Page 58 of Homewrecker

Twelve

"Dad?"I croak. After clearing my throat, I try again. "Dad!"

Unless I dreamed it, a metallic banging noise woke me from my nap. I wait for a response from my father or for the sound to occur again, but there's silence now. The clock says it's seven at night, which means I've been asleep for several hours. My head feels much better, but I've got cottonmouth again, and I'm hungry, which is a good sign. All I've eaten today is some toast around three o'clock, during my first foray into the world.

I'm headed for the shower when the clanging noise reoccurs. Suddenly, my headache is back. Someone knows about my hangover and wants to kill me, obviously.

"What the hell," I mutter, opening my bedroom door to find the source of this evil.

I peek into the bedroom attached to mine, but it's empty. Dad and Renata's room is down the hall, and when I get to their door, I hear a stream of swear words that would make Amy Shumer blush.

"Dad?" I say, as I enter their room. "Where are you?"

There's a grunt and more swear words, followed by, "I'm in the bathroom."

I peek my head in the door and see Dad crouching next to the toilet. Water is slowly but steadily streaming out of the valve near the floor, flooding the bathroom. There's a wrench in Dad's hand and a panicked expression on his face.

"This toilet has been leaking a little, and I tried to fix it, but I think I broke the valve and now..." He gestures to the leak and the floor, which is the only explanation necessary. "I wanted to do this while Renata was out and surprise her, but I'm such a screw-up. I called Seth for help, but he didn't answer. I'm not sure what to do."

"There has to be a place to shut off the water for the house," I say. "Right?"

"Shit. That's a good idea. I feel like such an idiot. I don't want her to come home and find this."

"I'll Google it," I say. "Maybe we can find out where it would be."

"There's no time," he says. "We need to call a plumber. Can you look one up? I'll get towels for the floor."

Dad heads to the linen closet while I research plumbers on my phone. Perfect Pipes LLC answers on the first ring, but the receptionist tells me they can't send anyone for at least an hour. I ask her if there's another plumber in the area who might get here faster, and she explains that most companies won't send anyone out after five o'clock. Fortunately, Perfect Pipes offers an emergency after-hours service, which I'm sure will cost us a fortune.

She asks whether we have well water or city water, and I call out the question to Dad. When I tell her he thinks it's well water, she explains how to find the main shut-off valve. Dad is in full-on crisis mode now. He's on his hands and knees mopping up water, and his pants are getting soaked. I tell him to try calling Seth again, but he shakes his head.

"I left a message," he says, rising to stand. "He'll come over when he gets it."

We stand at the bathroom door watching the water slowly soak into the blue towels. I don't want Seth to come and find this mess. He already thinks Dad is useless.

"Of course, we'll be submerged by then," he says.

"Don't give up. Let's see if we can find the shut-off valve."

He blinks rapidly, like I've woken him from a nightmare.

"Okay, let's do it. Where did she say to look?"

We locate what looks like a hot water heater and another tank that could be the pressure pump in a closet next to the laundry room, but there are several valves and nothing is labeled.

"Should we just try turning them all off?" he asks.

"She said to locate the pipes coming into the house and follow the one that leads to the water pressure pump."

I get down on my knees and inspect the area.

"This looks like a hot water heater," he says, pointing to the white tank. "So maybe the blue one is the pump for the well?"

Sure enough, there are four pipes running along the base of the wall, and I follow the two that lead to the blue tank.

"Let's try this green one." I tighten it all the way to the right, and Dad runs back upstairs to see if it worked.

About ten seconds later, I hear him scream, "Yes, yes, yeeeees!"

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