Good Samaritan: Part 1: "Tire Hire"

When work was over I had nothing planned straight away; nothing except getting home and relaxing for a bit before the evening began.

It was a normal drive in the afternoon traffic as I headed towards the gas station I frequent. I pulled up to a pump to top off the fuel tank in my metal chariot.

Another car pulled up to a pump two over from me and started shouting things. I ignored the shouting at first since I didn't even think that they would be trying to get my attention. They persisted.

As I put down the windows on my side to speak with a pump attendant, I turned my head to the right; the direction of the hollers, and tried to communicate with the driver and his front seat passenger. I thought he was informing me that my back right tire needed some air so I really wasn't too into them. The passenger got out of the car and my eyes went to him. He spoke and I was now able to understand what they had been trying to tell me.

"You only have one nut!"

"What?" I questioned myself, "What did he mean?"

The driver and passenger were both pointing at the tire as I got out of the car to inspect the situation. When I examined my tire I noticed that the men were absolutely correct. All but one nut were missing.

"You got a wrench?" inquired the passenger.
"Yeah" I shouted back, "It's in my trunk somewhere."

I moved to the back of my car, opened the trunk and started my search. It was a little bit of a mess back there since I had not put the things that I stored in there back in their rightful places.

"You got a wrench?" came the question again. I just managed to put my hands on it then, stood up right and as soon as I did the passenger grabbed it, slid it out of my right hand, and went to work on my front right tire. Without a thought this gentleman in dark blue overalls started gathering nuts from two of my other tires.

I thought that it would be a good idea to Jack up my car so that the tire would be straight on the tire rods once the nuts were added, so I grabbed my Jack from the trunk and lifted my car a few inches.

"You lucky" the helpful and kind man said as he did his work. "Man you could have been dead. All you need is to be going 40 [miles per hour] on a corner and your car could have flipped over if the tire came off. You lucky! Man, you lucky!"

"I know" I replied, "Real lucky. Thank you for telling me. Thank you so much. I heard a knocking noise back there and wondered what it was. Thank you again."

I put the Car Jack back in the trunk and organized it as I went along. I was thinking of offering the good Samaritan's some money for their kindness, but when I closed my trunk they were gone; another car occupied the space they had been in.

I got in my car with a thankful smile on my face and continued my trek home.