Tonight, after I get off from work, I decide to drive cross town and see if a buddy of mine’s working at the gas station. He’s not, so I get back into my car and head back home. On my way back, I hear a “bang” and then a loud roar. Oh shit, I think. I hope that isn’t my tire. Damned if it wasn’t. This is bad, because I’m already riding on the spare. So I get the car off the road and take a look. Yep, the tire’s gone, totally shredded. There’s a gas station a few miles down the road, but it really doesn’t do me any good as there’s no one I can call at 1:15 AM for a ride. So, I start walking. It’s a good ten or more miles to the house, but what little traffic is on the road, isn’t stopping.
Five minutes later, a car stops. A woman leans out of the passenger side window and in Spanish accented English offers me a ride home. I accept and climb into the back seat of the car.
My benefactors are a Mexican couple who’ve only been in the States for a few years. The woman, Yufani, spoke fluent English. Hernan, didn’t speak any English while I was in the car. When they dropped me off at my house, I didn’t have any money to pay them, but I did give them the card of the personnel director at work (Yufani indicated that she was looking for work), and she gave me their phone number so that I could call them if a trailer came up for sale in my trailer park. I thanked them profusely for the ride home and said “Goodnight.” I wish I could have done more to repay their generosity.