A Tire Story

Grocery shopping on a hot day when asphalt melts tennis shoes.

Come out with caramels and toffee to discover my tire is flat as a pancake.

Luckily I’m only a mile away from a Les Schawb so race over there even though bought all four new tires at another chain with a letter of the alphabet in the title.

The guys at Les Schawb are gracious. One of the guys shows me that brand new tire is defective but they don’t carry those kind of tires.

He puts on my naked balled donut spare which looks like a baby tire that can’t hold the cars weight and they refuse to charge me.

“Good luck.”

It’s 4:00 pm.

Slide all over the road through Labor Day traffic. Must get there since they close at 6 o clock or so I thought.

Slide into lot.

Two guys look angry.

Suppressed fight.

Man in red shirt greets me as I drag out heavy tire and rim.

He smiles and takes my tire rolls it in shop and tells me they will be closing and they can’t help me until tomorrow.

It’s 4:18 and they can’t help me even though two bay doors are still open and two workers are just standing there talking.

Donut tire is not sweet like a hoot treat.

It’s a dangerous tire and I’ve just driven six more miles down Pyramid Highway to hear the news they can’t help me.