There was something rather cliche about what Ada was thinking, but she couldn't help but feel like it was at least somewhat true. Standing at the top of the steps, she looked down into a steam-filled muggy basement in complete awe, her head shaking back and forth involuntarily. The hissing was so loud, she couldn't even hear herself think, and in a moment that was very uncharacteristic of Ada's normal attitude, she swore.
She had been sitting upstairs, folding some clothes, when it had started. First, a metallic knock, and then nothing. It couldn't have been the door, so she passed it off as being fairly unimportant. And then there were more knocks, in quick succession, and she was starting to think that maybe there was something strange going on. But, before she could even dig herself out from beneath the unfolded clothes, the knocks stopped and there was a loud bang, followed by incessant hissing.
Of course, at the top of the stairs, she still wasn't sure what she was looking at. So, after letting out an expletive or two, she slowly started to descend the stairs, already feeling a bit like she was walking into a dense rainforest. Almost instantly, her skin felt damp, and her hair started becoming more of a puffball, instead of her usual slightly wavy styling.
What was she dealing with here? Very cautiously, she stopped about halfway down the stairs leaned against the railing to try to peer through the steam. It didn't sound very good, whatever was happening, and the steam was far too thick for her to be able to identify what was going on. So, she had to continue on. Maybe some strange creature had made their home in the basement, and now she was stumbling into some fight scene between mystical creatures. She doubted it, but at least she could still hope.
At the bottom of the stairs, she took a step down and felt her sock soak through with warm water, and without being able to hear herself, she let out a groan. From what she could tell by leaning down beneath the blanket of steam, there was at least an inch on water on the floor, and it moved like it might be more of a lake than a river -- she even though, for a moment, that the water could have it's own wave action, considering the large footprint the basement had. Without another thought to her socks, she stepped down into the water and tried to push the steam away with her hands, but it did little good. The hissing was starting to sputter here and there, and Ada wondered if that was a good sign. Considering the situation she was in, she doubted it.
The farther she got away from the stairs, the hotter it seemed to get, and by the time she had made her way around the various spots of clutter on the floor, it felt like she was in a sauna. Already, her heavy sweater was clinging to her uncomfortably, and the cuffs of her bluejeans were soaked. On the bright side, she wasn't cold anymore.
When she finally reached the far corner of the basement, it started to dawn on her what was happening, and when she made it to the interior wall, she actually set her arm against it and rested her forehead on her hand. Maybe the cliche was right and ironic: when it rains it pours.
It took Ada a moment to compose herself and start thinking of what she could do, but once she decided there was no alternative, she stepped into the boiler room and started looking for the shut-off valve. There was a lot of fumbling around in the cloud of steam, and it seemed like everywhere she put her hands to feel along the way was boiling hot. It wasn't even a whole minute before she started to think about just leaving it and moving everything over to the main manor, but the thought of doing it alone and without any heat seemed to keep her pressing on.
When she finally found the shut-off valve, she was relieved to find that some very smart soul had just left the pipe wrench connected to the valve, probably in case of the exact situation she was in. She looked up and mouthed "thank you," to whoever, and then grabbed the wrench, using her weight to pull the valve closed.
The hissing started to slow, and as the wrench rounded the bottom and she had to shift her weight to push instead, she wondered if Ghent was having a good time in his world. She hoped he was somewhere with his sisters that was warm and dry. She hoped they were having a nice meal and talking about how much they missed each other, because that was what she would have liked to be doing, instead of emergency boiler repair.
She could tell that the valve was almost closed, and the tension on the wrench started at the worst possible spot. The wrench hung there, somewhere between seven and eight o'clock on the dial, and no matter what angle she stood at, Adalia just couldn't get a good grip on it -- not tall enough to reach over and pull, not strong enough to push. Finally, when it seemed like all was lost, she tucked her shoulder underneath the wrench, held on, and used her legs to turn the valve closed completely. It certainly didn't do her any favors, and when she stepped away, she placed a hand on her compressed shoulder and made a face. "Wonderful." It was all she could manage at the moment.
