The Troublemaker Under the Faucet
1All night long, the kitchen faucet went drip, drip, drip. At breakfast, my grandfather set down his cup and frowned at the sink. "Rosa," he said, "today you and I are going to be plumbers."
2First, Abuelo opened the cabinet under the sink and showed me two small handles on the pipes. We turned them until they stopped, which shut off the water to the faucet. Next, he pushed a rubber stopper into the drain. "Tiny parts love to escape down there," he explained.
3After that, it was my turn. I used a screwdriver to loosen the screw on top of the faucet handle, and then I lifted the handle off. Underneath was a small metal piece. Abuelo twisted it out with a wrench, and at the bottom we found a little rubber ring, flat and cracked like an old sneaker sole. "There's our troublemaker," he said.
4Meanwhile, my little brother, Nico, had climbed onto a chair to watch. He wanted to hold every tool. To keep him busy, Abuelo gave him a job: lining up the screws on a dish towel in the order we took them out.
5Later that morning, we walked to the hardware store with the cracked ring in a plastic bag. A clerk found a new ring that matched it in less than a minute. As soon as we got home, I fit the new ring into place.
6Then we put everything back together in the opposite order, using Nico's line of screws as our guide. Finally, we turned the water back on. I held my breath and stared at the faucet. Ten seconds passed. Then a whole minute went by. Not one drop fell.
7That night, the kitchen was perfectly quiet. Abuelo grinned at me across the dinner table. "Not bad for your first day on the job," he said.