by Martin Brice

Created on: September 11, 2009

I stood guard in the dining room as my new habitat began to collect unfamiliar faces for the start of the party. It's late afternoon and the door swung open to a friendly face, only this one was followed by someone new. She didn't fit in to our usual group, with black, baggy clothes from head to toe, several piercings in her ears and face. And I definitely can't fail to mention that bright red hair. I said my greeting as they walked passed tying to be a friendly host. Uninterested, she told me her name was Renee and in she walked.

The sun wasn't that close to setting foot on the horizon, but that was the way we always started, early. Some started much earlier than others, which came to my attention when a panicked friend came running in the back door. In the middle of my backyard there was a rather tall spout of water steadily streaming into the air. Quickly, I ran out to the water meter, shut it off, and started sending people out to shut down the days festivities. We grabbed a few shovels and began to dig up the situation. Sweating and digging in the mud was not my idea of a party, but we finally uncovered the problem at hand. Then out of nowhere a voice of hope came. She must have been standing there for a while when she said " My dad used to be a plumber and it's pretty easy actually.". She then walked us through the steps and when it came to putting on the finishing touches, she said to pour the cleaner over the whole thing to secure a good seal. Like trained animals we nodded our heads in conformation of the order and began to pour. The cleaner for pvc pipe is a extremely thin, super aromatic, purple liquid that is also highly flammable. Once the bottle was empty and the hole filled with a purple hue we were going to wrap it up. Once more she chimed in with one last helpful hint. She said "You know if you just light that on fire it will melt just a little and then you will be sure that it won't leak.". Well there was no objection to that, I mean, we get to secure the hole and make fire all at once! I slowly bent down with lit lighter in hand as to finish this job and hopefully salvage a party night after all. I was no closer than two feet from the hole and WHOOSH!, fire flashed through the air and down to the puddle of the highly flammable liquid. Needless to say, we panicked and tried to stomp it out, thus kicking the liquid all over ourselves and the ground around us. It became apparent that this was spreading pretty fast, but burning off rather quickly as well. We all looked at her with a great degree of anger, then she turn around slowly, laughing all the way back to the house. We asked him to never bring her back again, and hoped that we'd never have to see her again.

As a matter of fact, I didn't see her again, until we met in Oklahoma City four years later. This time it was a little different, new friends, new looks, and a new look at each other. She is now my wife of a wonderful ten years, and we still laugh about that day. And on somedays, I think of how I need to return the favor for all the help she gave us.

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