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Since everything had essentially been put to a halt, she had been able to wait for some of the steam to clear and assess the damage. From what she could tell, there hadn't been a problem with the internal mechanisms of the boiler, but with one of the pipes. One of the seams had corroded, and for whatever reason things happened, it had decided to give out on a day that Ada didn't really want to deal with it.
So, she needed to make a trip into the marketplace before it got too late, and too cold in the house. It couldn't wait until morning -- if it was put off too long, the plumbing would freeze, and then she would have more problems to deal with. Better to just get it done.
Without bothering to change, she grabbed her cream peacoat and a pair of slip-on shoes, and headed for the marketplace. Her pace was steady and as she passed the Inn, she couldn't help but feel a little put out by the laughter and cajoling that was going on inside. Idly, she wondered if any of the people she had seen frequenting the Inn ever had to deal with such mundane things as broken boilers and flooded basements. She had never heard anyone mention anything like it, and that just made her all the more frustrated.
Although, when she really considered the situation, she was glad that the pipe had burst while Ghent was away, because it not only gave her something to focus on, but it also happened before he and his sisters had shown up -- she doubted they would have appreciated having to deal with no heat for a while, and who knows how they would have felt if they thought that the house was falling apart. No, it was definitely better that she could fix it before they came along.
It was a quick stop in the marketplace, where she had to pick up supplies. There was the replacement pipe, wire brushes, a propane torch, the solder, and various odds and ends she was sure she could have probably lived without. In the end, it was just another time she was glad that her father had made sure they were well-off, money-wise.
The walk home was considerably less pleasant, and when she finally unlocked the front door of the house and lugged her bags inside, she could already feel the chill settling in the house. Her peacoat was set aside, along with her shoes, and when she made her way downstairs, she was finally able to look over the partially flooded basement. It could have been worse, considering, but she could already tell that when she got the chance, she was going to have to do some pretty extensive cleaning and salvaging.
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Ada was surprised how quickly and smoothly the soldering had gone. She had done some more artistic things with pipes and solder, like sculpture, but she had never had to use those skills for anything that would actually have to last. The two joints seemed fairly secure, but she was worried that she hadn't managed to get the copper pipes hot enough for the joint to hold and not crack.
Carefully, she ran her finger around the two spots that she had just finished, and decided that her work was definitely more secure than some of the older joints. When the weather finally got warm again, she would probably have to come down and replace the rest of the pipes and joints, but until then, she was fairly confident that the boiler and all of its pieces would make it another winter.
Before attempting to test her work, she looked around at the mess she had made while fixing the problem. There were soggy towels all over the place that she had used to draw the excess water out of the pipes, and all of her new tools and hardware where laid out on a small dining room table that had been lost to the ages. With all of the water in the basement now, she figured that if she left them behind, they'd be just as useless as the rest of the rusty, old tools that were stored down there. So, she gathered her things up and packed them back into the bag from the hardware store.
And, then, it was the time of truth. Ada was a little wary of some kind of complete system failure, because she imagined she wouldn't be as lucky a second time. "Listen, you... If you do something stupid and Ghent finds me down here with a pipe through my skull, you'll have some trouble on your hands." Really, it was an idle threat, and she wasn't even sure if it was true, but for some reason she felt better for saying it.
Very carefully, she started to pull at the wrench, wincing more and more as it moved. And, by the time it was perpendicular to the floor, she could hear the water circulating into the pipe. There didn't seem to be any leaks, and when the valve was fully opened, she was fairly certain that the solder would hold. She would check it later, when the water was heated enough to expand the pipes, but for the moment, she was very happy with her work. So, with her head held high, she grabbed her bag of tools and headed back upstairs.
When the water was warm again, she'd take a shower, and then she would find some time to start the cleaning process in the basement. Until then, she was happy to sit down and relax under a blanket and wait.
((This was written for play on November 24th, 2007.))