The Man Who Saved My Life
The kids walked into the house and said that they smelled gas. I had been in the house all day and smelled nothing, but they were insistent that they smelled gas. So we called the gas company and they sent out a man with a very cool gas-detecting tool, and he assured me that we had a gas leak. Somewhere.
“Where is it?” I asked, frantic, because I thought the house was going to explode ANY SECOND.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” the man assured me.
“Is it the oven?” I questioned.
“Do you have a gas oven? That looks like an electric oven.”
“It is. It’s an electric oven.”
“No,” the man said patiently. “An electric oven cannot suddenly turn into a gas oven and become the source of a gas leak.”
We went down into the basement where his machine starting going bananapants, and he found the gas leak immediately — the new furnace. The people who installed it didn’t tighten a screw. It was so loose that he could turn it by hand, and that was where the gas was leaking.
“Come here,” he said. “I want to show you this.”
“I can’t,” I told him. “Because there is a cricket.”
“Where is a cricket?”
“On the floor. Between us. On the floor.”
“I don’t see it.”
“It is there. Right there. It is on the floor. Look on the floor. Between us. On the floor. Over there. Right there! That is a cricket. And I cannot see the gas leak thing because of the cricket.”
“Do you want me to take care of the cricket?”
“That would be amazing because I’m terrified right now,” I admitted.
“You do realize that the cricket was already dead,” the man told me as he picked it up, saving my life.
“I don’t think so. It moved. Very slightly. But it moved at one point while you were looking for it.”
He did not tell me that I was wrong. Because he’s smart. He showed me the gas leak. He fixed the gas leak.
“So how far away were we from the house exploding?” I asked.
“Oh you’d need like 50 times that amount of gas for your house to explode. You’d smell it outside if you were in a situation where you had such an enormous gas leak that the house would explode.”
“So we were super close,” I told him.
He once again didn’t say anything. I like to think that it’s because he was too busy thinking about the myriad ways he saved my life.
5 comments
The cricket probably died from the gas leak, like a canary in a coal mine, warning you that the house was about to explode.
You should probably take a vacation after that kind of stress. A gas leak AND a cricket?!
JFC that’s scary! Yay for kids with sensitive noses (and the practice of adding odorant to otherwise odorless gas).
This story made me chuckle. Glad he was there to save your life! 😉
Loved this story… I don’t think I’ve ever chuckled through suspense before. I’m glad you’re ok, your house didn’t explode, and that the cricket… didn’t chirp?