Dear Tow Truck Guy,

You really came through for me, and I appreciate that. I was having a bit of bad luck when we met, so please forgive me for being a bit of a downer. I wanted you to know that I’m normally much more friendly and almost never as grumpy.

For instance, my normal response to small talk is reciprocation. You deserved a willing participant in the conversation you tried to initiate. Instead you got the cold dead stare of a man pushed past his limits by a day filled with deeply personal misfortunes.

On a good day - one not marred by a collection of adversities - I would have met your comments with those of my own. Perhaps I’d have joked about my lack of mechanical knowledge or asked if you needed some help in doing your job that I know nothing about. A hollow gesture? Sure. But almost certainly better than a defeated grimace from a man on the verge of tears.

It was very cold outside, dear Tow Truck Guy, and your story about the time your grandfather got frostbite and had to have both his pinky toes amputated was certainly topical. On a normal day, we probably would have shared anecdotes about the weather. I could have told you about winters in my youth, when my brother and I would pack snowballs with rocks and other hard objects. We’d have painful snowball fights that often ended in bloodshed and fistfights that our mother would have to break up. You could have told me why your grandfather was walking around in the snow shoeless in the first place.

If not for the blistering cold and the comedy of hardships I’d endured that day, I’d have kept you company while you finished loading my car. Abandoning you to the elements while I retreated to the heated cab of your truck was kinda shitty, but the chill of winter was doing nothing positive for my fragile emotional state.

Do you know how it feels to, as a grown man, openly weep inside the trash-filled cab of a tow truck? I assume that you do. Thank you for having the tissues available so readily for me. You were an excellent host, and I was just rotten to you.

You were very patient with me when it came time to fill out the paperwork. I may have scoffed at the time, but using your Bic to illuminate the truck’s interior was very helpful. Its light shone not only on the paperwork, but also on your professionalism and ingenuity. Please forgive me for calling it ‘bullshit’ at the time.

You were also an excellent listener! When I finally opened up, you listened without judgement. You listened attentively through my tears of frustration and offered what now seems like sound advice. I was very upset at the time, though, so when I yelled “Fuck you, you’re just a tow truck guy and you don’t know what you’re talking about”, it wasn’t me talking. It was all of the day’s setbacks exploding out of me. Like a hungry pit bull of emotion, I bit the hand that was feeding me.

The most exciting part of the trip was when you ran that red light. We both saw it coming from at least 100 yards away. That’s when the green light turned yellow. You chose to ignore it, opting instead to just keep barreling toward it. And while I didn’t expect you to brake at this point, I definitely didn’t see it coming when you chose to accelerate into what I assumed at the time would be our fiery deaths. My scream was bloodcurdling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw you recoil temporarily out of pure terror.

The rest of the trip is hazy from here, but I do distinctly remember throwing up in the console that separated us before blacking out entirely. A series of mistakes throughout the day had led to me having Chinese food for dinner, and there was probably a lot of rice that you had to clean out of your cup holders. I’m truly sorry for that.

My wife told me that you carried me inside after unloading my car into my driveway. You could have just kicked me out into my lawn, but instead you went the extra mile and hoisted me over your shoulder to deliver me safely to the warmth of my home. In a way, you were my tow truck and I was your car that wouldn’t start for some reason.

So, tow truck guy, I thank you. I thank you for putting up with me at what was certainly my darkest hour. I thank you for going above and beyond your duties as a guy who puts vehicles onto other vehicles and relocates them. I thank you for being a friend when I needed one. But mostly, I thank you for not killing me in a fiery careless and imprudent driving accident. You’re the best, and I was almost certainly the worst.

Your friend,

Michael