Water

Well its 5am Saturday morning I expected to sleep blissfully on until at least 7am. So why am I awake?

 We have been mopping, using every towel we own and squeezing water out from under our floating floor for more than two hours. We were woken by the son and heir as he announced there was water on the floor, so mop it up we sleepily responded. No there is a lot of water, springing out of bed I nearly broke my neck as I slipped in a very large puddle which was seeping in from under the study door. Investigation led us to the fact that somehow, he had overflowed the shower, thinks he may have fallen asleep. As we calmly moved into clean up mode the son and heir was trying to comprehend what he had done and how he managed to do it. We said no time to worry now just push the towels around, he had tried to mop before he woke us however the task was overwhelming.

The kitchen, study, our walk-in robe, bedroom and   passage to the front door were awash with water. There was no time for recriminations it was all hands-on deck, the mop was spinning flat out, and the floor was covered in towels as we tried to sop up the water. Under every step there was an ominous squelch telling us that the water had made its way under the floor and there would be no saving it. The mission became about rescuing the furniture and sundry other items on the floor. The back patio served as the dumping ground for items we moved away from the water. Water which seemed to keep appearing as fast as we mopped and towelled.

There was literally shit everywhere, as we moved beds cupboards and tables to dry underneath. Some of the water was lapping perilously close to power outlets and boards I kept waiting for the electricity to go off. Finally, the water stopped coming and we could see the results of our frantic efforts. The laundry was littered with wet towels needing to be washed. The first load on and cups of tea made we find ourselves back in bed trying to fathom what happened. My thoughts are that it will forever remain a mystery there is no use worrying about it now, let’s look forward and think about what floor covering we would like to replace our already lifting and swelling floating floor.

I have always had empathy for those caught in floods and how it must be a nightmare and so unreal as they clean up their homes, that empathy is personified a million times after I saw a small glimmer of that very nightmare.