Mall trip (2 of 2): Taxi ride back.

Since I had like two big shopping bags and a rolled-up 5'x 7' rug to take home, I couldn't really schlep that stuff on the bus, so I had to call a cab to come drive me home. It turned out to be an hour wait, so I chit-chatted a lot with the (younger) (Latina) girl who worked at the discount home goods store, who told me about rising crime in the area, like how her boyfriend who lives in a bad part of town was out in the middle of the afternoon waiting for a bus and some guys drove by in a car, twice, looking at him - "What race is your boyfriend?", I was like, and she was like, "Black" - and who was saying, too, that she thinks that Black Lives Matter went a bit too far, with how they burned stuff down and how people don't respect the police and all. Then, just as the store is closing at like eight, the cab comes, and the driver comes out, and he's this (large) (later middle-aged) (white) guy with a scruffy beard and pig eyes, and no mask. So, I had to make a quick decision, so I didn't say anything, got my stuff in the trunk, and then opened the window on my side for the drive home, to air out the car, as I rode along in it in my N95 mask. And, even though the guy was quiet and seemed almost borderline developmentally disabled - he was taciturn beyond anything I've ever seen, and not in an unfriendly way, but almost like he didn't know how to talk and respond to people - he did see right away that I rolled the window down, and he cracked his window to increase air circulation in the car. That was really a wake-up call on masking in the area... People here tend to be very good, but it just never crossed my mind that I could be trapped in a car with a taxi driver who was not wearing a mask, why would anyone ever think that?