I come home from school and am making a snack.  There is a knock on the door and I go to see who it is.  It's Mrs. Ellis, the old lady who lives in the house across the street.

We are three university students living in a low rent rental house in North Burnaby.  A shit hole of a place.  But we have cleaned up the yard since moving in, and Mrs. Ellis has been quite friendly since we did.

"I wonder if you could give me a hand with my phone," Mrs. Ellis asks me, "I think there is something wrong with it. Sometimes I can hardly hear it."

"Of course," I say. "I don't know so much about phones, but I can take a look."

I follow her over to her house and she talks about the weather.  "It looks like it'll be hot next week," I agree.

She lets me into her house and shows me the phone.  I look at it to see if there is any volume dial, but it is older than that.  There seems to be a dial tone. I say as much.

"Let me call my sister," she says.  "It wasn't working well when I was talking to her earlier."

I agree that that would be a good idea.

She dials and waits.

"Oh hi Gladys, its Tracy... Oh yes, beautiful...  Yes, that's right...  Sure, tomorrow would be fine.  Um, Gladys, I have one of the boys from across the street here to look at the phone.  Could I let him talk to you for a bit so he can hear it..."

She hands me the phone, and I say 'Hello" into it.  Mrs. Ellis's sister says "Hello" back, and then starts talking about the weather.  "I heard that it will rain tomorrow."

"Oh," I say,  "I will be sure to take my umbrella when I go to school."

"Oh, good boy," she says.

"It seems fine," I say to Mrs. Ellis, handing her back the phone.

"Okay Gladys,  I'll see you tomorrow, then... Sorry?  Oh, yes, of course, that would be lovely... Bye then... Yes, goodbye. "

Mrs. Ellis hangs up the phone.  "You see," she says, it was fine at first, but I could barely hear her at the end."

"Hmm," I say, realizing something.  "Could you call your sister back?"

"Sure," she says.

"Hi Gladys, it's Tracy again. I'm phoning to check out the phone again."

She turns to me.  "I can hardly hear her."

"Try the phone on the other ear." I suggest.

She does. "Gladys? ... Oh, yes. "

She turns to me.  "That's it.  It's working again."  Back to the phone.  "I think we've figured it out Gladys.  See you tomorrow... Yes. Good-bye."

A couple of days later, Mrs Ellis came by with a chocolate cake, thanking me for fixing her phone."