I paid for my food, grabbed my bag, and stepped aside.
I’d just climbed into my truck when my phone rang. It was Curtis, a guy I had worked with on and off for years.
He didn’t waste time.
“Where are you? We’ve got a huge problem with a food processing line,” he said. “The main pipe joint gave out. They tried to patch it, but it won’t hold. Every time they bring it up, it starts leaking again.”
That smug man’s words on the phone came back to me: patch it… need that line running… contamination.
Karma didn’t work that fast, did it?
“We’ve got a huge problem with a food processing line.”
“Alright,” I said. “Send me the location. And tell them not to touch anything until I get there.”
***
The address Curtis sent was for a food processing plant across town. By the time I got there, half the plant looked frozen in place.
A guy in a hairnet spotted me and came over fast. “Are you the welder Curtis called?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank God! Follow me.”
He led me through a maze of equipment and slick concrete floors.
“Are you the welder Curtis called?”
We turned a corner, and I saw the line.
And standing near it, phone in hand, was the father from the grocery store. His son was standing a few steps away, watching everything with wide eyes.
The man looked up, and his expression shifted from tense to stunned.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped.
“You called for the best.” I shrugged.
Then Curtis stepped forward.
His expression shifted from tense to stunned.
“This is it.” Curtis gestured to the line. “Food-grade stainless steel, super thin. Their in-house maintenance guys tried to patch it just to stabilize things, but—”
“It failed.”
He gave a short laugh with no humor in it. “Spectacularly.”
“What’s the big deal?” the father cut in. “Just fix it already.”
I crouched beside the joint and looked closely at the bad patch. “Sir, the big deal is that this type of repair needs to be done carefully, otherwise the interior finish will be ruined, your product will be contaminated, and you may end up needing to replace the line.”
Behind me, the son asked, “Can you fix it?”
“What’s the big deal?”
