The crew were scheduled to arrive on the following Monday. Roger had called on Friday to have his bathroom overhauled, and by all accounts, it was a quick turnover between the call and the booking. That’s why he knew the next thing his brother, Jerry, told him was perfectly reasonable.
“I don’t understand why you’re worried,” he said. In the background of the phone call, Roger could hear Jerry’s two grandkids playing. It was a familiar sound that temporarily grounded Roger’s racing heart.
“The thing is…” Roger paused. How could he explain this to his brother? Or even to himself? It wasn’t the fact that the plumber would need to come in on a weekday or that the prices weren’t affordable. The problem was that a big, cartoon-esque eyeball attached to a goopy mess had started to crawl out of the tap and make a comfy home in his white (now stained green) basin.
“The thing is, I’m not sure about the process of finding a builder for bathroom renovations. Beaumaris is full of companies, how do I know that I picked one that can deal with,” Roger tried to find the sensitive wording he was looking for, “this type of… situation.”
“Situation?” Roger could imagine that Jerry was scrunching his face tight. “It’s a bathroom, Rog. That’s the entire situation!”
He could understand his brother’s frustration; Roger’s building anxiety meant that he had called him at least twice this morning with a very similar conversation. Each time he had considered telling him the truth: that he was worried about the creature in his drains, not second-guessing the bathroom renovations with a local plumber. “Sandringham also has a few listed in the phone book. Maybe I need to have another look,” he said, although he wanted to blurt out the whole truth.
His brother didn’t push, but an exasperated sigh came through the phone loud and clear. That was his cue to end the conversation before he had worn out Jerry’s energy as well as his own. He said goodbye and hung up the phone only to hear that familiar groaning noise. His brother was right, in his own way.
Roger did know the entire situation. He knew that he was scared and about to give up his dream house because of something unknown and strange. His dream home. No, he thought, feeling his racing heart finally slow down. He wasn’t going to give that up.
He needed to face this situation head on, alone, before the crew came in on Monday. That creature would need to find its own house to live in.