It was another quiet Thursday evening as the graveyard shift for Tahir began. It wasn't raining, there was no England game on, there was no fuel tanker driver strike, but still the petrol station was unusually quiet.

Half awake half asleep, Tahir was startled when a bunch of keys was slammed down on the counter.

"Ha-ha - you should have seen the look on your face. You shat yourself." Maz couldn’t contain his laughter.

Tahir laughed too. Although his heart had almost jumped out of him, he still saw the funny side.

"You got me good Maz. But you shouldn't do that you know. You might frighten someone to death one day. How would you like it?" Tahir said, trying not show the shake in his voice too much.

"Funny you should say that - I had a similar thing happen to me the other day. I was driving along Lovedale Road just before the sharp bend so I'd slowed right down to 10 MPH, and BAM.... someone jumped in front of my car. Landed on my bonnet. Had to screech to a hault. At first I got frightened. But when I saw who it was, I got scared. Not in the 'fear for your life' scared, but 'fear for the guys future' scared" He stopped for a breath. Tahir could tell something was bothering him. Then Maz went on "you'll never guess who it was."

"If I'll never guess there's probably no point even trying to is there?"

"It was Billy. He was drunk or high on something. We really need to sit him down and talk to him. He's properly off the rails. Remember at school, he was the straightest guy around. Remember when we stole the calligraphy pens from Miss Brooms class and he wouldn’t take one because stealing is wrong. Now look at him. He got mixed in with the wrong people somewhere along the line.”

“Shit – I didn’t realise things are that bad with him. You’re right though, we should speak to him. It’s not right to let a guy from our neighborhood go to waste like that. How’s Sunday for you. We’ll go round his house when I finish work and we can have a discreet intervention with him. Don’t bring too many people along though, he’ll just think we’re ganging up on him. Just you me and him.”

So that was agreed. Friday came and went as did Saturday. Then came Sunday, the day of the intervention. But when they knocked on his door his father said he was not in and slammed the door in their faces. They didn't take offence as his poor dad was probably used to waste people knocking for his son.

“Tomorrow?” Maz suggested.

“I can’t. I’m working both jobs. Let’s leave it until next Sunday. Wife takes the our son to her sister’s house on Sunday so I have an hour or so free after work. Other than that, I’m quite busy with the two jobs and college in the evenings and family life.”

Next Sunday Tahir woke up earlier than normal. Wanting to go through a few scenarios in his head while doing the morning chores at work. As Sundays wasn’t too busy in the morning, they had to wash all the pumps down before putting the papers out. There was a lot more papers to sort on Sunday too, with all the weekly supplements that came separately.

The pumps didn’t take too long to clean so there was more time to spend on the papers and go through these scenarios. While putting the supplements in the papers Tahir noticed the headline on the front page of the local newspaper. He read on and couldn’t believe his eyes.

The article read:

MURDERER Mohammed Billy was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison today for stabbing a taxi driver to death. The 21-year-old from Menmere Road, Oxley, appeared at Crown Court this morning to be sentenced for the murder of 39-year-old cabbie Mahroof. He was given a mandatory life sentence and could have faced up to 30-years in jail before being eligible for parole. But the judge reduced this to 22 years due to mitigating circumstances. During a six-day trial, the court heard that Billy had planned to rob a taxi driver at knifepoint last week. But the plan went wrong after Billy got into the cab to carry out the robbery and ended up plunging the serrated kitchen knife into Mr Mahroof's neck, fatally wounding him. The Judge told him: "It was a desperate act born of no more than a determination to obtain money with which to buy alcohol." He added: "Only you know what went on between you and Mr Mahroof during the 20-odd minutes that you and he were in his taxi. He must have become increasingly suspicious and anxious; his final moments terrifying as he tried to get help - you having left him to his fate and run away.

College, Main job, and second job were given  priority by Tahir. Had he have gone with Maz the day he heard about Billys situation or even the next day, they may have been able to talk him out of what he done two days later on that Saturday night.

Tahir learned at a later date that the taxi driver had climbed from his car after being left for dead by Billy (about 500 years from the main hospital) crawled to the road, and tried to get help.

An off duty Sikh doctor who was driving past tried to save his life at the roadside. By the time he’d done all he could without equipment, the ambulance arrived and took the taxi driver to hospital where he later died of the injuries.