out just once more... “Play it out just once more.” Far from an affluent suburban trophy wife, Sue is now a working-class woman—but is happy with her life, no longer the cold and cloistered socialite, she is now warmer and wiser. She tells Harry of hearing him on the radio; he shrugs off the hype of stardom, and invites her to see his show that night. She declines, saying only, "I work at night." Harry provides few other details on the reunion, urging listeners not to dig deeper: "If I answered at all, I'd lie." This time, it's Harry who offers money as they part, which she declines to take. Harry reflects on the circle of their lives. When they were young, she had wanted to be an actress and he a pilot. Ten years ago she was acting happy in her high-end life while he was flying high, stoned in his taxi. Today he "act[s] as I'm facing the footlights, And now she's flying with both feet on the ground." The song ends with: So I guess it's the sequel to our story From the journey between heaven and hell With half the time, thinking of what might have been And half thinkin' just as well. I guess only time will tell. Chart performance Origins According to the liner notes in The Essentials: Harry Chapin, Chapin was inspired to write the song when he happened upon an old lover, as the cabbie in the song does. Chapin was merely on his way to a taxi license examination in New York City, not San Francisco. Chapin also stated that "Taxi" is only "about sixty-percent true". However, according to Chapin's biography Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story, by Peter M. Coan, this song was based on a relationship that Chapin had with a Bennett Junior College student named Clare MacIntyre, the inspiration for Sue. They met when they were both camp counselors at neighboring summer camps during their college years. Clare MacIntryre-Ross died in March 2016. On the contrary, when asked by John Denver about the song, Chapin stated that he read a newspaper article about his ex-girlfriend who had married a rich man, the same week that his taxi license was supposed to go through. He said that he had a dream that he would be driving the cab in a big city and he'd stop and pick up a lady,