The Flat

Ages 15-18

Odelia's tire goes flat on a quiet road, and nobody is coming.

She hears it first, a slap on the road, and then the car pulls to the left. She steers onto the gravel and stops. She sets the parking brake. The back tire is flat to the rim.

There are fields on both sides, and a fence. The light is going.

She opens the trunk. The spare is under the floor. The jack and the wrench are in the well beside it. She finds the manual in the glove box.

She loosens the nuts first, with the car still on the ground. They are tight. She stands on the wrench with her full weight, and the first one gives with a crack, and then the others.

She sets the jack on the flat of the gravel, under the frame at the mark, and turns it. The car rises. She takes the nuts off, one by one, and puts them in the hubcap on the grass. She pulls off the flat. It is heavier than she expected, and it falls on the gravel.

She lifts the spare onto the bolts, and starts the nuts by hand, and tightens them. She lowers the car. She tightens them again.

She wipes her hands on the grass. She puts the flat in the trunk, and shuts it.