Chapter 3

Later she mentioned that the door lock needed fixing. I hadn’t brought it up, I thought it would be obvious it had been me if I mentioned it. I offered to take a look; though I rather liked the idea of the bathroom having no lock.

“I bet you rather like the idea of there being no lock” said Toni.

“Not at all ... well, maybe a little. Still ... it could be me on the toilet, so I’ll see if I can fix it”

“Gross!” said Erica.

Fixing the bathroom lock was easy enough. Terri watched as I lit a match and then snubbed it out and broke pieces off. “Why did you light the match? Does that make it stronger?”

“No, but I don’t want it to light in the hole do?”

“Would it do that?”

“I don’t know”

“Then why light it if you don’t know? And you’ve not even used that part!” I did try to explain that it was just a safety precaution, but she really didn’t get it, I could tell. The small pieces of wood compressed as I screwed the screws back in; they jammed hard into the holes and held securely. Four girls looked on with, I swear, something like amazed respect at how I had fixed the wobbly lock. Apparently Gramps had been ‘going to get round to it’ since they arrived. Dave the super-handy-man. I wondered if I should put on a cape and put my underpants on outside my trousers; but thought that might be over the top.

“Gramps nearly walked in on me a few days ago, the lock only just held. Can you imagine?” said Fiona. Well, yes, yes I could imagine, I said. She looked at me and realised what she had invited me to imagine, and blushed a little. I smiled and changed the subject. I was still thinking of walking in on Fiona in the bathroom – the possibilities were quite varied.

“No idea what’s up with the washing machine. Probably have to pull it out to check the pipe” I said, hopefully. I didn’t want to lose my reputation as ‘Mr Fixit’.