The Fare

A cab picks up a passenger who calls herself Penny and asks to go to River and Elm. They share a mildly flirtatious conversation while a radio show about time-traveling aliens plays in the background. Suddenly, Penny disappears from the back seat, leaving Harris bewildered and alone in the cab.

Harris reports the disappearance to dispatch, who admits confusion and suggests resetting the fare and returning to the city. He follows the instruction and resets the odometer before continuing the drive. The ride that follows mirrors the first, but Penny is absent.

The prior sequence unfolds again, roughly as before, though Penny does not reveal a name this time. Harris finds himself back on the same road with the same questions, and the atmosphere hints that nothing has changed. The experience begins to feel like a repeating loop.

During another loop, Penny mentions that the ride has occurred many times and hints that time itself is unstable. She explains more about who she is and what drives her, and the two begin to understand their fates are tied. Their conversation grows intimate as the ride continues.

Penny reveals she is really in horticulture, matching her floral attire, while Harris opens up about hating the taxi job and his father wasting his life. They exchange views on nobility and purpose, finding common ground in guiding people to their destinations. The connection between them deepens with each restart.

After countless loops, Harris abandons the familiar route and decides to search for Penny by taking a different road. Voices whispering to turn back try to lure him, but he keeps driving forward. This choice marks a turning point in the pattern.

Harris reaches a bright light at the end of the road, where a dark figure demands that he turn around. He resets the meter, and the ride resumes as if nothing changed. The encounter hints at a larger order governing the cycle.

On the renewed ride, Harris finds Penny again and they share an intimate moment. Afterward, Penny notices a scar on her head from a past crash, suggesting that time is moving forward rather than looping. She warns him not to drink the water and then vanishes.

Harris realizes the pattern is not a loop but time moving forward, not backward. Penny cannot fully answer his questions, but she counsels him to remember the moment before she disappears. The revelation shifts his understanding of his experiences.

Harris resists drinking water and picks up an elderly man who asks to go to River and Elm. The ride ends with the old man paying with a gold coin, a familiar motif Harris has noticed in other trips. The encounter deepens the sense that life and death are linked to these journeys.

The Dispatcher checks in again and asks what his job is. He explains that Harris is the ferryman who guides souls to the afterlife, a punishment tied to his and Penny’s affair. The revelation reframes the earlier rides as part of a larger afterlife order.

The truth about Penny unfolds: she is Persephone, the wife of Death, and she used water to erase Harris's memory of his job. Death explains the yearly cycle in which Harris ferries souls and Penny returns to him as part of their arrangement. The memory wipes kept Harris ignorant of the real past.

Harris chooses to accept his role as ferryman and continue guiding souls to the afterlife. He remains emotionally bonded to Penny, but their yearly meetings are tempered by his duties. The constant flow of souls becomes his new purpose.

After a year, Penny returns once more to Harris, apologizes, and asks him to drink the water again. He declines, claiming nobility in his task and cherishing the brief annual reunion. They share a final moment before he drives away to ferry other souls.