The Wrench

Johan Cruz

It was a nice sunny day, and I was working on doing an oil change for a black CRV. I had the car on the lift about to unscrew the cap to remove the old oil, like I had done a million times. When I was about to unscrew the cap off the oil pipeline, I forgot to get the bucket to dump out all the excess oil, so I went to get the bucket. I saw a guy arguing with my coworker. I wasn’t paying too much mind to it since we get angry with customers a lot. As I came with the bucket, I put it under the car to catch the oil that would be leaking from the car. Once all the old oil was removed, I moved the bucket to the side. I proceed to lower the car from the lift. Once the car was on the ground, I went to the office to get a new bottle of Mobil 1 oil. I was about to pour it into the car when I saw my coworkers running towards the random guy, who was throwing hands at my other coworker. My first act was to mind my business, but I proceeded to grab the biggest tool in sight. I grabbed a large wrench and walked up to the situation in my mind. I was thinking where I should strike him. I was about to swing at his head but I corrected myself when I then hit him in the knee. Once I hit him in the knee,

I could feel his pain since he was on the ground holding his leg and yelling. I felt bad at first, but I was reminded that I was defending my shop and the people I’ve worked with for the past seven years, that I consider family. Reflecting on it, to this day I feel guilty since I didn’t have to hit him with it. I could have tried to easily separate the fight, but I could’ve gotten hit myself, but I was also protecting our property, so I think I made a 50/50 choice. Looking back on it, I feel bad for the guy but happy that none of my coworkers got more injured.