Page 103 of Off the Pitch

I was alone again.

Chapter Seven

KitDo you have a favourite food?

HugoCheese—but only good cheese

KitWhat constitutes “good” cheese? Is there some sort of definitive cheese ranking?

HugoI’m going to call you and we’re going to have this discussion right now

KitWait is there really? Have you got some sort of PowerPoint presentation?

HugoDon’t tempt me

Kit

Something was not quite right.

My body dragged me awake, and I fought the pull of sleep. Deep in my bones there was a great feeling of unease, as if my subconscious was telling me that something wasn’t right with the world.

Rubbing my eyes, I untangled myself from the duvet, sat up in bed, and listened to the sounds of the house, trying to figure out what had a sense of foreboding crawling across my skin.

Somewhere I could hear running water. And it didn’t sound like rain.

That was not good.

Throwing the covers back, I pulled on a hoody and slid my feet into the old slippers tucked down beside my bed before grabbing my phone and padding over to the attic door. The sound was louder as soon as the door creaked open, a rushing sound that filled my ears and heart with despair. That wasdefinitelynot a good sound.

I hadn’t had a shower before I’d crawled into bed. I’d been too tired to contemplate the idea of forcing my ancient shower to function and decide whether to boil or freeze me, so I definitely hadn’t left water running.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I hurried down the stairs and onto the middle landing. The sound was louder here and in the dark, it filled my senses, coming at me from all sides. I tried one of the lights, but nothing was working. The water must have damaged something.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, turning the torch on and holding it out in front of me as I descended down the second flight of stairs to the ground floor.

“Bollocks,” I groaned as the torchlight glinted off the water currently flooding the entirety of my downstairs. “How the hell did this happen?”

The water was freezing as I stepped into it. It was already coming up over my ankles, and I left my slippers on, in case there was anything sharp underfoot I couldn’t see. The last thing I wanted was to end up in A&E with something embedded in my foot.

I shone the torch around me, trying to see what had caused the flooding. It wasn’t hard to miss. In the living room, there was a large hole in the ceiling, about where the bathroom and the water tank were on the floor above it.

Well, that solved that problem.

I assumed one of the pipes had burst, causing my very ownTitanicsituation, although why I hadn’t heard it was beyond me. It must have been going for some time to create this much mess, but apparently, I was a deeper sleeper than I’d realised. And now my house was full of a foot of freezing cold water.

Joy.

I sighed, quickly opening the internet on my phone to Google ‘what to do if a pipe bursts’ and read the instructions. Luckily, I knew where the stopcock to turn the water supply off was because we’d had to turn it off last year when a plumber had come to fix the boiler.

Picking my way through the water to the kitchen, I bent down to fumble in the cupboard under the sink, accidentally shining the torch in my eye as I tried to find the little lever. It was slightly rusted, and it took a great deal of force and swearing to convince it to move, but eventually it did—grinding and squealing into the off position. I stood up, and leant over the sink to run the tap, forcing the last bits of water from the system.

The next steps on the list said to call an emergency plumber and my home insurance provider, and then to get rid of the water, although it didn’t give any suggestions on how that last step might be achieved.

Knowing how long it could take to get someone to come and help, I decided it would be best to ring the insurance first. Somehow, I didn’t think a plumber would quite help in this situation since they couldn’t get to the source of the problem. I hoped the insurance would be available twenty-four hours a day, given that it was ten to four in the morning. I just had to see if I could find a number for them.

Opening the ridiculous database of information David had left me, I quickly scanned it, hoping he might have left me something useful. And right there in the middle was the emergency number for the house insurance people and a little note saying‘Call if you have any problems. Will send emergency tradespeople if ness’.

---