Wendy had been driving for about 5 hours now on her way from Sydney to Adelaide and was due to fill her car with petrol. The town of Hay was still an hour away and she could have maybe just made it there but thought a leg stretch would do her some good. She pulled into the next service station and commenced to fill up when she noticed the lady at the next pump also filling her car, but as she was doing so she was studying her rear tyre. Wendy looked down and noticed the tyre looked somewhat soft and as the other lady caught her eye smiled she said, "Looks like it could do with some air."
"I think your right," responded the lady. Wendy finished filling up and went over to pay and then ordered a coffee at the diner section.
Through the diner window she saw the lady putting air into the soft tyre and noticed how fit she looked, about 26 she guessed, a couple of years older than herself and with a trim figure, long auburn hair blowing around in the breeze that was beginning to get up. The breeze caused Wendy to look up to the sky and see some dark clouds forming in the direction she was headed and she thought and hoped she would reach Hay before rain appeared. The lady had driven off as Wendy finished her coffee and she then briskly walked around the service station several times to stretch her legs and fully wake up ready for the last hours drive. The breeze was quite warm and with the still hot sun fading behind the gathering clouds, she was pleased that she had dressed lightly with only a button up blouse and cotton shorts, comfortable for driving and not needing the air conditioning too high.
After about 15 minutes on the road again, and only having seen one other car, as at that time of day not much traffic was traveling on the road to Hay, Wendy saw a car on the verge up ahead with the driver standing looking at the rear wheel, and as she approached closer she could see that it was the lady from the service station. Wendy slowed down and pulled up behind her, got out noticing the left rear tyre was quite flat and also that her station wagon was loaded to the hilt with cases and boxes.
"Hi." Wendy said, "Looks like we have a problem here."
"Oh thankyou so much for stopping, I was wondering how I was going to get all this stuff out of the back so I could reach the spare wheel, and it looks like it will start raining at any time." responded the lady.
"My name is Wendy." said Wendy as she offered her hand, "What might be a lot easier is if we fitted my spare wheel as we have the same model Ford, yours is just the wagon model of my salon and I don't have much luggage in my boot."
"That would be great Wendy, please call me Ruth, if we hurry we might just beat this rain."
Wendy and Ruth pulled the couple of luggage items out of Wendy's boot and put them on the rear seat, wrestled the spare wheel out of its hole along with the wheel brace and jack. Between them they soon had the wheel off Ruth's wagon and were about to replace it with the new one when a clap of thunder announced the arrival of the rainstorm. Wendy and Ruth both quickly jumped into Ruth's wagon, the rain was really heavy and it was getting darker.
"Well Wendy, we can't wait till this passes over as it looks set in for the duration, I have a couple of capes in the back, near the top I think, which will keep at least some of the rain off us." And with that she climbed over the seats, opened the top case and pulled out two black shiny capes passing one to Wendy and pulling the other one over her head. Wendy was startled at the material of the cape as it felt very slippery and smooth.
"What is this Ruth?"
"Don't worry Wendy, it's OK, it's just latex, it'll keep you dry alright."
Wendy pulled the cape over her head and slid her hands and lower arms through the side slits.
"Are you ready for the last bit Wendy?"