Something for the Weekend (No.1)

As I said before I really miss my wee creative writing class so I was delighted that some of the folks that stop by my blog were up for a bit of a bit of a creative writing challenge.  The task is to write and post something you’ve written on Saturdays (for the next 4 weeks) and to be brave and post it.

You can write whatever you like and if you leave a comment on my post and insert your link to your “Something for the Weekend” post then others can click on it and read it too.

OK here we go.  This is mine.  It’s title is “Plumbing for Dummies”.  The only piece of information I think should be included is to say that to our American friends remember that you use the word faucet, where we use the word tap.  OK let’s go….

Plumbing for Dummies

Despite the fact that she had Classic FM blaring in the kitchen Mary could still hear the drip, dripping of the tap. She shook her head and filled the kettle.  Wrapping her dressing gown tight around her she wondered why angel Cottage felt so cold this morning. A pot of tea for two, toast and marmalade. “That’s the way to start the day” she muttered as she stroked the cat lying as close to the Raeburn as he could manage.

Geoff always stayed in bed longer than her so she’d got into the habit of having breakfast on her own. Making herself comfortable she spread her marmalade and slurped her tea. She twiddled her wedding ring as she pondered ‘Plumbing for Dummies’. How hard could it be to fix a dripping tap anyway?

The young man at the bookshop had eyed her only fleetingly as she paid for the book. ‘What would a 70-year-old woman want with a book about plumbing?’ she could see him thinking. He smiled and asked her if she wanted a bag.

She hadn’t looked at the book until now. Buying it was a bit of a brave step – it meant that she had decided to do something about the bloody tap that was driving her mad. This independent streak often won the day over the painfully pathetic and incompetent, “I’m an old lady I need someone to help me’ mode she could also find herself in. “No” she thought, “if you want something done, do it yourself”. She couldn’t afford a plumber anyway and it wasn’t in her to bother her son. He was so far away anyway. How ridiculous would it be to call him and ask him to fix her tap.

She took another bite of her toast, poured some more tea and rummaged in her dressing gown for her reading glasses. “Right – list of tools you will require”. “Tools?”. “Maybe this isn’t going to be straightforward after all”. She flipped the page over to see if there were any pictures. Nothing. Maybe this book was for a higher class of dummy she thought.  With her glasses balanced on the end of her nose she read out loud as she ran her fingers down the list.

A pair of pliers
Wrench
Screwdriver

She read it again before heading off to find Geoff’s toolbox in the hall cupboard. Surely whatever she needed would be in there.

She opened the box. “Come on girl, you can do this”, she said out loud. “Right, screwdriver, pliers”, she eyed each of the tools, placing them carefully next to the book. “Wrench?” She wasn’t really sure what that was. Maybe she could figure it out as she went along.

She cleared away her cup and plate and moved the teapot to the side. She spread out the tools and looked again at the instructions. “Maybe I should get dressed” she thought. “What if I do something wrong and end up with water everywhere”. At least if all this ends in disaster they will find me with clothes on instead of an old wifie in her dressing gown and slippers soaked to the skin.

“Oh what did it matter, whose going to come anyway” she thought as she returned to the book. “Right, turn the packing nut clockwise to tighten it a little at a time”, she said slowly to herself. ”Turn it with what?” She rummaged again in the toolbox selecting something that she hoped was a wrench. She fixed it to the tap and then pursing her lips she turned the nut clockwise. Very slowly the dripping stopped.

She stood there watching the tap just to make sure. “So what was the bloody screwdriver and pliers for?”

She felt a pang of loneliness. She wanted to shout out to Geoff to tell him that she’d done it, she’d used his tools and she had fixed the tap.

She sat down at the table and poured another cup of tea. She didn’t really want another cup of tea. Making tea in the morning was the one thing that she had never quite got used to. It didn’t feel right to use the little tea-pot for one that her sister had bought her. She had been making tea for two most of her life. It was hard now to throw half a pot away every morning. Despite everything it was the one thing that made her feel that flood of emotion, a reminder of being on her own. Every morning for a year now she had poured half of the pot away. Geoff’s half.

She gathered up his tools and put them back in the box. Lifting it onto the table she proclaimed, ‘well Geoff, I did it’. She like to believe he could hear her, that he was giving her that cheeky wink of his. The one he always gave her when he was proud of her.

She emptied the teapot into the sink and made a mental note to find that teapot for one. Maybe it was about time she gave it a go. At least, she thought, that’s what “Grief for Dummies” would tell her to do. She turned the tap on and off and smiled. “Not bad Mary, not bad at all”.