Manley, the welder, coming to a town near you

Manley, the welder is coming to a town near you, don't miss this.
After getting himself into more mess than any one teenage boy should, Manley needed a change of scenery. That was when the big city of Toronto came calling and Manley being Manley, the dirty dog of a man he was fast becoming, he would have been into it like mot to a bright shining light. Here is Mister Manley at his very best, falling headlong into the mess. This is episode 10 in the series.

Chapter Ten:
Coming to a town near you 

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The Millers wanted to do things to me, one wants to grind me, the other wants to grind me up, like mincemeat.
It was in my teen years, I was about fifteen or sixteen at the time. I had run away from home and hitched a ride on a delivery truck into the big city of Toronto, lucky for me, I had managed to find myself a job that very day, a Gardener and errand boy with a rather wealthy family. I had arrived, I thought to myself.
The man, the master of the house, was a businessman, a CEO of a Nation-wide manufacturing and distributing business outfit. The woman, who as it turned out was his wife because, at first I thought that she was probably his daughter or some other relatives of his, because of the obvious massive age difference between them. She seemed to me, to be rather mean and sad-at-heart most of the times, but she also came across as awfully sweet at other times. I never did see any signs of children around the house, if there were any, I thought, they were probably living somewhere else. Then one day it happened that the mister man: Mr. Miller, had was to go overseas on some business trips. That was when it happened.

She had asked me to come inside and tend to the kitchen sink, the wastewater outlet pipe she said, was leaking and dripping water onto the kitchen floor. Why did I suddenly feel so uncomfortable, why all of those knots in my stomach? Oh well, I consoled myself, it was probably nothing more than the fact that I have never done anything even remotely resembling a plumbing job before, but I am a fast learner, a willing hand, and a guy who really needed a job, this job.
She had all the tools on hand which was necessary to get the job done, and on this particular day, it did seem to me like it was one of her better days, she seemed exceptionally exuberant, spirited, helpful and generous, and was rather perky in her overall mannerisms too.
The problem was quickly spotted and just as quickly rectified. There was nothing wrong with the pipes more than a loose connecting coupling on the p-trap, in no time I was done with tightening it up, but she seemed to be searching all over the place for more and more chores for me to do. In the meantime, she wanted to know all that she could about me, and the more I divulge, the more she dug in.
What started out as mere small talks, quickly escalated to the point where I was even telling her all about the escapades between me and my fairy-god-mother. Perked her up real quick, and then, after she has done got me baring my soul to her, my physical appearances were her next target. She eyed me from head to toe.
"Oh I forgot," she said, "the one upstairs needs fixing too."
"What one upstairs?" I asked.
"The basin in the bathroom upstairs," she replied, “there is something wrong with the basin drain pipe up there, maybe you can take a look at it too since you are already here.”
So up the stairs we went, she in the lead, and nervous, shaking in my boots little me, in-toe. She talked very loudly as we mount up the stairs, maybe she was nervous but not nearly as nervous as I was.
Her heavy army-like footsteps were pounding on the hardwood too, as she mounts up on them, mine - in contrast, was soft and well thought out.
"Mind you wake the baby up," I hear Bubbles saying in my inner ear. "What baby you fool," said I, in my near-inner voice.
Her perplexed gaze caught me off guard, "what? What baby are you talking about now?"
“Never mind.” I said, “I was just thinking out loud."
There were no repairs to be done up there, well, that is unless we can categorize what happened next as repairs... It probably was.
In her lazy, heavy-tongued West African accent, she said, "So you are Mister lover-man eh, let me see what you have here, give me some of your best stuff."
“What about your husband?” I asked, “what if he should find out?”
“You don’t have to worry bout he, or nothing else oh, I will take good care of you, and him.”
"I'm scared.” I said, “suppose Mr. Miller should..."
“Eh! Eh!” she interrupted. “He is 93 years old oh, what is he going to do, eh, what is he going to do? Even if he should come inside here this very minute, what, is, he, going, to, do? To me. Or even to you?”
She said all that one word at a time while poking her index finger, with a sharp nail, hard into my forehead, as if to make sure that each letter, each syllable, each word, was firmly registered somewhere in there.
When she'd asked for my help to fix the sink drain, I’d obliged, when she’d asked me up the stairs to go and check out the bathroom plumbing, I did also oblige. Well, she now finds it necessary to check out my best stuff, and to show me hers, so what do you think I'm going to do?
I reached into my ever-ready tool chest for my trusted nails and hammer and went to work nailing her to the ceramic tiles all over the bathroom floor, and up the steep-climbing walls.
To be continued.

That’s it for today, come again tomorrow for yet another episode in this series. Don’t forget to subscribe, follow and share.

Get the Manley book here.  And learn how Manley man would have gotten himself out of this one.

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Extra, extra. On this day in history  

Feb. 1st
2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.
1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.
1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle.
1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.
1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.
1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage.
1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.
1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly."
1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.