It was 4:15 in the afternoon. After a day at work that will go down in the family story album of angrifying things at the time but funny as hell a bit later, she was ready to take the dog out for his run. It was hot, so she didn't rush out of the house. Knowing that by 4:30 or 4:45 the desert would cool down enough so the dog could have a good trot.
On the way she passed many tow trucks, many police cars, many many American military vehicles. She got about 5 km from where she usually turned off to go onto the desert when there was a strange thumping noise. Intelligent woman that she is, she pulled over to the side of the road and got out to check what was happening.
She looked at the two front tires, she walked around the front and looked at the back passenger tire and then around the end of the car to the back driver's tire. The second worst thing that can happen to a woman had happened to her. She had a flat.
Ah, but she has a cell phone. She called a neighbor, with whom she had had an arrangement while her Master was gone, and asked in the politest way possible if he would brave the 110 degree heat and come and change her tire. She added that if any kind soul happened by and offered to help she would call him back immediately. She remembered all the police and military and tow trucks she had so recently seen. The friend threatened with dire pay backs but said of course, and that he would be there in a bit. She waited. She could not let the dog out to run on the other side of the fence because there was a rather large flock of sheep and goats watching with intent fascination at what was happening just outside their world. She also did not want to leave the car in case one of the kind souls she had hoped would happen by, did, in fact, happen by.
After a wait that seemed an eternity, but was only about 20 minutes, (Twenty minutes in which not one tow truck, not one police car, not one military vehicle, passed her car) the neighbor pulled up behind Emerson and got out his tools to change the tire. That is another story in itself, and shall be saved for a rainy day. The tire was changed. She asked the neighbor to follow her to the tire repair shop, the dog's run would have to wait. He did. The trip back was uneventful. She got to the tire repair shop, it was a broken valve stem. The repairman did his job. It took less than 15 minutes. The dog, in the car, with the windows up and the a/c on, had drawn a crowd. Dogs are not the pet of choice in her part of the world. She thanked the man, paid the dinar and followed the neighbor home.
You think this is the end of the story? She got home just fine. But as she rounded the corner she saw the neighbor man's jeep blowing smoke like a chimney. She followed him to the door of the car park. He pulled up ahead of her and got out of his jeep. He lifted the hood, and discovered the power steering belt had broken.
The woman offered to take the neighbor anyplace he needed to go to get what he needed to fix his jeep. He declined her offer. The woman thinks he wanted to have a 'guy' friend help him so he could talk 'guy' stuff on the way to the garage and back. i think otherwise. i think he wanted nothing more to do with the woman or her car. The moral of this story? ' No good deed goes unpunished.'
Now the woman has to sit back and rethink her thoughts about this being a good day.
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