Sand in the tank

I spent a lot of time amusing myself in the yard. Must have been between 3 and 5 years old. 

Often I would go to my dad's garage and play with the hammers and nuts and bolts. 

It was great fun. 

And I really loved the workers and they always had time for me.
One day I was playing in the sand and I looked up and saw the petrol cap of a lovely shiny car. 

I wondered what would happen if I unscrewed the cap and put sand into the opening. 

Then after I had, I moved on and never gave it another thought. 

Like it never happened. 

Years later I heard my dad tell somebody that you never know what your future holds.
He said that in his farm garage where his day was filled with junks that he would attempt to make Road worthy, occasionally somebody would drive in to the yard with a fancy city car.
The workers would all marvel and peek under the hood and crawl underneath, just to see what made it tick.
This one time the owner has a bad scratch on the side and wanted my dad to sort it out quick so his wife would not know that he scratched the new Mercedes.

Dad assured him that his car was in good hands and that he would get it back real soon. 

When the owner came to collect the car that was in pristine condition, it just wouldn't start. They assumed that the tank was empty and topped up a bit of fuel and did all of the things that they usually do to get cars started, but this time nothing worked. 

They apologised to the owner and asked him to come back in the morning. He was not happy but seeing the tense atmosphere at the garage, he left without another word. 

They worked all night. Stripped the car, and all the electrical systems and just as the sun came up somebody decided to check for contamination in the petrol and they quickly flushed the system and all was good. And just in time as the owner was there first thing and he was really pissed. 

Later on that day the workers were grilled to find out how such a thing could have happened and they all apologised saying that they must have used dirty petrol in the tank after draining it earlier. I don't know what he did to them but I am sure it was not pretty. 

Looking back now I realise that the staff knew exactly what had happened. 

They saw me playing all morning in the sand with my spade and cup and they had to have known what happened. 

And they covered for me and made sure that I would not be punished. 

His name was Ephrem, my dad called him April and he was the one who took a bullet for me.