Neon

A large neon koi swam at a crossroads, followed by a dry cleaning service announcement.

I could not remember what the name of the place was, but I always liked to drive past Fifth avenue of fish. Tonight it was no different.

My passenger did not feel the same way. "Bad bloody fish," he cried after looking at his phone.

"Of course, it is," I lied. He didn’t look like a lot of a tipper - what about as he played the was wolf bio-graft, mouth, and everything - but I couldn’t put myself at risk of losing.

He clicked on his phone, the strange thing about those artificial nails, while my phone rang. Someone wanted a ride to where I was going to leave Mr. Big Bad.

It was raining again at three o'clock in the morning and I had a wife who was waiting for me, but one ride would not be painful.

I clicked Accept and lowered the hairy man to a respectable Chinese spot. Beef is recommended for chow mein, then wait. Sometimes the ride didn’t show, and that was fine for me; an extra moment to sit in the rain and think.

A few people passed by, but there was no money for my ride. The app said we would wait two minutes before we left, but it was another couple of these so late. Previously.

The remorse came as the couple slammed the window, moving the phones to show that they were the ones who had instructed me. I am not at all judgmental. That space of artificial leather and the work of artificial fur is the last person that may have moved someone. But this is the new fare...

I slammed the doors and turned on the lights without looking at them. Why those retro movies where a certain monster wears human skin as a disguise should be this season? The two have to pay exorbitant prices for their three-dimensional leather suits. Fashion is expensive, and no one can choose to look bad if they do not look good in person.

"So, where are you going?"

They stared at me with eyes that did not match the eye sockets. No one really got that joke as the destination was already bright in my HUD car.

I laughed a little and walked down the street.

Let them be alone. Their language did not make sense to me, but I was not a linguist. However, I was moving my assignment to tourists who liked the big city. Couldn't even make illiterate guesses.

"So where do you two come from? This is your first visit here?"

My chatter attempts were met with three seconds of horrible gazing. It makes sense. I was paid anyway.

I slowly raised my music and went down the road that I had hit before. It's off Fifth Avenue but the light is green. I slowed down a bit hoping it would turn red, and it did.

Within seconds, the reunion was a white and orange, and red sea. The neon ecosystem. I breathed it all out. Those fish were the only ones that saved me sometimes. Well, and a wife.

It's green again, the fish are gone, and I drove away.

"That was great," said one of my passengers in a loud voice.

"Of course it is."

"We began to think that there was no beauty in this world."

I laughed. "Yeah. It sounds like that. Sometimes only small things are worth it."

They stopped talking to me but cheered happily throughout the trip. Their stand came quickly; a damaged motel on the outskirts of town, just before the corn farms took over.

"This is you."

They got out of my car, into the rain. An app on my phone illuminated RIDE COMPLETE and a large tip.

It's really hard.

“Hey, thank you,” I shouted from my open window.

They stopped and one passed by. He said bending down to look at me. Lightning flashed as his skin fell off and I saw a gray eye underneath. "No, thank you," she said loudly. "We were beginning to think there was nothing good here. There is nothing worth keeping without carbon. But those fish--"

He was cut off as someone stared at him, but he immediately smiled.

I shivered and raised the window. When he finds out later, he becomes very strange.

Staying out for a while was worth it. I got to the crossroads to go home. No one else was on the way, but the red signal to leave the motel remained permanent.

The glorious light shone brightly. I nodded, hurrying to thunder.

There is no audible sound, but the orange light rises to the sky.

It was beautiful, and then it disappeared.