#I'm also going to leave gas station guy a review bc without him idk if my parents would've found me. very grateful to him.

[kittlyns]

Last night, my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black dark, on a road where people were speeding extremely fast. My battery/alternator gave out, so I had no way to even turn my hazards on.

To top it all off, my phone was at 6% when this happened.

I was completely unfamiliar with the area, as my normal route was blocked off due to an accident. I had to take a detour down country roads I'd never been on. There were no lights on the road at all, and barely any buildings other than the very occasional house.

I was on the phone with my best friend when my warning lights started coming on one after another. I started freaking out a bit and was like "oh my god, I'm gonna break down in the middle of nowhere, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck."

She asked where I was and how to get to me, and I gave her the most shitty directions I've ever given anyone. I'm godawful with directions and my brain being in panic mode did not make anything better.

I finally found an intersection with one church and a small gas station across from it. I knew I wasn't making it to the gas station. As I started turning into the church parking lot, my steering locked up and everything in my car went dead.

Thankfully, there was a very small middle lane that separated both sides of the road. I'm assuming it was mostly used as a turn lane for the church. My car somehow died perfectly in the middle of it.

I shot off a text to my mom letting her know my car is dead and I had my phone do an emergency SOS so it sent her my location. I continued to babble on hysterically while my friend did her best to locate me.

I told her I might walk to the gas station bc I felt like it was only a matter of time before someone ran into my little car with no lights. My phone then promptly went dead.

Looking back, as scary as it was this was probably for the best. I do my best work when no one is relying on me.

I ran through the possibilities in my mind.

Leave my car and go to the gas station? Maybe they have a charger for my phone, or maybe they'll let me borrow a phone. But it is late and I'd be a young woman visibly alone with a dead phone. Who knows how that could go.

Okay, stay in my car? No headlights, no hazard lights, no streetlights illuminating my car. I could easily get hurt. No phone so I can't update anyone. No, staying in place doesn't improve the situation at all.

Sit on the church lawn under the one light they have and hope my parents or friend show up before any potential axe murderers passing by? Pros: I'd be more visible. Cons: I'd be more visible. Eh.... maybe I'll try this one first.

I vaguely remember buying a set of caution lights the last time my car's battery died a few years ago. Omg, I think a little excited at the prospect of actually needing something I bought for once, I've gotta try those out!

I also remembered throwing them in my trunk the last time I cleaned my car out. Fuck. I'd have to risk being hit to get them, but it'd be for the best if I did.

I wait until there are no cars coming from either direction and get out. I manually unlock my trunk and start digging around. No lights, no lights, no lights, good god why don't I ever clean this shit out this is so fucking stupid omg the lights!!!

It occurs to me as I'm opening the little bag containing the lights that. Oh shit. I've changed the batteries on these things once and that was at least.... 2 years ago. Oh fuck. Please work, please work, please work.

I press the button on one light. It works!!! Only. Huh. It's a bit dim. Will anyone see this? I press another light's on button. Nothing. Oh fuck me. Why didn't I ever change the batteries regularly???? I'm too fucking complacent.

I put the one, very dim, probably dying light on my rear bumper and hope to anything listening that it'll do the job. I get my purse, phone, and keys out of my car and head for the church lawn.

I don't stay there long. Too many passing cars that I don't recognize and it makes me nervous. From my experience, a lot of people who stop and ask if you're okay are super nice. But my phone's dead and I left my mace back in the salon, so I'd rather not take any chances. I decide to just head over to the gas station and hope it's safer than being out in the open.

It was. I walked in and resolved myself to not cry. Just politely ask for a phone or charger and wait until someone rescued me.

That didn't last long. I got up to the counter and explained my problem to the man and asked if I could borrow a phone. He agreed so kindly and quickly that it brought tears to my eyes immediately and my voice went all wobbly. I didn't realize til then how much I was expecting a flat out "no."

I called my mom, her number being the only one I know by heart, and filled her in on the situation. Yes, I was safe, I'm in a gas station across from a church, no I don't know the church's name, here's the gas station's name, no I don't know the street address, no I haven't called the cops, do I need to? Oh okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay bye.

I try to hand the phone back and promised I'd buy something as a thank you and he turned me down. Told me to grab a beverage, on him, and sit down. Keep his phone as long as I needed it. I turned down the drink, he'd helped me so much already just letting me use his phone, but thanked him profusely and agreed to keep his phone a little longer.

I sat down and called the non-emergency police line to see if they could send someone out to put up cones or something for my car. I was told "oh no honey we don't do that. Here. Call this number." Okay thanks. Hang up. Dial the new number.

"Mmmm, yeah, we don't do that either. I can connect you to highway patrol?" I mean I fucking guess. I've spent damn near 10 minutes trying to connect to the right departments and giving all my information out again, but whatever.

And then my best friend walks in 💕

Immediately, I'm unable to hold it together. I burst into tears. She rushes over and holds my hand while sitting with me. Her mom shows up not even a minute later and I'm just in hysterics and the highway patrol dispatcher finally comes on the line but I'm sobbing too hard to say anything so the lady that transferred me had to give her all the information and I can finally hang up and give the nice man his phone back.

He asks me if I need anything else but I'm still crying pretty hard so I can only hope he understood me when I said no thank you.

My friend and her mom celebrate finding me with the absolute shit directions I gave and I can finally laugh because yeah they sucked pretty bad and I'm so sorry for all this blah blah

Her mom says something about angels and luck and I'm like fuck it I'm gonna buy a lottery ticket. Maybe this all means something. So my friend and I both buy lottery tickets in hopes we can change our lives and we promise the man if we win he'll get his fair share.

We go outside and my parents pull up and everything feels okay for the first time in nearly 2 hours. There's a lot of run-around, looking for jumper cables and flares or something. It takes the cops another hour to show up, and the eventual tow truck yet another hour.

$700+ of my savings later, I'm back home. My car will hopefully run again. If not. Well. That's a bridge to cross another day, I guess. For now I'm just grateful to be home and alive and know that I'm loved enough for people to hunt me down in the dead of night with shitty directions and coordinates that are off by a couple of miles.