Letters To M'Lady

Letter 4 ~ Volcanoes and Geysers

My Lady Crystal,

It was a delight to see thy letter in the mailbox once again! So many months have passed that I had started to fear for thee. I was quite surprised to see the postmark from Africa. "What has the fair Lady gone and done now?" I asked myself. (Forgive me if my handwriting suffers, m'Lady, the sun is setting and I have yet to light the gas lamps.)

Well, to hear of thy voyage across the ocean cheered thy heart and cleared thy mind was indeed a relief to me. But then, voyages by Steamer tend to do that, I am told. Traveling broadens the mind, you will recall me saying many times. To know that a young, adventurous Lady such as thyself took my words to heart brings a smile to my face. I do worry about thee flying too close to the sun, but still, fly while thou can.

Thy descriptions of the port town thou set foot upon sounds wonderful. M'Lady was not quite clear upon how she befriended the Shaman of the local tribe outside of town, but it sounded like a good step in the right direction. Until, that is, thou told me of thy purpose for visiting Africa. To climb a volcano? What on earth got into thy head, m'Lady? There are plenty of volcanoes that are much closer to home, I must say, and it seems like quite a bit out of thy way, dost the Lady think?

Then thou told me of thy desire to master fire-walking and fire-dancing and it all made sense. Yes, Africa has many skills to teach the willing mind. So thou started the ritual of joining the tribe, befriending the Shaman was fortuitous indeed, and thou did master the art of fire-walking.

The Lady has nothing to be embarrassed about concerning the fire-dancing. Anyone can lose their grip while twirling a flaming baton, these things happen. It was unfortunate that the baton landed on the roof of a nearby hut, thus setting the village aflame, but accidents are accidents. I am sure the Shaman will see things my way in due time. The fact that he has offered to take you to the volcano himself is a sign of an understanding leader. Show him thy charming personality and all will be forgiven.

Once again, I say, do not be embarrassed, I have many of my own embarrassments as well. I shall tell thee of one that I have never shared, thus thou will not feel so bad thinking thou is alone.

It was in my youth when I worked at a repair/gas shop for those new-fangled automobiles. Well, new to my time anyways. It was Iocated on a busy main road and the repair garage had four bays for cars, each with its own lift. I was in my teens and totally ignorant of the world, so my duties were simple: refuel the cars that came in, sweep the shop, empty garbage cans, and occasionally change a tire.

It was a busy afternoon on a hot summer day that I worked my trade. We had an unusually heavy volume of automobiles coming in for fuel, and things were hectic for me while the three mechanics on duty went about their business. One of my many duties was to assist the customers if they needed, so thou can imagine my hectic pace. Changing a tire, for example, takes time. One has to jack up the vehicle, remove the flat wheel in question, mount the wheel on the tire machine, remove the bad tire from the rim, race to find and get down from inventory the correct new tire, then mount the new tire on the wheel rim and install the re-tired wheel on the vehicle. All the while, more vehicles would pull in for refueling (and they wouldn't wait if I took too long).

It was during this that my Boss came to me and asked, "Do you see those two buckets of hydraulic oil in the back that I just brought in?"

I nodded affirmative.

"I want you to pour both buckets into the lift in the last bay," he said.

I looked down to the last bay and saw a truck up in the air. "How do I do that?" I asked.

He looked at me with little patience, "Look at the shaft coming out of the floor, there is a brass plug in the floor next to it. Unscrew it and pour in the fluid."