The Tire - pt 1: A Tale of the Wrench

I sit slouched in my chair
The soft torn leather smooth under my idle fingertips
Stolen from a front office after being deemed too worn for use
It makes it's five footed rolling home in the maintenance area now
Currently residing under my backside
I'm about to fall asleep

I keep staring at a spare tire
It's outside the room I'm in, across the wide hallway
It just doesn't look right

This whole general area is ours
Ours, meaning the company I work for
Everything in it is our collective responsibility
There are only a couple permanent employees here
Natives to Hong Kong
They help us with the local language when needed
And are generally cool folks
The rest of us are nomads
Traveling through on various airplanes in the fleet
Staying for a few weeks at a time occasionally
Helping with the line crews and loaders

This is my turn in the barrel
I've been here a week already
I like it here
Coming to Hong Kong won't be the same once the new airport is finished
I won't be able to see the city outside the fence line anymore
All the fun places won't be quite as close
Although I hear there will be a nice rail system to get us to town

The tire
It's bigger than the ones for the Boeing 747's
But it's not quite right to go on our Lockheed L1011's either
Although it's about the right size
How the heck did it get here?

I let my eyes slip shut
My nap only lasts about a half an hour
After which I feel pretty good
The next aircraft isn't due in for another hour
So I wander over to the stockroom
I see Yi

"What's up with that spare tire over there?"

I point over to the rubber in question
He looks briefly
Then looks back down at his papers and shrugs

That's strange
He must be having a bad day or something
Usually he talks my ear off about the littlest thing

"I'm gonna go check it out
Maybe figure out what it's for or something"

I tell him as I turn and walk away


"You should just leave it"

He says

I turn my head and tell him

"I'm just going to pull the numbers off of it
I don't have anything else going on right now"

I grab the top of the tire and bend down
Peering at the rim
Finding the part numbers
Oh hey now, these look like McDonnell Douglas part numbers
Wonder what the heck they are for?

I tip the tire towards me to look at the backside
Wow!
Seems heavier than it should be
Even for a tire

Suddenly from behind me
Yelling and running feet
I let the tire fall back against the wall
Turning I see about a dozen mixed law enforcement guys
Half of them have their guns drawn
One of them has a German Shepherd dog
I panic
I figure I'm in the way of something
I start to move out of their way quickly
They all veer towards me
Yelling in English and Cantonese

The English I understand

"Get on the ground!
Put your hands above your head!
Now! Now! Now!"

Guns pointed at me
The dog snarling

I do exactly as they say