ScribbleDemon

Bigger Version Here.

When the firefighters finally got into the apartment above ours, there was a single faucet just endlessly spewing hot water. We asked what the problem was, and their answer was basically “Somebody left the water on.” Now you must remember that nearly three hours had passed since we first noticed the dripping on the ceiling, so the apartment had been flooding at least that long. In reality though, for it to start seeping through the walls and into our apartment, the place upstairs would have to have already hit the brink. The idea that all the damage had been caused by the fact that someone could have been so careless as to forget to twist the nob on the faucet before heading out the door for several hours was totally and completely outrageous to us. Jonathan, more than anyone else, has particularly upset. He had spent more time than anyone else just trying to keep our apartment from losing anything more to the filthy waters.

After more investigation, the firefighters found that there actually was a problem with the pipes, and that the faucet could not be shut off. After receiving this diagnosis we chilled out a little and were even prepared to forgive the people upstairs. We never did actually meet the girls who live upstairs. To this day I have never seen them. I am glad we didn’t come across them during that time frame where we though they’d just been too lazy to shut off their sink though, or this might have actually happened.

In the end, our apartment suffered some horrible damages that it still hasn’t fully recovered from, but it was nowhere near as bad as the comic makes it out to be. We are still capable of living here. The girls upstairs though, their stuff was wrecked. most of their possessions took water damage and maintenance is still replacing stuff. We knew then that all these things were in their immediate future too. We didn’t envy them. I still remember that, when it was all said and done, after spending several more hours cleaning water out of the apartment and then bathing to get the sludge that came with it off of ourselves, we didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know if we would be penalized somehow for what had happened or if we’d have to pay for the damages. We weren’t sure what all had been destroyed. We were exhausted. And in that moment, at nearly 2:00 a.m., Jonathan proposed that we just say “To hell with it” and go eat pancakes at Kirby Lane.

They were some of the best pancakes I ever had.

On another note, this is (I think) the last comic for the Daily Texan this semester. It’s also the 50th comic of mine they’ve run so that’s oddly appropriate. I intend to keep drawing comics of some sort during the summer, but whether it will be a tWC thing or something else…I’m not sure yet. I’ll keep you posted though.

We never did get that wet carpet smell out of here.