Chapter 412.
<strong>Chapter 412. We Encounter a Strange Spaced-out Girl Stranded on the Highway. (5/10)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">Before she had the chance to turn the key in the ignition and drive off in a fluster, I made a move, “I see. In that case, how about we exchange contact information? We’re going to be around here for the next week and we don’t really know anyone. It’d be a good idea if we can at least get in touch with someone we know if anythinges up.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uh… are you asking for my phone number?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. But if you’re ufortable giving it out to a random guy, you can just give it to my girlfriend.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“N-No, it’s not a problem. Uh, my phone number. Let’s see, what was it again?” Her hand fumbled around the passenger seat to pick up her phone.
<span style="font-weight:400">When she pressed the power button she froze up, “Ah. I forgot. It died. The whole reason I was in this situation was because of it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“You don’t remember your phone number?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“N-Normally I do, but I’m drawing a nk right now. I’ve… never exchanged contact info with a guy… from a city before.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uh, if I leave do you think you’ll remember it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Probably…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hold on, we have a charger with us, we can just charge your phone.” Rosa made that suggestion.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I don’t have the adaptor for the car with me though.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No problem, we have a power bank.” Rosa stuck her hand into a side pocket on our bag tied down to the back of the motorcycle and pulled it out.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Here you go.” Rosa passed the phone side connector of the charging cord to Dawn through the window that was down. Dawn connected it to her phone and allowed it to charge as she
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’ve never had or used one of these before. The city really does have a lot of convenient stuff.” Dawn absentmindedly muttered out.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You don’t have one? What if there’s a power outage on your farm, your phones are dead, and you need to call for help in case of an emergency?” I couldn’t help but ask.
<span style="font-weight:400">“We have an emergency backup generator.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, right. I forgot farms tend to have those.” I felt a bit stupid, it should have been pretty obvious that was the case. Your average person in the city didn’t have much of a need for a backup generator. Only businesses typically had backup power generators in the city.
<span style="font-weight:400">It only took a few minutes for her phone to turn on. When it powered up, she held her phone up to me and shed her phone number.
<span style="font-weight:400">I quickly noted it down and put my phone away only for her to awkwardly ask, “Uh… your number… are you not… nning to… uh… tell me it?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Is there a need for me to give you my number?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Huh? Uh… no… now that I think about it… there isn’t, is there? Also… now that I think about it… your girlfriend probably wouldn’t be too happy if I had it.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Despite her face remaining serene as always, her shoulders slumped down a bit as her gaze lowered.
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa secretly elbowed me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I was just kidding.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I took my phone back out of my pocket and showed her my number.
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn’s eyes shot back up as she peaked in Rosa’s direction and asked slightly nervously, “Really? It’s okay if I have your number?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Sure. You can take Rosa’s number down too.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is it… okay if I consider you friends?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, it’s not.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haha… right, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m an acquaintance at best. What person from the city would want to be friends with some country hick anyway?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa was pinching my back right now.
<span style="font-weight:400">Stop being mean to her was what she wanted to convey.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Look, you’re mistaken. I don’t have friends and don’t n to be friends with anyone, it has nothing to do with you. I’m just antisocial is all. As for Rosa though, I’d be more than happy if you became this lonely girl’s friend. She doesn’t have many female friends in the city. You’d be doing me a great favor if you befriend her.”
<span style="font-weight:400">My lips twitched as Rosa pinched even harder.
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn’s eyes rose up to Rosa and asked insecurely, “It’s okay for me... to be your friend… Rosa?”
<span style="font-weight:400">Why do I feel like I’m suddenly ying wingman to hook Rosa up here?
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah. As he said, I’m not friends with too many girls in the city. It’s really hard for me to get along and rte with them.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn added Rosa’s number and sent her an immediate text to make sure she input it correctly.
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa checked her phone and a small smile formed on her lips as her fingers pinching my back ckened. Was she happy to have made a new female friend? Somehow… I couldn’t help thinking her reaction was a bit too cute. I had an urge to hug her but resisted that frivolous impulse.
<span style="font-weight:400">“We should really get going now. You should be good from here, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Uh, yeah, I think I should be fine.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright then. Maybe we’ll see each other again while we’re still around.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yeah.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn turned the key in the ignition and… the three of us froze up when we heard the sound of the engine.
<span style="font-weight:400">Vrvrvrvrvr. Vrvrvrvrvrvr. Vrvrvrvrvr.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...”
<span style="font-weight:400">What followed the sound of the engine trying but failing to turn was… silence.
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn stiffly turned her head our way. Those serene eyes didn’t look like they wanted to cry, but everything about the situation screamed that she wanted to cry. It was slightlyical.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Dead car battery?”
<span style="font-weight:400">She robotically nodded once. “It… seems to be the case…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Haaaaah. Isn’t your luck a bit too bad today?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It really is…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Do you have jumper cables? We could try to jump-start it using the battery from my motorcycle.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I do have them, but… do you think your motorcycle has enough juice?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm… for a pickup truck? Hard to say. But it couldn’t hurt to try, right?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Where are they?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“They’re in the back.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa looked over the side panel of the trunk and retrieved the jumper cables.
<span style="font-weight:400">While I fiddled with my motorcycle seat where the battery was hidden beneath to remove it, Dawn popped the hood of the trunk and Rosa asked, “Does the order I connect it matter?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If you care about safety, then yeah. First, connect the red mp to the positive terminal of the battery.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Okay, done. Do I connect the ck one to the other terminal now?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. Hand me the other mps first.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Here you go.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Thanks.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I first connected the red mp to the positive terminal, then the ck mp to the negative terminal.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You can attach the ck mp to a piece of unpainted metal in the car.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Not the negative terminal on the battery?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Though you technically could, car batteries can vent hydrogen gas due to the internal chemistry of the battery which is very mmable. The current doesn’t start to flow until you make thatst connection and very often there is a little spark when you connect thatst mp. If you make thatst connection close to the battery then the spark could ignite the venting hydrogen gas. It’s pretty unlikely for this to really happen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Nerd. You could’ve simplified your long-winded exnation with ‘car go boom’.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Rosa attached the ck mp to a piece of the metal frame under the hood.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Am I a caveman?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I turned the key in the ignition to start my motorcycle.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Dawn, start the truck now.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Kay.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Vrvrvrvrvr.
<span style="font-weight:400">Vrvrvrvrvrvrvr.
<span style="font-weight:400">Vrvrvrvrvrvrvrvrvr.
<span style="font-weight:400">Dawn let out a dejected sigh, “Haaaaaah.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It really isn’t your day, huh?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Tell me about it…”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmmm… either there really isn’t enough juice for a jump start or the battery ispletely dead.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Should I try again?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No, let’s give it fifteen minutes to see if it will charge. It’s better to figure out if the battery ispletely dead or if it just needs to be charged. It’s possible that you have a busted alternator as well and doing this you can figure out the likelihood of it being one over the other. Haha… though if you’re really unlucky… it might just be both of them that need to be reced.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“How much would that cost?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, the battery including the cost ofbor might be around $200. As for the alternator recement… it can vary quite a bit but I’d think it’d probably be in the $500-$800 range if you includebor.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“If I kick it… do you think it’ll work?”