Three-Legged Horses

"Three-Legged Horses", award-winning short fiction written and directed by Felipe Bustos Sierra. Based on true events. A rickshaw driver with bad knees makes brief but powerful encounters with buskers, drunks and potential passengers on his last night in Edinburgh.
https://vimeo.com/49474380

Casting pearls of despair

I had to change twenty quid, to give a tenner to Lujek, a fellow rider. We went to that pizza/fast food place by the corner of Old Compton Street and Charring Cross Road. I got in, to get the change and he stayed outside with our tricycles. As I stepped out to share the dosh with him, we heard somebody screaming. Then we saw two decent looking fellows approaching us. One of them, a smartly dressed gent around thirty years old, kept throwing himself against walls and shop windows, yelling: "AAAARRRGH!!!", like a mad thing! The other chap tried to get hold of him, the first one however managed to break free and carried on with his peculiar activity. The geezer wasn't actually angry or blind drunk. I reckoned he just fancied a bit of AAAAAAARRRGHing to, simply, express himself and perhaps to escape for a little while the annoying shackles put on us by the modern society. The best option for him would be, certainly, to put on some animal skin, to dance by the fire for a little while. The primordial, desperate "AAAAAAAARGH" of his deserved to be analysed by some anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists or even philosophers. Unfortunately there were't any around. There were not too many people around at all, all the present though enjoyed the show, grinning. The guys from that pizza place eagerly came out to watch too. Therefore he had to perform his act in front of ignoramuses, to cast the pearls of his despair before a rickshaw riders and such...!  How bitterly ironic was that! I had to do something! One needs to be proactive in our business, so I didn't have to think twice! As soon as they got next to me I plunged into his play: "AAAAAAARRRGH! Excuse me gents! Where are you going?" Well, they surly didn't expect that. Seeing that I got their full attention, I added instantly: "How about that: I'll take you somewhere, AAAAAARRGH, nice!" The one who tried to hold the self-thrower clearly swallowed the bait, for he gave his friend an earnest look, pointed his hand towards me and uttered solemnly: "He will!" The screamer hesitated and suddenly seemed very sober. For a second I really thought I was actually getting a lift! He looked at me closely, then at his friend and stated gravely: "I think he's probably taking a piss!" He started to walk away then. I realised that my friendly disposition was not welcome. Nevertheless I said to his back: "I think you are taking it too, AAAAAAAAAARRRRGGH, seriously!" It didn't work and he kept walking away. At least we had a good laugh, though, seriously! ;)

Perpetuum mobile

Marek's rickshaw once broke on Piccadilly. He could do absolutely nothing about it. One of the chains snapped and he had neither a spare one nor a chain breaker tool. There was no remedy. He had to push it back to the base. Somewhere on Piccadily a stroke of good luck sweetened a bit his misfortune. He met a friend of his who seeing him in trouble offered a helping hand. "Get on the saddle and steer. I'll give you a push!" Never minding his smart clothes, that friend of Marek pushed the trike energetically. Thus, pretty soon, they reached Piccadilly Circus. A police officer looked at the show, including a smartly dressed guy, a tricycle and an idle rickshaw rider and knew straight away that the thing in front of him was not one of a perpetual motion. Adressing Marek's friend he asked: "Excuse me! How much did you pay for this lift, sir?"

Squirting

A fellow rickshaw rider told me that once, around Covent Garden, he saw two drunken women. One of them desperately needed to relieve her bladder. She went to a nearest doorway, put her pants down, squatted and started to pee. She was far too drunk though, for this kind of acrobatics. Suddenly she lost her balance and fell on her back. Nevertheless she couldn't stop peeing. So there she was: lying on her back with urine gushing from her pussy like a fountain.

Her friend was laughing so hard, that she nearly peed herself too.

Snapshots

To be a rickshaw rider is all about living the way YOU want. It's about freedom. Freedom could be dangerous but it's a whole different story. It's enough to say that freedom has its price. Every now and then somebody calls you a prick. Sometimes someone promises to stab you in the neck. "Bigmouth strikes again!" - as Chumbawamba sang. "Water off duck's tail..." - as Alex Brownie says. Yet there is something that remains. It's as if your brain stored some pictures. There's that feeling too, as if you were dreaming or as if it was just a film you were watching...

I met those two very young Turkish lads. One of them was really pissed, he could hardly walk. Obviously they craved for some affordable, immediate, physical love without strings attached. Btw what they were looking for was actually available around the corner. I charged them upfront and got them there in no time. As I stopped I took a look behind. One of them was quite strangely positioned. Upper half of his body was hanging out of trike. He was all covered with his vomit and so was side of my rickshaw next to him. "FUCK ME!" - was all I could think or say about it. That instant he heavily fell on the floor and remained there, silent, motionless, positioned like some bizarre foetus. "Hassan! Hassan!" - his friend tried to wake and lift him up but that fellow just didn't seem to be there any more. As I was about to say that, in his actual condition, he probably won't get a hard on anyway, his friend looked at me and waved. "See you later." He didn't need to say it again.