| General Fiction posted February 15, 2024 | Chapters: |
...12 13 -14- 15... 
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Further lessons for Tommy
A chapter in the book What We See
What We See - Chapter 11A
by Jim Wile
| Background A high school teacher wrongly accused of sexual assault reinvents his life. |
Recap of Chapter 10A: Alan goes to the Boardmans’ for dinner. While Ginnie finishes preparing the meal, Tommy shows Alan his room. Alan discovers he is an outstanding model builder and artist. During dinner, Tommy tells Alan about his Little League team and invites Alan to watch his game on Saturday, which he agrees to do. Tommy leaves to watch TV while Alan and Ginnie talk about Tommy’s dyslexia, and Alan tells her about his own.
Chapter 11A
I awoke to a gentle nip on the nose from Archie around 6:30. I followed my regular early morning routine by feeding him, going for a run, and returning home to shower and fix my own breakfast.
By this time, it was 8:45—close enough to opening time at 9:00—so I unlocked the door and turned the sign around to officially open for the second day. I also started brewing a pot of coffee.
Around 9:15, the customer I had talked to yesterday about the broken dehumidifier came in and dropped it off.
“When I turn it on,” he said, “it doesn’t sound quite the same anymore. It runs all day, but it’s stopped collecting water.”
“Sounds like the compressor might have quit working. Look at it this way: at least you don’t have to empty that collection tank every day!”
He laughed. I got his contact information and told him I would call later, after I’d had a chance to look at it, and I would give him an estimate of when it would be done and the cost.
We then discussed last night’s White Sox-Twins game in detail, since he was also a baseball fan. Soon after he left, Tommy came in. He was 10 minutes early for work, which is a good sign of his work ethic.
“Our second customer just dropped off his dehumidifier. Why don’t we open it up and take a look? I’m going to let you take the back cover off. Tools are over there on that pegboard. Grab a Phillips-head screwdriver, would you? You know what that is?”
“Yep.”
“Put the screws in this aluminum bowl as you remove them; then you won’t have to hunt for them to put the cover back on.”
He did as instructed, working carefully to remove the five screws and pull the back cover off.
“Alright, do you know how a dehumidifier works?” I asked.
“Not really.”
“Okay. What happens on a warm day to a glass of ice water or Coke?”
“It gets empty when I drink it,” he said with a grin.
“Funny guy. I mean to the outside of the glass?”
“Water in the air condenses on it.”
“That’s right. It’s because when the warm, humid air hits the glass and cools, it can no longer hold so much water vapor in it, and it comes out and onto the glass. Same principle in a dehumidifier. That’s what all those condenser coils are for. They remove the moisture from the air, and it drops down into this collection tank below. So, what do you think makes those condenser coils cold?”
“The frigidating fluid, like in the fridge?”
“Right. It’s called the refrigerant. It circulates through the condenser coils to make them cold so they can collect water from the air on them. Let’s turn the switch on and see what happens.”
When I flipped the switch, we heard the machine start up and run, but I could tell right away where the problem was, but not yet what was causing it. “Tommy, do you see this black cylinder here?” He nodded.
“It’s called the compressor. Its job is to raise the pressure of the refrigerant and force it through this thin tube. Then this fan over here helps cool it and turn it from a gas back into a liquid before it runs through the condenser coils. It should always be running when the dehumidifier is running. It also vibrates, but this one isn’t running. That’s our problem. Now we just have to figure out why it isn’t running. If you take the cover off, we can start the repair by testing the overload switch, which causes the machine to shut off if it overheats.”
Tommy removed it, and I tested the switch with a test meter. It was fine. “Now we have to test this thing over here, where all these wires are running into. It’s called a capacitor. Its job is to give a boost of electricity to kickstart the compressor and the fan. I’m going to let you test it, but first you have to discharge any stored-up power; otherwise, you could get a shock if you touched it. Unplug the machine, then take that screwdriver and just bridge these two points on top.” He did that.
“Now take the capacitor out and remove the leads so we can apply the meter to it.” He did that too and touched the probe to the two prongs on top.
“Hmm. Only 9 microferrets. It should be 15, as it says on the side of the capacitor. I think that’s the problem. The capacitor’s no good anymore, and we’ll have to replace it.”
“Do you have a spare condessitor… compressitor… uh, thingy?”
I smiled. “We learned about three things that all sound similar, didn’t we? A compressor, condenser, and capacitor. It’s easy to mix them up. Don’t feel bad. I had a hard time, too, keeping them straight at first. I knew what they did; I just screwed up the pronunciation.”
“How did you learn all this stuff, Alan?”
