Never Say Never

The downstairs toilet in our rent house was plugged. It had not worked in two weeks. The landlord sent a repairman. He said it was fixed.

It wasn't. I called the landlord again and he sent the repairman, again. This time he cleaned out the drain trap outside. "Should work fine, Ma'am!"

It didn't. This time the landlord came with the repairman and a plumbing crew of four men. They must have been training new plumbers or something. I've never had more than two at a time since then. The head plumber looked at my two small daughters and suggested that they may have put something down the toilet.

"Not my kids!" I boasted. After all, my kids didn't do things like that.

That makes six men standing around my small yard as they hauled our toilet out of the bathroom and onto the lawn. They rolled it around to check the porcelain bowl from all angles. The head plumber lay sideways on the ground and as he peered into the toilet, asked, "Does one of your kids own a pink bunny toothbrush?"

"Well, yes, they used to, until.....a few weeks ago."

The plumber trainees and the repairman looked up at the trees or at their feet -- anywhere but at me. I don't know where the landlord was looking; I was not looking at him.

The chief plumber stood up and handed me the toothbrush. Yep, I recognized it.

"Thank you." What else does one say when they are handed a pink bunny toothbrush. Surely he didn't think we'd still use it.

I learned a huge lesson this day--never say never when it comes to kids, toilets and life in general. On the other hand, maybe it was the neighbor's kid!