Uber Lyft

"A funny story, really," Kine said, wiping his chin. "This Indian fellow was part-time taxi driver, part hostel manager. And this bloke, no one knows what his name was, but he was the techie type. Without glasses, mind, he wasn't a geek or a nerd. Well savvy with a smartphone, like. Hears about these ride sharing startups, you know, where anyone who had a car at 16 and ended up ferrying their friends around could, if they find themselves in between jobs in their thirties, make a bit of cash that way. Well he checks them both out by installing both apps on his phone, just to compare, like people have always done with taxi companies. You call them both, take whoever shows up first, and if you're an especially nice person, cancel the other ride."

Kine paused to stuff a jumbo shrimp in his mouth, then went on.

"So," he said, clearing his throat and still chewing, "the Indian fellow did the same thing, right, signed up for both but as a driver. He was also a RedCab taxi driver, which caught quite a few people off guard when he showed up for the ride shares in his work vehicle. So one night he gets off working the hotel desk, and starts his night shift driving. Sees the same name on both apps, in the same pickup spot on Waltshire, so he flips the No Fare flag on the meter, accepts the job and goes to pick him up."

"Same time this is happening, bloke watching the GPS pins on the maps in the apps sees both requests have been picked up. Strange part is, one company -- believe it was Uber -- was experiencing server side issues that night because of the volume of cancellations, which meant their pin wasn't updating as fast as the other's was. Not five blocks before the driver arrives to get him, he cancels the slower one."

Kine's silent companion nodded and smiled dumbly, drunk on absinthe and full of veal in scarlet sauce. Hardly halfway through his bowls of shrimp, Kine continued.

"Isn't it? Well the car shows up, and they have an exchange through the window. 'But I didn't order a taxi,' 'But I'm also a taxi driver and this supplements my income because of the ride sharing competition,' and the like. You know how long winded they can be. Any rate, the man gets in, and along the way the taxi gets blindsided by a speeding Costco truck. Wham!" He clapped and held his hands in front of his dinner partner's face.

Mouth agape and wide-eyed, the intoxicated story victim asked, "Did they died?"

"You bet they did," Kine said. "Terribly tragic. So what I need you to do is, first thing tomorrow, go out to that Chinese corner store by you and buy twelve packs of-"

His words faded into the distance as the waiter took off his apron and exited the restaurant by way of the kitchen delivery door.