Out with the old

Hello William Denis Jones,

Your negligence has become egregious and therefore, I shall re-direct my future letters to our more attentive and appreciative friends. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Now, to start afresh…

Dearest Megan Leafblad and Zareen,

We’re on day 4 of the taxi strike in Morocco and (as strikes tend to do) it has made me realize how totally dependent Meggie and I are on taxis. I’d like to make it clear that my reliance on cabs in this country is not entirely due to laziness. We travel by foot often enough but it does get slightly exhausting. As an ostensible weekend tourist, vendors relentlessly beckon us into their shops (“Just come in for one look… The best price only for you!”), and as women, we’re pretty consistently pestered (not in a lecherous way but in an annoying, like your older brother won’t stop poking you (or farting in your face, which our bro had a propensity for) kind of way). Megan has learned how to say, “please let me be!” in Arabic and I often throw out “laissez-moi tranquil,” but believe it or not, sometimes they don’t listen to us! When it gets to be 80 + degrees, my patience wears thin and it is just easier to cab it.

I’m not entirely clear as to why the taxis are striking, and I’ve heard several different explanations, but I think it mostly has to do with a new point system that people want to enforce, in which after a certain number of points incurred for bad driving, you lose your license. On one hand, the driving is pretty atrocious here and as traffic rules seem to be optional, I wouldn’t mind some enforced laws. On the other hand, I’ve heard (and I’m not saying this is true! What do I know? Nothing! Nothing at all!) that there are some minor issues with police corruption and whether or not they’d enforce the laws properly. I am sure Megos will be in touch with her #1 best friend/taxi driver Omar today to get to the bottom of it.

Well, ZZ and Meggie-L, thanks for being lovely friends. As a reward for your commitment to our letters, Megan and I’ve decided to write and perform for you (and you only!) a two-woman musical medley that features hits from Les Miserables, Rent and Greece. We shall start practicing immediately! We must see if Lew is available to design outfits for us (Sandy and Rizzo meets the Lower East Side in 19th century French attire? I just don't know!).

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,

Julia Andrus Kelly