Tyre

``Where did you put the owner's manual?''

``What do you mean `where did you put the owner's manual'? Are you insinuating that I screwed up or something?''

``Calm down Sally,'' Tom said, sounding a little tired. ``We're on the shoulder in the middle of a highway with a busted tyre. We have the emergency tyre to replace it with, but the emergency tyre is not inflated. We need to know the proper PSI to pump the emergency tyre up with. We do have a pump, right?''

``No! Why would I carry a pump in the car?'' Sally shrieked back at Tom against the sound of cars passing them by.

Tom bit his lip and started to think to himself, knowing that Sally was deep enough in the anger zone that she would be anything but rational and helpful. She had been the one driving, and she hadn't paid attention to the road. Some gravel had spilled on to the road surface from some truck earlier and she did not avoid them, still going at the highway speed of fifty miles per hour. One of the sharper stones managed to penetrate through the tyre and blew it, causing Sally to swerve a little before steadying it somewhat within the shoulder lane.

And she had been taking it out on Tom since then.

He examined his options. The emergency tyre was clearly out of service, and the blown tyre was bad---attempting to drive in either would probably cause irreversible damage to the wheel. A grim set of solutions.

Tom sighed and dialled the number to the towing company as Sally kept on screaming at him.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 23-Feb-2014 00:10:22)

[Ed: Really not into it. Also late. Procrastinated watching Twitch Plays Pokemon.]