The two men were smiling when they said goodbye to me and walked out the front door. I paused the Hallmark Christmas movie, put my pen down next to the stack of Christmas cards, and stood up to see them out. Mike came in from the courtyard a few minutes later and told me how much fun he had had. I neither smoke nor drink, so I leave it to Mike’s friends to keep him company over cognac and cigars… or is it tequila and pipes?
I went to chase the children to their rooms at bedtime and felt restless afterwards. As I walked past Justin’s room into the den, the firelight flickered in the window. Mike had added wood to the fire he had built for his friends and was outside reading on his phone.
I pulled my sweater tight and went outside, “Hey Mike, I just came outside to say goodnight.”
“You want to join me?”
“Alright, but I need to get a coat first.” I ran back into the house and found a coat at the back of my closet. It’s been cold, but getting to and from school, I layer up with long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, and wraps.
He said, “The plumber came by to look at the boiler, and he was impressed when he saw my reverse osmosis filtering system.”
“That’s great!” I said, “I stuffed and stamped over one hundred Christmas cards tonight.”
“This is a time of processing for you, isn’t it? You stop to take time to reflect on everything.”
“Yes. I think about each person I send a card to and try to write something special for everyone.”
Mike added another log.
I said, “Did you have fun tonight.”
“We all had a great time.”
“They guys looked happy when they left.”
We stared into the fire. I’m thrilled that Mike has friends he spends time with. He hasn’t had that in many years. It’s yet another reason I’m happy that we moved back to Albuquerque. Here Mike has his friends, brothers, and cousins.
“I just discovered pipe dope,” he said. “It’s great stuff!”
I had no idea what pipe dope was, so I looked at the fire and waited for Mike to continue.
“It’s the best stuff to put on the threads to get a good seal when you screw pipes together.”
Ah, they must have been smoking pipes tonight, I thought. I wasn’t sure though, so I asked him, “You have to take the pipe apart sometimes to clean it?”
“I guess you might sometimes.” he said, and continued, “My dad always used Teflon Tape, but I looked on the internet and found pipe dope. It works even better if you use both.”
I was surprised to hear that my father-in-law smoked, but I don’t know everything about Mike’s childhood. Memories of my dad smoking a pipe when I was a little girl came to mind. I tried hard to picture the parts of a pipe, the bowl, and the stem. I didn’t remember ever seeing tape on my dad’s pipe, but I hadn’t thought about it in decades. Mike always does so much research on his hobbies. It was enough for me to see him happy.
I went to bed soon after.
The next day Mike came out of the garage and said, “Pipe dope is amazing. It stopped all the leaks.”
“You use it on the reverse osmosis system too?”
“Wait,” Mike stopped me, “What are you talking about? What else would I use it for?”
“Your pipe.”
“I only use it on the pipes in the garage. What else did you think I was talking about?”
“Last night, I thought you were talking about a smoking pipe?”
“Wow! You sure seemed to take it in stride when you heard I was smoking dope. I guess the lord of the manor can do whatever he wants?”
“No! That never occurred to me. I knew it was for connecting things. I figured the company was being cute when they came up with the name. I imagined you connecting the bowl and the stem.” We both laughed.
I said, “But when you talked about your dad using tape on his pipe, I was really confused.”
We laughed harder.
I was laughing so hard that tears ran down my face.
Then Mike started the Gilbert and Sullivan routine from “Pirates of Penzance” about confusing Orphan and Often.
We haven’t laughed like that in months. It did me a world of good. The next day as we drove to church and afterwards went out to dinner with Skye, I had only to mention the word “Orphan” to get us laughing again.
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