Lovely story Bergerie 1. . The old man "gravely raised his right hand" reminded of the friendly locals living on Nauru in the Central Pacific region. It is a small atoll with the nearest landfall being Ocean Island 175 miles away and Tarawa which has a runway, 375 miles away. It takes just 25 minutes driving at a sedately pace to circumnavigate Nauru atoll via the coast road that circles the atoll. If your car or motor bike breaks down you can bet someone will stop to help you within ten minutes. One day there was a heavy rain shower leaving big puddles on the coast road. My car conked out as water splashed into the engine compartment. As I got out of the car to hitch-hike back to the Menen Hotel to get some help (I am a useless idiot when it comes to fixing mechanical contraptions),a small boy came dashing out of a house armed with a can of what I assumed to be WD40 to spray over the distributor.
He was eager to get my car going, so I let him spray the cap of the distributor which he did with great aplomb. The kid was only seven years old but keen as mustard to help the white man whom he recognised as one of the pilots of Air Nauru. One squirt, two squirts, three squirts - four. He closed the bonnet and signalled me clear to start No 1. No joy. Not even a spark. I paddled in the puddle that had caused all the grief and lifted the bonnet and pretended to look like a real mechanic to impress the little Nauruan boy whose name I found out was Diesel.
He told me that when he was born his mother inadvertently washed him in a bucket of diesel oil instead of waterl So she named him Diesel.
It was only then I looked at the name on the spray can. It was Rust Remover. Not WD 40. That explained why the car wouldn't start. I thanked Diesel and with a fixed smile gave him five dolllars which was the only coin I had on me. He gave me a big beaming smile and a thumbs up, waving to me as I hitch-hiked the mile to the Menen Hotel to find help and hopefully a tow.
Last edited by Centaurus; 9th Dec 2020 at 23:17.