Downpour
#9 of Writing Prompt
Here's last week's prompt for my Writing Group. The prompt was, "You're jaded and cynical, and nothing that people do surprise you anymore. But this sure did."
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Rain sluiced down over the windshield of the car as the wipers tried valiantly to keep up. Visibility was low enough in the dark, but the rain made it that much more treacherous to drive in. Rusty's entire body was tensed as he drove along, eyes unblinking as he watched the rear-view lights on the highway, hoping that he wouldn't need to brake for any reason.
It had been an awful day at work with customers yelling about out of stock products, or prices that didn't compare online, or their coupons not being accepted after expiration. Most days weren't too bad, but today everyone had seemed to be in a foul mood and it had rubbed off on him hard.
The slim fox had spent his breaks and lunches on his phone talking to a potential love interest, Rick, that was a city over, and things hadn't been going too well. They'd had plans to hang out in a few days, but Rick had cancelled, saying that he'd thought things over a bit more and decided it might be best to slow things down. That had only run Rusty's mood further into the ground.
If things couldn't get any worse, the fox's car suddenly lurched to one side almost out of his control. His body stiffened and he drew in a sharp breath, gripping the steering with white knuckles. He could barely make out the thump thump thump of a flat tire over the sound of his music and he cursed loudly while pulling over to the shoulder, thankful no one was directly behind him.
With the car safely on the side of the road he turned off the radio and the wipers, and just sat there, staring out the window with a mix of frustration, anger, and sadness. This was the last thing that he needed after a day like this. Rusty fished his phone from his pocket and pressed the button to turn on the screen.
Nothing happened.
He pressed the button again, and then held it down to turn it on. The phone came to life, loading up until it got to the main menu, and he had just enough time to see "0%" displayed at the top before it flickered off, dead. It took every ounce of willpower not to throw the phone at the window or bang it on the dashboard.
Twenty minutes later, hazard lights flashing the whole while, the rain hadn't lessened and Rusty resigned himself to his wet fate.
He slipped out of his jacket, not wanting to get all of his clothes wet, and got out of the vehicle. He was soaked in seconds, and had to keep blinking to see properly. His right front tire was flat and he could smell burnt rubber, even through the downpour. No chance repairing it.
Getting the spare tire out was easy enough, but the jack took almost ten minutes of fighting before finally getting it free. Rusty actually hesitated before getting down on the soaked pavement to find where to put the jack, as if he weren't already soaked to the skin beneath his clothes. When a car roared by him it nearly scared him out of his wits and he hoped that he wasn't about to get killed out in the rain.
Rusty was so busy cussing up a storm as he worked the jack that he didn't even notice when another car pulled up behind him. When the new car's door slammed shut, Rusty turned to look and saw someone running up to him, an umbrella gripped in both paws.
A moment of worry ran down the fox's spine, but then the man, a rather tall and lanky German shepherd was by his side, bent over at the waist.
"Hey! I saw the lights. Need any help with anything?" The shepherd had to half shout over the rain, but he leaned in close and kept the clear umbrella over the both of their heads.
Rusty blinked in surprise at the shepherd and then looked back down at couple lug nuts he'd already taken off. "Um. I think I almost have it!" he shouted back.
"Ah, yeah. Too bad I wasn't here sooner! I'll try to shield you from the worst of it," the man said. And with that he placed himself between the fox and the wind, and knelt down to keep the umbrella over Rusty's head.
The fox was still soaked, but it was easier to see without the water pouring down his face. He could his newcomer was already getting rather soaked as well, but didn't seem phased. He wanted to tell the man that it was okay, and not needed, if nothing else just to give himself another reason to gripe later. Instead he just gave a quick nod. "Thank you."
The tire came off, the spare went on, and the jack was thrown into the trunk without much of an afterthought. All the while, the shepherd stood guard over the fox, even pulling out his phone to shine the camera light down for Rusty to see.
When the fox closed his trunk, he turned back to the shepherd, shivering in the cold rain, and nodded his thanks. "Thank you for your help."
"No problem. Wish I'd gotten here sooner," he said, offering a paw. "Name's Allen."
"Rusty," the fox said, trading grips.
"Come by my shop tomorrow if you can. Emerson's Garage on Poplar. I'll get you a new tire. New set if the others look like they could use it," he said, nodding politely at the fox.
"What? No, you don't have to do that," Rusty said, smiling sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it, kid. Come by if you can. Or the next day, deal?"
Rusty was about to argue, but just gave a curt nod. "Deal."
Allen just smiled, and didn't say another word as Rusty got into his car. He waited in his own vehicle for Rusty to drive off, making sure the spare was holding up before overtaking him and driving off into the night.
The fox just drove the rest of the way home, radio off, looking back at the rest of how the day had gone. All things considered, it ended up being a pretty good day.