Page 14 of Room 1003

8

Ben

Iwasinwayover my head. I lied. I didn’t know a thing about plumbing. I couldn’t explain what had come over me in that moment except that I had Shane there in front of me, wearing only a towel, banged up and bleeding, and I wanted to make everything better. And once I’d said it, I couldn’t seem to take it back. Plumbing… Sure, it was kinda like electricity, right? How hard could it be?

I had been staring at these pipes for about ten minutes without a clue what I was looking for. The water wasn’t running in the bathroom, but it also wasn’t working anywhere else in the house either. There were no puddles of water or drips anywhere on the basement floor. I really hoped that didn’t mean it was pooling somewhere I couldn’t see.

“What are you doing?” a little voice asked. I glanced back at the curly-haired boy who’d snuck down the basement stairs to watch me work. His honey-colored eyes were wide and curious, and I could tell nothing got past him. Shane had his work cut out with this one, I could tell.

“Well,” I said, debating what kind of answer to give him. I had a suspicion he wouldn’t be content with a simple explanation. “Did you dad tell you the water isn’t working?” He nodded. “So, clean water travels all over the city through these massive pipes under the ground, called water mains. From there, it comes into your house, then there’s a whole maze of more pipes hidden inside the walls of the house, bringing the water everywhere you need it, like the kitchen sink or your washing machine.”

“But there isn’t any water in the house,” he said, simplifying our current problem perfectly.

I looked around the basement. “No, you are exactly right,” I said. “There is definitely a leak somewhere. But if the water isn’t here, then where is it?”

His little face scrunched up as he tried to figure it out. Then his eyes lit up and he gasped. “Maybe it’s on the moon,” he said with complete seriousness.

It was nearly impossible not to laugh. “Well, unless I go up there and check, I can’t say for sure that it’s not.” He grinned at me, and I saw so much of his father in him in that moment. “Come on, let’s go see if we can track down that leak. Think you can carry the flashlight for me?”

“Yes!” He snatched it from me, brandishing it like a light saber, complete with sound effects, the beam arcing back and forth through the gloom.

When we got back upstairs, Shane was just coming into the kitchen. “There you are. I was looking everywhere for you,” he scolded lightly. “You shouldn’t bother Ben when he’s working.”

“I wasn’t bothering him,” he piped up. “Look! I’m helping him carry his flashlight!”

“It’s no problem,” I confirmed. “He’s gonna help me figure out where the water went. Aren’t you, bud?”

Kit swung his arms up over his head in a victory pose, nearly launching the flashlight straight into his dad’s face. “Don’t worry, I got this.” Then he went running around the house, peeking under the table and behind the couch, saying, “Water? Are you here? Nope, guess not. How about here? Hello, water, where are you?”

“Thanks for including him,” Shane said, a soft wistful smile on his lips. “I feel like I’m always too busy to play with him the way he needs.”

“No problem. Besides, he might do a better job than I am. I hate to admit it, but we might need to call in a plumber.”

He sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

At the back of the kitchen was a door leading out to the back yard, and it opened with an angry creak, and Zack came in with a grim expression. “Well, I talked to the neighbors, and their water is working fine, but the pressure is low.”

“Huh,” I grunted, frowning, trying to connect the dots. No water in the house, low pressure to the neighbors… A sinking feeling unfurled inside me as I turned and headed for the front door.

“Where are you going?” Shane called after me.

I turned to look back at him over my shoulder. “I just want to check a theory I have.”

As I made my way out the door, I found I had a bit of a parade behind me; first Shane, then Zack, and in the rear was Kit, asking his grandpa a whole string of questions, all beginning with “Why—?”

At first glance, everything was fine, but when I strained my ears, I thought I heard a strange shushing sound, suspiciously like leaking water. And sure enough, when I took one step out onto the lawn, it made a very muckysquish. “Oh, shi—” I cut my curse off just in time, feeling Kit’s eyes on me. “I mean, sugar.” I took a few more steps, each one progressively soggy. The lawn was entirely saturated.

I found the culprit halfway across the lawn. There was water literally bubbling up out of the ground. “Ah-ha!” I yelled, pointing at it as evidence, but it seemed nobody had been keen on following me this far. They were all huddled back on the front steps. “There’s a burst pipe under your lawn. We need to call the city, and they’ll send someone to shut off the water. Then they’ll have to dig up your yard to fix it.”

Both Shane and Zack seemed to cave in at the news. Only Kit seemed excited by the prospect, but I suspected his priorities were a little more skewed toward large equipment and lots of noise and activity; he didn’t care so much about the money part of the equation. “Neat!” With that, he leaped off the bottom step onto the lawn, his socked feet sinking into the wet grass.

“Kit, you’ll get wet,” Shane said, trying to stop him, but it was too late.

“So?” Kit said, stomping around in a circle and sending up little splashes.

Shane couldn’t seem to come up with a good argument, since he had bigger worries right now. “All right, play in the water, but I’m making you strip down to your skivvies before coming back in the house.”

I wondered if he would make me do the same…

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