We pulled to a stop in front of the enormous new car dealership.

The glare of the sun reflecting against a thousand polished car windshields

assaulted me as I stepped out of the Uber.

My driver nodded goodbye as I squinted at him and said thanks.

Good luck.

He said as began to roll away.

Remember what I said. Be careful.

The people who run these places are all

devils. I laughed as he drove off, but I couldn't help thinking it had been an odd choice of words.

Most people would say thieves or crooks, but he had called them devils. I would remember that

later on for very obvious reasons. Like a million other people,

I needed an affordable car very badly right now. My last vehicle had been sideswiped,

and the insurance adjuster had put a low-ball price tag on it, calling it a write-off. Now I had no

choice but to try to find a reliable car for a decent

price. No easy feat nowadays. Part of me wished I had the insurance adjuster with me while I shopped

for vehicles, just so I could rub it in his face how far off he had been. Maybe the guy had never

heard of inflation. Sure, the driver's side door of my old car

didn't open from the inside. The tires were bald and the bumper was sagging, but that civic

was a reliable car, despite those minor deficiencies. Just because it had a couple hundred thousand

clicks on it, the adjuster had spoken about it as if it were nothing more than scrap

metal. As I wandered the lot looking at various cars, most of which were far out of my price range,

I kept a lookout for salesman out of the corner of my eye. It wouldn't take long before one of those

...