You didn't see it, but right when he drove out of site at the next light, the car un-materialized and that angel finally got his wings! lmao
Honestly your story reminded me of a group I worked for and with (in construction, but I didn't know prior to moving 12+ hours away--- that they were all crackheads and alcoholics that partied like rockstars doing insurance fraud to make ridiculous profit on/with shitty apartment complexes in South Florida after hurricanes). I got caught up a little with the taboo and fun of it for a few months as around a 21 year old, but it was heartbreaking to see these guys 20-40 years my senior just absolutely addicted to so many drugs at once and the emptiness in their lives, the lack of life. Old fucker was probably late 50's early 60's... no idea, he was 'only' addicted to crack and would disappear after taking a lump of the nightly plate being passed around with an O + of coke... to go freebase it. Fucking seeing him dig through the carpet for hours and paranoid and delusional and shit.. I hated that shit, I grew to care on some level for most of the houseful of guys (and the ex prostitute living in the master bedroom with 'the boss').
Ironically my fucking dad sent me there as he thought I was a fuckup and (I was sober prior, but) he wanted to get me away so he talked to the guy that became my boss and got me a job HAHAHA).
Shit just got.... so fucking, well the only kind of so fucked up and insane and irrational and toxic on a trip that stretched indefinitely in Miami with us all in hotel rooms (sourcing drugs down there... they used like rockstars). Some big dramas in-group and no one doing any damn work... Money was getting low-- which honestly meant they'd spent more than a million bucks in the prior year (mostly on drugs, house and assets were paid off during previous windfalls).
Somehow I rambled that out, I guess because I'd not thought of it since, but I got trapped there basically, I wasn't getting paid for the last few weeks or months and they were all losing their shit like a damn Hunter S. Thompson escapade. I'd gotten clipped for a dui (when I coulda got more, luckily blew below 0.08... and didn't get caught with anything on me... But I was stuck in Miami while needing to do checkin's for Brevard County (Orlando) after getting out on my own recognizance.
Which brings me to.... I forget the specifics but I ended up stuck there without money and was one time I was grateful for the help of strangers and family for just saving me. The hotel manager let me stay a night for free- freaking awesome of him, because I was emotionally distraught and I can't remember anyone ever really helping or caring about that before. My family was willing to wire me enough for gas home and I talked to my probation officer nearer Daytona / Orlando to let me transition away from that crazy house (I'd failed a couple drug tests already since starting-- but we hadn't yet had enough for the weed to get out of my system and that was my vice and drug of choice... I wouldn't have been able to be sober there though and it wasn't an option to live there anymore anyway). So I got my probation transferred, a family that wanted me gone lent me enough for gas to get 'home' and let me stay at my folks place a bit to work, get stuff straightened out again and save up money later to get my own place. They actually always have been supportive when I really need it in that way. I appreciate them and for damn sure that stanger / manager of the hotel (had to wait for the money order to come in the next morning), and that PO officer for seeing and letting me get out of there.
Damn I rambled on.. I'm procrastinating..