“I went to junior college for a couple of years right after high school, thinking I might want to do this for a living. I read a lot of books on it too. It was slow-going, but it was necessary to really understand it.
We got a lot of practical experience in the lab courses. I’ve got some capacitors in a drawer back there.” I pointed to the set of drawers. “Second drawer down, you’ll see a box of capacitors. Get one that says 15 micro ferrets on it.”
He did, and I had him replace it and wire it up again. Then I flipped the switch, and the sound changed, as not only the fan started up but the compressor too. The vibration told us it was working.
“One last thing to do before we test it out. I’m going to have you clean all the dust off these condenser coils. They’re starting to clog up. I’ve got a can of compressed air you can use to blow it out.”
When that job was done, we let the thing run for half an hour to see if it would collect water. While it was running, the front door opened, and in walked Ida Beeman. She was carrying something wrapped in foil in her hands.
“Good morning, Miss Ida. What brings you back here so soon?”
“Mornin’ boys. Wanted to thank you, Mr. Alan, for fixin’ my toaster yesterday and not chargin’ me nothin’ for it. That mighty nice a you. And thank you again, young man, for bringin’ it out to me. I hope you like peach pie. I didn’t have no fresh peaches, so I used canned. But they good.”
“That’s very kind of you, Miss Ida. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.”
“That toaster workin’ jus’ fine now. I tole my grandson he lucky it didn’t cost nothin’ to fix. He a good boy; he jus’ careless sometimes. Well, I better be off now—leave you two fellas to your work. Take care now.” She turned around and headed for the door.
“Bye, Miss Ida,” we said together. “Thanks again for the pie,” I added. She raised her hand in parting.
No sooner had she gone, then I said to Tommy, “Shall we try a piece?”
“You bet.”
“Let’s take it back to the kitchen, where we can cut it and serve it up. I’ll leave the door to the kitchen open in case someone comes in while we’re back there. We’ll hear the bell.”
Once back in the kitchen, I cut a piece of pie for each of us and warmed them up in the small microwave oven I owned. A scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top made it a perfect snack. It was delicious.
Ten minutes later, we went back out to the store and checked out the dehumidifier. Water had begun collecting in it. “Looks like we fixed it,” said Tommy with a smile. He looked proud that he had helped out.
“I think I can call the customer now and let him know it’s fixed. I was supposed to call him first with an estimate before fixing it, but it was such a simple fix that it wasn’t worth bothering him. It’ll only cost him $20 for the repair.”
The man was delighted that it had been fixed so quickly and said he would be back this afternoon to retrieve it. When he came back to pay later, I showed Tommy how to use the cash register. The man said he would recommend me to his friends, and I thanked him and gave him a couple of business cards. Another happy customer.
When the man had left, I also showed Tommy how I kept track of the transaction using software called Quicken on my computer. He was very interested in this.
Over the next few hours, I received three calls from folks who were responding to my ads in the paper or posted around town by Tommy. Two were for TVs, and one was a home computer. I told all of them to bring them to the shop, and I would take a look at them. Word is getting out.
During this time, the man who called about the computer yesterday brought it in for repair. I wrote up an order for him and told him I would get right on it and to expect a call this evening or tomorrow with an estimate.
Neither Tommy nor I took a lunch break since we’d had the pie. It was 2:00, and he’d put in his four hours today, so his day was done. He was reluctant to leave. I told him he could keep track of his own time, and I would rely on him to be honest and accurate about the 20 hours he would put in each week.
“Alan, would it be okay if I put in more than 20 hours? You don’t have to pay me for it.”
“Don’t you have other things you want to do this summer?”
“N-nothing more fun than this. I like this so far.”
“Well, we’ll see.”
He left then. Seems like I’ve got the perfect apprentice in Tommy. He’s like a little sponge, soaking up everything I tell him. I’m going to have to tell Ginnie about his first day. I think she’ll be really proud of him.
(This chapter will be continued.)
 Recognized |
CHARACTERS
David (later Alan) Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.
Earl Pinkham: The principal of Grove Park High School where David teaches
Suzie Cassidy: The school secretary and mother of Tina Cassidy
Tina Cassidy: A 16-year-old high school sophomore in David Phelps's class
Bobby Harken: David's friend and fellow teacher
Archie: David's orange tabby cat
Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.
Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.
Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.
Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. David (later Alan) Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.
Earl Pinkham: The principal of Grove Park High School where David teaches
Suzie Cassidy: The school secretary and mother of Tina Cassidy
Tina Cassidy: A 16-year-old high school sophomore in David Phelps's class
Bobby Harken: David's friend and fellow teacher
Archie: David's orange tabby cat
Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.
Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.
Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.
Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.
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