Waving frantically at the street car, Jesse got the conductor’s attention to stop.
  
“Morning, Sir,” said Charlie as Jesse got on.

Charlie’s work as a streetcar conductor went back many years. Today he had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his belly. He called it “intuition” and paid attention to it.

The street car moved its way up one of the steepest hills of sunny San Francisco. As the trolley neared the top an awful screeching sound come from the rear of the car. Everything fell silent. Suddenly all the chatter turned to squeals as passengers realized the street car began drifting backwards.

“We’ve lost power!” Jesse shouted from the rear.

Pandemonium broke out. People started screaming and frantic patrons jumped out of their seats trying to maneuver the isles of the fast moving car. Charlie quickly had to gain control. This had happened once before, years ago. It wasn’t the brakes at all. He quickly pulled a few wires from under the dashboard.

Just as the street car neared the bottom of the hill an old familiar sound kicked in. Squeals turned to applause as they realized the street car was running. Yes, Charlie was now a HERO!
 

© 2008 M.J. Prado. Original for CCF (Prado grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).