Fixing Betty
The day of jokes, horseplay, and smiles ended when the electricity was back on. The wires were strung from the power lines and the tools were started up. Before long the job was complete. We walked around the car, inspecting it for one last time, and then had to say our goodbyes. A few friendly shoves, jokes, and hugs were exchanged. My new good buddy had been doing the welding and hurt his eye from a lack of eye protection. I gave him my not-so-fancy sunglasses I had brought so in the future he would not be hurting himself. He responded with a big hug, then another offer of opium. A couple more offers, hugs, and we explained that we had to go. They asked for us to join for one more cup of tea, but we were needing to get on the road immediately since we were overdue in registering at the police station in Khurog. Again we were fugitives in a foreign land.
Running the wires to run the welder.
We pulled out two $10 bills and offered them up for payment. They looked and started to comment. I immediately thought, “here we go again—they’re going to want $200.” I could not be more wrong. He was saying that we paid too much. This after a town brought us in, fed us three times, and spent all their time with electricity for two days to work on our car and only our car. These were good people and we were very fortunate to have been stranded with them. If it was not for the car breaking down we would have driven through, waved, and gone on our merry way. Instead we have priceless memories.
