An Altruism

Edwin Avery eased into a parking space he had used for over twenty years. One piston inside the engine of his fifteen-year-old Hyundai puttered oddly as he twisted the key to silence it. Stepping onto the gritty parking lot on a warm spring day in mid-March, Mr. Avery cracked his windows before locking the doors, a routine he had observed since the air conditioning died.