The clock read 6:37 a.m. when Andrés Herrera slammed the door of his small apartment in the working-class neighborhood.
His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep, and his hands trembled from endlessly replaying the situation.
He clutched a cheap briefcase that held his only hope:a USB drive with a video that, he believed, could change everything.
He had to be at the downtown courthouse by 7:30.
He couldn’t be late.
Not again.
His white Tsuru, now more tape than car, roared to life with a whine as it started.
He quickly crossed himself, as he did every morning, and headed south.
The traffic was heavy, as if the city knew it couldn’t let him down that day.
As he rounded a curve on a side street, Andrés saw a woman standing next to a gray sedan with its trunk open and a spare tire lying on the ground. Her back was to him.
Clearly frustrated, she waved her arms desperately, and her cell phone wasn’t working.
Andrés braked without hesitation.
His instinct was stronger than his anxiety.
“Do you need help, ma’am?” he asked, rolling down the window.
The woman turned around: dark-haired, slender, with her hair pulled back and eyes that held a mixture of firmness and a hint of anguish.
She didn’t look older than him, though she carried herself with the air of someone accustomed to being in control.
“Yes, please.
I got a flat tire and I don’t have the strength to change it.
I’m running terribly late.”
Andrés parked without hesitation, took his jack from the trunk, and crouched down beside the woman’s car.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be rolling again in 10 minutes.”
She didn’t say much while he worked, just watched him, almost studying him.
Andrés, for his part, avoided eye contact.
He felt time breathing down his neck, but there was something about helping her that brought him peace, as if the universe were offering him a reprieve.
“Do you have an important appointment?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Yes, ma’am, very important.
And you?”
“Me too, first time in a new job and I’m already late.
How embarrassing!”
Andrés smiled without looking up.
“Sometimes days that start badly end well, or at least that’s what I want to believe.”
