It is a February morning after a week of sharp frosts. Lukey the young plumber’s apprentice, a little hung-over after last night’s darts match, is not looking forward to fixing burst pipes in the freezing cold. His boss usually comes with him but, inundated with calls at this time of year, Don asks him to call on a regular customer as his first job of the day.
Dorothy Mason is, as Lukey reminds himself, ‘as old as Noah’s mother’, but her little bungalow will probably be the warmest place he’ll be all day and she’s always good for a cuppa and a piece of cake.
“I m so pleased to see you this early, son. The water’s running down my kitchen cupboard!” she tells him. “I daren’t even fill the kettle. Do you think I’ve got a burst pipe?”
Mrs Mason points out the drips coming down the cupboard door and Lukey tells her, over the whistling of her hearing aid, that he’ll look in the loft above the kitchen. He takes her steps and crawls through the tiny opening into the roof space. He insinuates his tall. But fortunately skinny, frame into the limited gap between ceiling and roof beams, cursing the cheap 1940’s construction. He shines his torch and feels around.
Twenty minutes of painful gymnastics later he comes down again to tell the old lady the good news that the pipes are sound and the ceiling dry.
Lukey drinks a cup of tea, after convincing Mrs Mason that it’s safe to fill the kettle. He eats a bit of fruit cake while scratching his head (not literally as he doesn’t want crumbs in his hair!). He gets up and checks the ceiling above the cupboard. Dry!
As he opens the cupboard and checks the top shelf his eyes light on a waxed box with a plastic tap. He dips his finger into the liquid on the shelf and the pieces click into place.
Dorothy Mason likes a drop of wine with her supper (well at her age why not?) and a visiting niece, knowing she has trouble with bottle caps, has brought her a wine box but her arthritic fingers haven’t quite managed to turn off the tap!
In spite of having to pay the firm’s standard call-out charge she’s so grateful that she puts another lump of cake in his lunch box.
A good start to the day!