CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

 

Nance was at the sink and Dana was hobbling toward her with his crutch under one arm, carrying dishes, when Nance exclaimed, “Damn! Damn damn damn! The water pump motor is out.” She was twisting the handle of the faucet at the sink. Nothing was coming out. “Damn! The electric motor went out when Grandpa was here, and he knew how to fix it. But, I don’t! And, all the repair people have left. That motor pumps all the water for the farm, including the irrigation system!”

“Where is it?” asked Dana. “I know a little bit about electric motors.”

Nance looked at him with a bit of astonishment. “You do? I thought you did home appliance repair?”

Dana said, “I’ve only worked on small electric motors, but I think the principles are all the same. So, tell me where it is and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Here, follow me,” she said. Nance walked into the garage, Dana following. On the back wall of the garage was a panel with several numerical readouts for watts in use, power available from the batteries, and several other things. Nance said, “I’m not sure exactly what all these numbers mean, but I know if this one,” she pointed, gets below 100, I have to cut back on electricity use. We’re not getting any power from the grid at all, only the solar panels.” Dana explained what the numbers meant, and Nance nodded her head, but clearly would need more explanation than they had time for.

She opened a large closet door. “It’s a little tight in there.” She opened the door, and inside was a large upright tank and a large cylindrical metal cover set on top a metal scaffold, with two thick pipes descending from it that disappeared into the concrete floor. Nance pointed to it, and said, “The pump’s in there. Grandpa’s tool box is right there on the floor. I’ll stand by at the sink.”

Dana got down on the floor and examined the metal cylinder. It was obvious how it came off over the top of the pump. He examined the plate on the side and noted the wattage of the pump. Dana found the breaker switch and flipped it to the OFF position, opened the tool box and got to work. He quickly found the problem, which was a short, due to worn insulation on a wire that came down to the pump motor from the electrical distribution box. Dana found some electrical tape and re-insulated the wire. He checked for other problems. He turned the motor by hand and found it turned smoothly. He searched for rust. He examined the shaft that turned the pump. No other problems. He squirted some lubricant into the right places, put the cylinder cover back on, and flipped the breaker switch. The motor hummed. “Try it now, Nance!” he shouted. Nance turned the water on, walked back into the garage, and smiled broadly. Dana felt very proud of himself indeed, and lucky that the problem wasn’t any worse. As he passed by the electrical panel, he noted with satisfaction that the watts in use had gone up by exactly the right number.

He walked over to Nance with his crutch, stood beside her at the kitchen sink, and began rinsing the dishes and putting them into the dishwashing machine. It felt good to stand next to her. She did not stiffen when he approached, as he imagined most women would. She smiled up at him. “Thanks,” she said.

“Nance, you have been so good to me in just a short time. I’m the one who should be thanking you. I would help more if I could,” said Dana.

“Let’s not worry about that now, Dana. Life is too uncertain. When your leg is better, if you want to help more around the farm, we’ll see,” Nance said, but smiled.

They worked together for a few more minutes. Then they watched a movie that was stored in the memory of her viewscreen, an old one, something Nance called a “romantic comedy.” There were a lot of jokes that made Nance laugh, but Dana didn’t get. The cities and the vehicles and everything else in the movie were different from anything Dana had ever seen. But, the movie was about a young man and a young woman falling in and out and then back into love, and Dana had never seen such a thing or imagined it. He was left wondering what life had really been like.