stopping at the town's dump and demanding $80 to take her back to the docks.
Tourist nightmare. The ship was due to leave long before she could find her way back on foot. But did she falter? She did not. "I don't carry that much money with me, " she told him. He would take a credit card. "I never carry my cards off the ship," she replied. Maybe she would let him give her a massage.
At this point, she got really mad. "We agreed to $5 for an hour. Now you take me back to the ship right now!" He pretended to be outraged, saying he would take her to the police station. "Fine. That's perfect. Take me to the police station, I want to tell the police about this criminal behavior."
He took her back to the ship. She got out of the taxi before paying him his $5.
When I grow up, I want to be just like Vera.
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