I knew something was wrong as soon as I pulled up at the truck.

It's not like a pickup can't get a flat tire like any other car, but I'd been in the wrecker and tire repair business since I was a teenager,

and just like anything else, you get to where you can

see patterns of things. Some people don't have dead batteries, others get into Fender Benders,

and there are always those that come out to a tire that went flat over a day or two.

But a blowout, a real tire blowout, where the driver didn't hit anything.

Those were rarer.

And usually when it happened, it was some dumb kid that didn't pay attention to his tyres or somebody without the money to fix a bald one.

The man who had called a 24-hour line for a new tyre that seemed like neither. For one thing, he had been ready with a tire model he needed right from the jump.

The oddest part of that was it was a tire we actually had in stock, which was rare for truck tires.

He didn't even act surprised or happy about it.

Just told me what he needed, like he knew I'd have to bring it.

At the time, I just choked it up to him being a dumbass.

People always out shocked when we don't carry every part they could ever want on need in some

impossibly large warehouse out back.

Just a minute, ma'am, let me go 3D print you a new car

for your 10-year-old Honda. Your in Nogg, sir, I put that exact ignition switch a

few years back just waiting for your call. But when my headlights passed across the side of the red truck that

landed and the man propped against the door, I felt uneasy. This was a work truck,

older but clearly heavily used and well maintained.

And the man himself looked to be in his 50s, wearing worn jeans and a crisp blue button-up shirt.

My first thought was he was probably a foreman or a contractor somewhere and maybe a pretty

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