The kindness of strangers

I was leaving the staff carpark after work tonight when I realised that the car felt funny.

*Flashback* to Tuesday when my busser was telling me the same thing happened to her. Her story ended with her having to call her dad in in the middle of the night to come and change the flat tyre.

*Flashforward* to me parking the car again and getting out to look.

The right front tyre is completely flat. Unbelievable.

I contemplate calling my dad. He's only 5 minutes away and is likely still up at midnight. My mule-like stubbornness kicks in (with mulesque kicking) though, and I open the boot to get the spare and the tools out.

I've only just managed to put the jack under the car (and this isn't a reflection on my jack-positioning skills, this is just how quickly it happened) and four people walk by and ask if I'm okay. I say yes, but the two women insist that their men help me out. That's what men are for, after all (according to the women anyway).

Big strong man changes my tyre for me. I provide wet wipes and look on gratefully.

Spare tyre goes on, car gets lowered.

And then to make matters even more interesting, the spare tyre was flat as well!

I was gutted. The lovely people offered to take the spare to the petrol station to pump it up for me after we discovered the tow truck across the road had no pump facility.

The women stayed with me and chatted while the men went on the tyre pumping mission.

Big strong man comes back and puts the tyre back on for the second time. It seems okay.

More wet wipes are handed out.

They remind me to drive home slowly (in the torrential rain), and that the work isn't guaranteed.

I don't even know their names.

It puts a little of my faith back in humankind when total strangers will freely donate an hour of their time complete with kindness and physical exertion at the end of a long night.