Trust Me Smiles

Feeling cynical, suspicious, and out of my comfort zone, I gave the service manager at the dealership a doubtful look. She hadn't come right out and said the words, "Trust me" but I still felt unsure. Three weeks earlier when she had said that all they had been able to find was a corroded battery cable and a single rusty wire, the battery had tested fine. Now, the same battery had been diagnosed with a dead cell and at the bargain price of $214.62 been replaced. I tentatively reminded her that it had been the third battery since the first of the year and it was only mid June. Ah, yes, she said with a wide and what I wanted to think was meant to be a reassuring if slightly chiding smile, But you didn't buy those batteries here, a fact I had openly confessed to three weeks earlier, and we didn't install them. This did little to ease my mind - we were talking batteries, after all, not nuclear fuel distribution devices - and while I remained certain that some mysterious and as yet to be discovered electrical flaw was the culprit, draining each new battery as surely as God had made little, green apples, I had only anecdotal evidence. With some reluctance I handed over my credit card and told her that I hoped she was right and that I wasn't going to be doing this same dance all over again in the next couple of months. Because if I am, I said with far more confidence than I actually felt, I promise you I will not be happy. She gave me another "Trust me" smile and pointed to the signature line of the credit card slip. It's a gift to know when you're beaten - I signed and left.

The old cruiser started immediately and strongly, just as it had with the new battery cable and each of the new batteries before that. I wanted to believe but age breeds cynicism and distrust and I was still unconvinced. Living on the edge of never being quite sure whether the car will or won't start, at what point I won't be able to coax the ignition to life, or where I'm likely to be when it's had enough has lost its charm. It's a good idea to look a little deeper when someone gives you a "Trust me" smile, even if they're taking no more than a little of your time.

I calculate I'm safe til about Labor Day, give or take.