Reaching the garage which is on the second sub floor, I was greeted
by the Superintendent and the night watchman who had filmed the gas leaking
from under my car, which was pretty nice because then I could see it without
having to kneel. It made no sense to me how the smell of turpentine was coming
out of my car. According to the night watchman, it could have been bad gasoline.
He explained that sometimes they add chemicals to the gasoline to have more to
sell. I had heard of this, but doubted that the same gas station I had been
filling up the tank at would start doing this now.
With the medication in my body, I looked at the two of them and I
asked “And now what do I do?” My brain was foggy and I couldn't make heads or
tails of the situation and they were really kind in helping me by telling me
what to do. So, I called up the car insurance agency and asked for a tow truck
two remove the car from the building because by then the neighbors were
freaking out thinking that the whole building was going to go up in smoke. They
kept writing the most absurd comments in the building´s social media group. My
stomach is starting to turn. At this point I didn't know if it was the
turpentine, gasoline, the lack of sleep or the comments.
The tow truck arrived in 30 minutes. By that time the night watchman
had taken my car to the first garage that way it would be easier for the tow
truck to get to the car. Nonetheless, we called up the fire department to see
whether or not we could turn the car on despite the night watchman having said
that it would be OK because during the day he was a car mechanic.
He turned the car on because clearly, I was in no conditions to
doing so. I decided to stay because if the car was going to blow up with this
kind man behind the driver´s seat, I would blow up with him. After all it was
my car. Now that I think of it, I think that this was the medication talking. I
remember that before he turned it on, the superintendent grabbed my arm and
threw me in the elevator so that we would wait up on the first floor. The smell
was still horrendous and it didn't make sense that the gasoline could stink up
building up to the 15th floor.
The tow truck arrived around 1:00 AM, hooked up the car and took it to
a garage connected to the insurance that would open on the following day which
happened to be a Saturday. If it was just the gas tank hose, they could fix it
up on the same day. At this point my fingers and toes were crossed. The following
week would be heavy at work and I really needed my car.
It had been such a heavy and tiring week and deep down inside I
wanted to cry to release the tension but I couldn't find the strength to during
the week; However, after this episode it hit me like a rock and I cried. After
a good cry, sleep comes easily, but it didn't happen to help me sleep a wink. Nevertheless,
I did read a lot of pages. I ended up falling asleep around 4:00 AM and woke up
at 6 anxiously waiting for the garage to open at 8.
By noon, the car was back and its spot all fixed up, resting for the
week ahead. I am grateful to the people who helped me, the night the doorman,
the Superintendent, the night watchman and the tow truck driver.
On Monday around 4:00 PM, after coming home from a long day, the
social group messages started popping up and apparently people were complaining
of a turpentine stench around 10:30 AM. They checked all the cars to see if
there was another leak and found out that the stench was really turpentine.
Luckily, it had also happened on Friday and I was able to discover
that there was a leak in my car. It made me wonder how long I had been driving
with the leak losing precious gasoline which is super expensive nowadays but
judging from the information that I got from the mechanic, I only lost 3 liters
of gas which isn't that much if you come to think of it.
Written: March
14, 2022
 |
| Photo: Meire Marion |
No comments:
Post a Comment