The Tyre That Wanted a Wheel

On Saturdays, Jamal worked at the city courier hub. He worked in the sorting room. He was sixteen. He scanned parcels and put them on the right belt. It was a simple job, and a little boring.

That morning, a strange parcel came down the belt. It was a whole wheel, black and heavy. It had no box and no tape. It was just a tyre.

A paper tag hung from the rubber. Jamal read it twice. FOR THE ONE WHO NEEDS ME, it said. There was no name and no address.

"Which belt does this go on?" he asked the room.

Nobody answered. His scanner beeped and showed a cross. It did not know the tyre.

Jamal put it on the floor. The tyre made a soft sound. It sounded like a happy cat. Then it began to roll.

It rolled past the shelves and across the yellow lines. Jamal ran after it. It stopped at the forklift, where a driver loaded boxes.

"Is that yours?" Jamal called.

The driver looked down. The tyre hummed at his boots. "Maybe," he said. "My forklift has a bad wheel."

He lifted the tyre with both arms. He tried it on the forklift. It did not fit. It was much too small for the big forklift wheel. The tyre gave a sad squeak. It rolled out of his hands.

"Sorry," said the driver. "I am not the one."

The tyre rolled on. It passed the scanners and the dusty windows. It stopped at the bike corner. A woman fixed a chain there.

"A tyre!" she said. "How lovely. Do you have a bike to go with it?"

"Just the tyre," said Jamal.

She tried it on a small bike. The wheel looked silly. The bike leaned to one side like a sleepy horse. The tyre made a noise like a long sigh.

"It is too big for this bike," the woman said. "I am sorry. I cannot help."

"It is very fussy," said Jamal.

"It is a tyre," she said. "But yes."

The tyre rolled away again. Now it moved faster. It went out of the sorting room and into the loading yard. Jamal followed it into the bright sun. Vans stood in a long line by the fence.

At the end of the line, one white van sat low. Its back wheel was flat. A courier knelt beside it. She said a sad word in a quiet voice. Her name tag said NADIRA.

The tyre stopped at her shoes. It hummed. Then it hummed louder.

Nadira looked at it. She looked at Jamal. "Is this a joke?" she asked.

"I do not think so," said Jamal. "It came down the belt. It tried two other people."

"And they said no?"

"They said they were not the one."

Nadira put her hand on the rubber. It was warm, like a coat in the sun.

"I have a problem," she said. "My spare tyre is gone. I lent it to a friend last month. He never gave it back."

"That is bad," said Jamal.

"It is very bad. I must take forty costumes to the school theatre. The play starts at noon. The children cannot go on stage in their school clothes."

Jamal looked at his watch. It was ten past ten. The theatre was across the city.

"Then let us try," he said.

Together, they lifted the tyre. It was heavy, and the wind blew dust in their eyes. Nadira took off the flat wheel. She held the new tyre against the van.

It did not need a tool. It jumped onto the metal with a loud, happy click. The wheel was round and black and perfect. The whole van seemed to stand up straighter.

"It fits," said Nadira. She sounded amazed. "It fits like it was made for this van."

"Maybe it was," said Jamal.

The paper tag was still on the rubber. He lifted it. The old words were gone. A new line stood in their place, in blue ink. It said: THANK YOU FOR FINDING ME.

Nadira read it and smiled. She loaded the costumes in ten minutes. Jamal helped her with every box. Then she climbed into the front seat and started the engine. It started on the first try.

"I will tell the children a tyre saved the play," she said.

"They will not believe you."

"They will believe the van." Nadira tapped the wheel. "Look at that. It is not flat anymore."

She started to drive away. Then she stopped and opened her window.

"Jamal," she called. "Thank you. Now I can go."

"Good luck," said Jamal. "Say hello to the children."

The van rolled out of the yard on four good wheels. Back in the sorting room, his scanner beeped once. It showed a green tick.