Short Stories With Tragic Endings #6

On the way back home from the beach a few weekends back I decided to stop at a Hess station because it also doubles as a truck stop and whenever there is an opportunity for big rig interaction, you can count me in. This truck stop (with full service showers, sidebar - I once paid to take a shower at a truck stop. Gotta say, the fear that I was going to be raped at any second by a trucker hungry for some some A-Cups, no matter how hairy they were (and with a broken lock on the stall) far outweighed the $7 I had to pay to use 4 minutes of semi hot water. Good times), is less than 10 minutes from my house so I feel pretty comfortable with it. Not so this time.

I had already been driving for almost 4 hours and so I fill up the tank and skip my routine of wasting time by buying a code red and a Fast Break (Reeses in stick form, I can't get much lazier) and I just lean with my back to my car (pre dented of course). From behind the pump, a man accosts me by saying "Hey buddy." (First reaction when approached at a gas stop is a) fear (see above) followed by the thought that maybe they need directions). So this guy starts with "I was stuck in Chapel Hill..." "ahhh directions," I thought. He continues "and I just got out of the hospital because I was hit and left for dead by a truck. I'm just trying to get home to my family in Kentucky and now I have seizures (he holds up a large - like 150 pill - prescription bottle, the kind trophy wives casually use to help them sleep easier), can you buy me a tank of gas?" I said "no, I'm broke." He responds "Come on man you can use your card to fill up my tank." I said no again and he said thanks and then got in a car with 2 other guys and drove away.

A strange occurrence to say the least. Not because he asked for money but because of the following reasons:

A) His family essentially said "you know what? We don't need to go see pops, I'm sure he's fine down in an NC hospital, he'll hike it home eventually."
B) When I said no the first time, he was savvy/annoying enough to explain to me that I could use my credit card, like it's not real money or something. If someone asked you for money and you say no and they say "what about your card", do they really expect you to say, "oh, you're right, I forgot about that. Sure!"
C) He got in his car and drove away with 2 other dudes....I'm no math major but I'm guessing it's like ...400 miles to Kentucky from Greensboro, NC. Which is just a little over a tank of guess, so maybe it would cost like $65 total to get there. So this guys is telling me that he and 2 other guys can't scrounge up $22 each to get to Kentucky. On second thought, maybe he was referring to Kentucky, Russia (which would be totally different and would cost at least $1,000).
D) He immediately drove away, meaning he already had gas. Unless he was gonna steal my card when I took it out, I would have been of little help to him.

All in all, just a poor begging performance (but maybe I can chalk that up to the epilepsy). Short Story, Tragic Ending.