The plane had landed earlier than scheduled and my guest was ready to be picked up. I hastily made my way to the electric car, gathered its charger left lying on the ground, unplugged the other end from the car, shoved it in the boot and drove to the airport.
It was dark when we returned and I noticed a black object about 20 cm, long bulbous at both ends and thin in the middle, on the driveway’s black cement.
‘I wonder what that is,’ I remarked, ‘screwed-up paper?’
‘Maybe,’ replied my guest.
If I had been by myself, I would have got out to investigate, but being with a guest, I decided not to fuss over something most likely insignificant and drove over it. The crunch was more than paper.
‘Oops,’ I uttered.
I parked the car and went back to investigate. To my horror, it was the plug part of my car charger, its prongs totally twisted and flattened out. I had no idea that it could come apart. Devastated, I excused myself to my guest and rang Tesla.
‘Straighten out the prongs and try it out to see if it still works,’ the agent casually instructed.
‘They are totally flattened and the cables inside may be damaged. I don’t want to blow up the car .’
‘You won’t. It has safety mechanisms.’
‘Will it blow out the socket?’
‘Not likely. It would trip the circuit breaker.’
Not convinced I enquired how much was a new charger.
‘$500’ he replied.
‘What! it’s only the plug, not the whole charger?’
‘For your model, it’s not sold separately so you have to buy the whole charger.’
My poor guest, feeling very guilty, pulled out $500 and said, ‘Here, get a new one. This happened because you came to pick me up at the airport.’
‘It’s not your fault. I drove over it.’
‘No, no, you take the money.’
‘No. This is what we do. I will call my cousin to see if he can fix the plug. If not, then we’ll discuss purchasing a new one.’
My godsend, fix-anything cousin took no time to straighten out the prongs and instructed me to plug it in for half an hour and if it got hot then, of course, throw it out and buy a new charger. If it didn’t get hot, then it may be okay.
‘Mind you,’ he advised, ‘I recommend that you replace the plug or buy a new charger.’
Next day I did as instructed. 30 minutes, an hour and two hours later, the plug was still cool and the car was charging.
So far, so good. The car is charging, the charger is not getting hot, my guest and I are happy.
The moral of the story: I need better glasses.
Burnside Writers Group 