Lilly

“Sorry, guys, but I think Lilly is right,” you say much to Connor’s and Gina’s disappointment, “we should finish what we started before beginning something new. The house was empty for too long. Now that we all live here and use the water pipes, we have to check everything, before some broken pipe floods our ground floor.”

“Good, I’m glad to see you still know our priorities,” Lilly says pleased.

“Gina, taking measurements is not loud or heavy,” you continue, “either me or Lily can do it with you tomorrow. You have my word for this.”

“Fine, I can live with this,” Gina agrees, “as long as I have all measurements by Monday.”

“Connor, I agree we need more material, but before that, we need to know what to do with the biggest construction sites,” you explain, “we need to plan our next steps before buying anything. Lilly and I will write you a list with some standard materials. And the rest we get during the next week.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Connor replies still a little disappointed, “I hope I get everything you need.”

You and Lilly have short look over your materials before making a list with what you will need next. Afterwards you take your tools and head to one of the last unusable bathrooms. You activate the ring before starting to work, in case something happens. For the next four hours, you search for water damages and broken pipes, change faucets and vents and clean long time not used places. You have to break a hole in the wall to change a damaged pipe but this is nothing new. You just close it afterwards with putty and later your sister will renew the tiles and color.

“Well, I guess that’s it,” Lilly finally says proud, “half a day of hard work and we have another room ready. Maybe Jenny was right about the new deadline.”

“Don’t say this loud or she will set a new one even closer,” you joke, “what is she doing today anyway? I haven’t seen her the whole day.”

“I assume she works on our new headquarter or keeps contact with other activist groups,” Lilly assums, “renovating this house is great work and has a huge symbolic value. But we need to show presence or we lose our status as active activist cell. Whatever, we will find out soon. Want to check the bathroom before going to lunch?”

You nod and both of you start. Lilly turns on the water and you test all water connections. Sink and toilet work excellent. Lilly tests the shower when she is back. It seems to work too, but while Lilly smiles pleased, a fountain suddenly shoots out of the base of the shower head. It splashes all over Lilly and by the time she can turn the water off, she is already soaking wet.

“Fuck,” Lilly yells angry, “fucking shit! What was this shit? God, that’s disgusting wet.”

You better not say anything while she is angry. You assume the sealing ring in the shower head is broken. This can easily happen when the shower is not used for some years. And the one you use right now is from the basement. Lilly must have forgotten to check when she installed the shower. You have two options, now. You can either do Lilly a favor and jump back in time to spare her the humiliation, or let it slide and just let live with it.