Money Changes Everything

I wish I were making this up...

I went to my neighborhood gas station to fill up my car. Standing at the pump, I noticed a cheery glow, flickering from the space in between the pumps. Flickering? Oh, that's not good. The sparks that started to shoot out confirmed it.

I immediately stopped filling, cradled the pump, and drove off without the receipt. Parked the car, went straight into the store, and found two employees. "Excuse me, you have a major problem right now--there's an electrical fire starting between the gas pumps."

That got their attention--"What?" "Where?" "Oh my god, shut 'em off!"

Oh, if only. But it didn't go that way. The Manager Was In Control. He said, "I don't see anything." I said, "Ill show you" and walked out there. The employee followed me, but the manager didn't. He stood inside the store and watched me. Coward. Thankfully, it had slowed down for some reason, and gone back to a flickering glow: the electrical box for the overhead lights was clearly badly grounded, overheating, and conducting electricity across the gap.

A woman had pulled up in an SUV. "You really don't want to gas up right now," I told her. "This electrical box is shooting sparks." She stared at me like I was the stupidest person in the world, didn't bother to look, and went right back to gassing up.

I went back inside with the employee, who was hurrying, "I'd better shut the pumps off," she said.

Back inside, the manager SPRANG INTO ACTION.

No, wait--he didn't. He said, "Hold on--I want to go see this." This time, I thought, "I am getting the hell out of here. I do not want to watch someone burn to death because this idiot thinks electrical fires are No Big Deal. He walked back, said, "I don't see anything. We'll just wait and see." I told him, "If you'd at least turn off your overhead lights, the fire would probably stop. Then you can get an electrician in here in the morning, and in 5 minutes he'll probably have it fixed for you."

"No, that wouldn't work--people might think we're closed."

Well, there it is: what was I thinking? We can't have people stop coming in! Safety is bad for business!

"Well, good luck to you then. You'll need it." And I left.

That was two days ago. Nobody's burned yet...but nobody's fixed it either. I imagine the cheery campfire glow is just the thing to huddle over, on these cold, cold nights. After all, what are the odds that someone will park their SUV just a little further back than normal? And the wind will waft towards the fire? And enough fumes will be trickling out of the pipe to catch? Probably no more than the danger from smoking at the pumps, which people do all the time.