A knock at the window made her flinch.
An older man was standing at the door. Worn work coat. Split boots. Gray beard moving in the wind. He looked like someone the road had kept — weathered in the particular way of men who spend a lot of time outdoors doing useful things.
She cracked the window.
“You all right?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
He looked at her for a moment, then at the rear of the car. “You got a spare?”
“Yes.”
“Pop the trunk.”
He changed the tire. Fast, practiced, without commentary or small talk. She stood beside the car hugging her own arms and watching his hands work, and she thought about how strange it
was that a stranger could appear on a road that had taken everything from her and do something this ordinary — change a tire, get a person back on their way — without it meaning anything at all.
