Acts Of Kindness Never Re-tires

I am a young male, having grown up without a father and with no car in the family, so I am not very familiar with how to do anything “under the hood.”

It is early winter. I am driving home from work from the city. It is dark and the weather is bad. Leaving the city I see an older man hitchhiking beside the road. He looks a little bit sketchy in the dark and I am hesitant at first. But due to having hitchhiked a lot before getting myself a car and the weather being really bad, I decide to pick him up. He wants to get to a location more than 20 km further from where I am going but gladly jumps in from the wet and the cold.

About 10 km before the destination the front passenger-side tire breaks with a bang and loud noise like an airplane landing just over the roof. As it is the first time I have ever experienced something like this, I am rather startled but safely stop the car. I am confused as to what should I do next, not exactly sure how to change the tire in the dark, wet, and cold.

Next thing I know, without much thought, the hitchhiker asks me if I have a spare. He jumps out and proceeds to grab the tire and everything else from the trunk, changes the tire himself and puts everything back after finishing. All this in record time and we are ready to continue with the drive.

After getting driving again I feel really grateful and so happy, I decide to pay him the kindness back by driving him the 20 km further he needs to go. On the way I learn he paints cars for a living, which is why he is so familiar with cars and so quick about the tire changing.

To this day I think back with warm feelings about that night because without having him in the car to help me, who knows how long it would have taken me in the dark, cold, and wet weather to figure out how to change the tire for the first time beside that road there.