For weeks last fall my toilet was a manual affair. Requiring more interaction than desired. Cover off. Splayed on the chair next to the towel rack. Displaying the inner workings of this most necessary of household contraptions. Mineral deposits dripping like sand inside the tank. Gurgling loudly without porcelain quieting its function. Running on at times. Reminding me of its maladies.
Flushing, a wet experience. My pointer finger dipping into tank water (clean of course!). Latching onto a plastic loop. The one attached to function’s brain. Finger drawing up for a second. Releasing a “swoosh,” into the air.
Finger now dripping tank water. Searching for a towel. The ones right above the toilet. Decorative Filipino and Swedish handiwork displayed for show. Wrinkling their starched white beauty with common desperation.
My sons using this toilet. Lured by proximity to the kitchen. Screaming in disgust. Me reminding them of their own bathroom.
Toilet broke. That long piece reaching from handle to inlet valve collapsed or snapped or something. My mind sunk knee-deep in Old Testament doings. Abraham passing wife Sarah off as his sister (not once but twice!). The entire population of biblical prophets both major and minor screaming at Israel and me for that matter No time for a repair man or giving friend. Wondering aloud in the deepening night of approaching winter why dealing with toilets now my responsibility.
Waning tolerance for wet flushing. Wandering around local hardware store on another errand. Not thinking straight. Maybe looking for something else. Like deer whistles or yard waste bags or answers to grief’s deep questions. Eyes spying toilet replacement parts. Maybe it’s time, I think. A hardware man helps. Shows me different handles. “Is it hard to replace?”
“Noooooo,” he chuckles, “Just remember to twist counter-clockwise.”
Nodding. Smiling. Admitting internally my lack of counter-clockwise skills. Cognitively challenged whenever we pass food at the table, play a board game, and now apparently fix toilets. My sons, victims of my inability. Passing food to the left instead of the right when eating with and as white people.
At home, peering into the tank. How hard can this be? Except the directions on the package read like a foreign language. Words saying break off a piece at the end of the rod. At one of the notches. Twisting off the nut inside the tank. The one holding the outside handle in place. The hardware man, right. Changing the handle is not hard.
Getting it to work however not easy. The rod now too short. Barely fitting inside the plastic hook of the loop connected to what might be the flush valve. Broke off too much leaving me with more days of wet flushing. Until I have time to return to the hardware store. Buying a different handle this time. A cheaper one because who knows how many handles this task in my hands requires. But this new one stays in the package. On the floor. Next to the toilet. For a week, maybe more.
Instead Ricky and I drive in hard rain for two days. Me, telling God we can not be hurt or die in the endeavor. Leaving town now always full of yet to be therapeutically eradicated anxiety issues. Taking Ricky to his Lyme Disease doctor in Minnesota. Sort of at the last moment. In order to make this trip work, holing up for days. Working ahead for work and school. Tired from working, driving, and holding it all together for everyone.
Arriving home late from this trip. To warm food prepared by my niece. To all is well in our absence. Thankful to be out of the rain. Off the slick roads. Settling back into the safety of our day-to-day, grieving lives.
Maybe it was all these things. The angst, drive, disease, trauma, grief, and countless, breathless days. But as night grew later and morning rise earlier, I said “What the hell.”
Tearing open the neglected package. Setting to work. Not heeding directions this time. Accessing my inner-plumber. New-found resolves flowing. Ability budding. Slipping arm of handle contraption through tank hole. Bending it a bit. Fitting through the plastic loop. Twisting on the nut, counter clock-wise of course. Tentatively applying pressure to handle. Wondering fate in anticipatory quiet.
Viola! Eureka! The toilet, even before lifting hand from handle, expels with glorious surge. Flooding relief within me. Stresses disappearing in toilet’s surging water. Replacing toilet’s top. Washing hands of everything wrong in my life. Embracing everything well.
Month’s later, admitting a lingering small issue. Ghost reminding me of my inequities. Water running on for barely a minute. Whenever the wind blows. Stopping before it begins. Hinting of things to come. Me, clinging to my success. Because by gum as my dad used to say, the toilet works. Flushes hard. Handle unattractive. But-by-gum-it-works!
To be continued…
Photos courtesy of me this time!
When it came time for our oldest son to attend Sunday School, I balked. My late husband was no help. The concept of Sunday School, a foreign affair. Tony being a product of parochial school. In his mind, we simply attended worship on Sunday. Religious education taken over by nuns during the week. Except there were no nuns at the private Montessori school Ricky attended.
Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez 