“I found my car with three flat tires on a deserted Sunday evening”

2024-01-07 19:00:01
THIBAULT LAGET-RO

“About twenty years ago, I was an antiques dealer in Paris. I was finishing a big show at the Porte de Versailles, a bit of a tiring weekend. I’m packing up the stands, it’s late, I’m exhausted, I can’t take it anymore. I feel sticky, dripping, I only dream of going home to take a good shower.

I go out on the [boulevards des] Marshals. It must be 10:30 p.m., it’s still hot, and the sun is just setting. It’s probably June. I’m getting ready to pick up my little car, which I had parked on the boulevard right in front of the Exhibition Center. There is nothing. Not a cat, no one, not a business, everything is closed. Except the tobacco on the corner.

I arrive, and there I discover that my car has three flat tires. Three ! I have one in the trunk, but obviously not three, and I don’t even have a jack. No cell phones, since this is not yet common. In short, I’m up to my neck in poop.

Okay, so it’s not a tragedy, I know, but I’m still in a difficult situation to return to my little house in the suburbs. Not knowing what else to do, I sit on the ground on the sidewalk and look at my tires. I moan, I whine, I’m fed up. What to do ? Nothing. I curse the whole world.

And there the film begins. I hear reggae playing loudly, and an ugly, old car drives up and parks abruptly in front of the tobacco shop. Four guys come out, tall black rastas with dreadlocks. Open doors, open windows, it suddenly brings a little life. They see me sitting on the ground. They look at me, I look at them. They say to me: “Are you okay, ma’am?

– No, it’s not okay at all, I have three flat tires, it’s shit.”

They look at each other, they look at me. They tell me: “Leave it, we’ll take care of it.” What do you mean we take care of it? I don’t even have a jack. There, I see the four guys open their trunk and take out three tires. Three ! I tell myself, they must be tire thieves. Obviously, it’s not glorious to think that, but there are times when we’re stupid. So I clutch my purse and wait for the scam.

“I look out of the corner of my eye for the hidden camera”

The music is always loud. They arrived on Bob Marley, Could You Be Loved, and it continues. I feel like I’m in this movie released in 1976, Car Wash [de Michael Schultz], on a car wash station in the United States. It didn’t leave a lasting memory in cinema history, but the soundtrack was just incredible. Great mix of R’n’B, disco and funk by [le groupe américain] Rose Royce.

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