The Lost Stranger

It was just like any other winter morning at work. There were barely any customers at the auto parts store where I worked at and the temperatures were below freezing. There was a blizzard the night before and the streets hadn’t been plowed yet. I had worked the night shift the day before and unfortunately opened the store this morning because I was covering for another employee who had called in sick. Coffee, donuts and the freezing weather were the only things that kept me awake because I had not been able to get enough sleep. We were not busy so I went outside for a smoke. A couple minutes passed by and I noticed a car pulling into the parking lot and it sound like there was something wrong with it, it was making an unusual grinding and squealing noise. It sounded as if the belt was rubbing against some metal part or the pulley bearing had gone bad. As he got out of the car and was walking towards the store I put my cigarette out and threw it in the overflowing cigarette disposal. The man was in a very nice suit and was clean shaved with his hair slicked back but looked tired and seemed like he had been on the road for a while. He proceeded to walk in the store; I walked in with him and asked if he needed any help. He told me that he was from out of town and was trying to get to his daughters house but the car kept making the squealing noise and he was worried if there was something major wrong with the car and if he would even be able to make it to her house. As we were going outside he told me the car had been constantly stalling and the noise just kept getting worse. I grabbed some testing equipment from inside the store and we walked outside to check his car to see if I could find the problem that was causing his car to constantly stall. It was cold and blustery, I couldn’t feel my hands just after a couple of minutes being outside so I