April Showers

'Jett skis!'

I wasn't surprised to wake up to a shower this morning. The trouble is, it was through my dining room ceiling!
The good news is that it happened moments before the pool boys were due to arrive. The bad news is they were there to fix the pool table, not anything to do with water.
"Hallo, we understand you have a wobbly table," said the young man at the door. "Hey, it's ok, we'll be able to fix it. Please don't worry." He looked a little startled at my shocked appearance.
"No, it's not that," I assured him. "It's my ceiling. It's leaking water and I don't know what to do."
"Don't worry," he said. "Let me have a look."
So while his colleague was down in the basement I took him up to the bathroom.
Within minutes he was lying on the floor with his head under the toilet.
“Could just be a leaky valve,” he said. “If we make sure the water’s off, it should stop it leaking for now at least.”
By the time we got downstairs, the pool table was fixed. There was nasty brown patch on the ceiling, but at least the water had stopped dripping.
As soon as they had left, I rang Jett. The one good thing about a disaster on the home front is that it gives me an excuse to talk to my favourite contractor.
It went straight to voicemail. Unusual. Still, I left a message and waited for him to ring back, which he did, an hour or so later.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m ringing from Colorado.”
“Oh my God, I forgot,” I exclaimed. “You’re on vacation and there I am ringing you to moan about my leaky ceiling. I’m really sorry.” (And, more to the point, he was actually phoning me back).
“No problem,” he replied. “I can get someone there to sort it out for you.”
And in case I should think he was lying, a moment later Serendipity send a photo of Jett on his skis (Jett skis, gettit?) to my phone.
Thinking I had solved the problem, I took the girls out shopping again. When we returned some hours later, that part of the ceiling was still dry, but a new bubble of water had developed over the other end of the room…