Timmy the modern blacksmith
Jan. 22nd, 2024 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunn I took Theo for a walk in town, meaning to grab some milk afterwards, and when I got back to my car, one of the tyres was completely flat. Not just a bit soft, absolutely flopperty and hanging in folds.
"Fuck", I said to Theo, who looked very solemn. I put him back in the boot, and tried pumping up the tyre.
I did eventually get it to inflate, but I could hear air whistling through a monstrous crack in the sidewall.
"Fuck", I said again.
Then I remembered that I had seen a sign for a tyre place, Timmy's, just around the corner. I looked at the tyre, and estimated that it would probably hold air just about long enough to get me there. Result!
So I drove to this dingy place surrounded by junk, and found a phenomenally grimy youth who said, to my delight that yes, they could fit a replacement tire there and then. Please could I back in?
So i backed in, and I found myself in a vast cavernous and shadowy barn of a place, which did indeed have a rack of tyres on one wall, but also had the skeletons of various ancient vans and cars and possibly other wheeled things that were clearly not going back on the road any time soon.
It also sold firewood. And cabbages. And it was warmed by an old black brazier in one corner, which sent flickering fire-shadows dancing around the tyres and the ancient vehicles and the cabbages and gave it all a pleasant scent of woodsmoke to mingle with the oil.
They said they'd charge me £25 for a tyre, and their card reader wasn't working so did I have cash.
So I blinked a bit, and went off to the cashpoint, where I thought surely, surely they aren't really only going to charge me £25 for a tyre and got out quite a bit more cash.
Anyway, I returned to the vast fire-lit barn, and found that there were now a group of men gathered around the fire. I am fairly sure that they must, surely, have been wearing jeans and jumpers and things, but my memory keeps giving them like, filthy leather aprons. Tunics. Hammers. They definitely had impressive beards, and at least a couple had long flowing grey hair.
Anyway, they had met Theo while searching the car for the locking wheelnuts, and Theo liked them very much. And they had indeed fitted a tyre, and...OK, it was a part-worn tyre, because I don't think that there was a single new item in that barn, but it was functional enough. And £25 quid including fitting.
By this time I was feeling like I should have paid for it in silver sixpences. It was great.
"Fuck", I said to Theo, who looked very solemn. I put him back in the boot, and tried pumping up the tyre.
I did eventually get it to inflate, but I could hear air whistling through a monstrous crack in the sidewall.
"Fuck", I said again.
Then I remembered that I had seen a sign for a tyre place, Timmy's, just around the corner. I looked at the tyre, and estimated that it would probably hold air just about long enough to get me there. Result!
So I drove to this dingy place surrounded by junk, and found a phenomenally grimy youth who said, to my delight that yes, they could fit a replacement tire there and then. Please could I back in?
So i backed in, and I found myself in a vast cavernous and shadowy barn of a place, which did indeed have a rack of tyres on one wall, but also had the skeletons of various ancient vans and cars and possibly other wheeled things that were clearly not going back on the road any time soon.
It also sold firewood. And cabbages. And it was warmed by an old black brazier in one corner, which sent flickering fire-shadows dancing around the tyres and the ancient vehicles and the cabbages and gave it all a pleasant scent of woodsmoke to mingle with the oil.
They said they'd charge me £25 for a tyre, and their card reader wasn't working so did I have cash.
So I blinked a bit, and went off to the cashpoint, where I thought surely, surely they aren't really only going to charge me £25 for a tyre and got out quite a bit more cash.
Anyway, I returned to the vast fire-lit barn, and found that there were now a group of men gathered around the fire. I am fairly sure that they must, surely, have been wearing jeans and jumpers and things, but my memory keeps giving them like, filthy leather aprons. Tunics. Hammers. They definitely had impressive beards, and at least a couple had long flowing grey hair.
Anyway, they had met Theo while searching the car for the locking wheelnuts, and Theo liked them very much. And they had indeed fitted a tyre, and...OK, it was a part-worn tyre, because I don't think that there was a single new item in that barn, but it was functional enough. And £25 quid including fitting.
By this time I was feeling like I should have paid for it in silver sixpences. It was great.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-23 06:18 am (UTC)I'm glad they were able to fix your tire.
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Date: 2024-01-23 09:01 am (UTC)What an amazing tale and also how lucky for you!
And how nice that they also liked Theo (and he them).
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Date: 2024-01-23 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-23 10:35 am (UTC)If I hadn't been so discombobulated by the sudden puncture and the odd atmosphere, I would have taken Theo with me to the cashpoint, or at least given them the wheelnut bolt so strangers didn't have to suddenly appear in Theo's space when I wasn't there. Fortunately Theo identified them as friends!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-23 12:29 pm (UTC)I love it!! It reads to me like the kind of experience one has when dimensional boundaries become a bit flimsy and filmy and one pops through to another. I'd almost not be surprised if the shop wasn't there if you tried to find it again. And Theo clearly knew what they were about. It also makes me think it's really how shops and services and the world in general ought to be, rather than this use-once, built-in-obsolescence, too-expensive-to-repair, pristine-enviro-unfriendly stuff we've been told is good business.
And I really loved the way you wrote it, thanks so much for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-23 05:36 pm (UTC)Smiths are known to have powers. So it's not so surprising that there would be a magical smithy, appearing sometimes to travellers whose horse has lost a shoe, or whose car has a punctured tyre...
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Date: 2024-01-23 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
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