I was driving down the Santa Monica freeway yesterday, headed towards downtown, when all of a sudden I see my engine [bad word] on. Needless to say, that's not the sort of thing one likes to see. So I immediately pull over to the side of the road and park on the shoulder . I pop the hood and look to see what the problem might be. I'm no mechanic. I barely know how to change the oil and the wiper fluid‚ but perhaps something would pop out at me.

The car didn't overheat, since there was no [bad word] out of the radiator . I checked the battery cables, and the battery was definitely not dead. I didn't know quite what else to do, so I pulled out my cell phone and called AAA for a tow to the nearest repair shop. I started worrying about all the things it could be—the fuel pump, the transmission, the electrical system. Who knows? I just had new brakes put in a month ago, so I knew it couldn't be that. 

The tow [bad word] finally arrived and we went to a nearby mechanic. He checked everything, and then told me that he had found the problem: the engine light sensor was broken! I now had to take it into the dealer to get it fixed. Well, at least it didn't end up costing me an arm and a leg.