I slapped my palm against the leather-wrapped wheel and jammed the stick in park when my truck refused to move another inch. “Oooh, I ought to trade you in for a foreign model. Built tough my--”I looked west, taking note of the black clouds rolling in off Lake Ontario. There wasn’t much time before the impending storm hit. A rumble of thunder echoed in the evening summer sky as I launched myself out of my not-so-trusty pickup, toolkit in hand. What I really wanted was a sledgehammer. Under normal circumstances, my truck and I had an “understanding.” But these weren’t normal circumstances, and I wasn’t in the mood to play let’s-find-the-part-that-didn’t-work.As if sensing my current state of mind, Mother Nature decided to test me further. With a loud boom, the sky overhead opened up turning fat droplets of water into a downpour worthy of an ark. Through hot, sticky air and sheets of rain, I kicked the nearest tire with all my might.“Damn!” Biting back a couple choice words, I limped to take a look under the hood.
