Fixed and Floating

Heidi unlocks the repair club door at nine. The room is small and bright. Long tables stand in rows, and shelves of tools cover the walls.

The club has no boss and no pay. Every volunteer brings a skill. Heidi's skill is electric things. She can fix a toaster or a lamp in ten minutes.

This morning, a line of people waits outside. Nobody looks at the sign. Each one holds a sad, broken thing. There is a clock without hands. There is a chair with three legs.

The radio belongs to Dinah. She is the first in line.

"It makes a noise like a cat," she says. "Then it stops."

"Let me see." Heidi turns the radio over and opens the back. Inside, a wire hangs loose. She fixes it with a hot tool and a steady hand.

"Try it now," says Heidi.

Dinah turns the knob. A warm song fills the room. She smiles and claps her hands.

"It works! Thank you so much."

"You are welcome," says Heidi. "Take it home."

Dinah reaches for the radio. But it is not on the table. It floats above the wood. It turns slowly in the air.

"Heidi," says Dinah. "Your table is broken."

"My table is fine." Heidi stares at the radio. She pushes it down gently. It sinks, and then it floats up again, like a soap bubble.

"That is not normal," Dinah says.

"No," says Heidi. "It is not."

At the next table, Marek hands a toaster to a woman. The toaster slips out of her hands and rises toward the ceiling. The woman jumps up and grabs it by the cord.

"Help!" she says. "It flies away!"

"Everything we fix today floats," says Marek. He looks confused. "The clock, the chair, the lamp. Look!"

Heidi turns around. The chair with three legs, now with four, drifts across the room. The clock, now with new hands, sits quietly on a shelf. It is a few centimetres above the wood.

People start to laugh. A boy tries to catch the chair. A man pulls his lamp down from the air with both arms. Soon, the room is full of floating things and happy noise.

Heidi does not laugh. She thinks hard. The club always fixes things in the normal way. Fixed things stay on the ground. Something is different today.

"Dinah, what did we do differently?" she asks.

"Nothing," says Dinah. "Nobody did anything."

"Something changed. Something small."

Heidi walks to the door and goes outside. She looks at the front of the building. A wooden sign hangs over the entrance. It is painted in big white letters on a green board. She reads it slowly.

REAIR CLUB.

Her mouth falls open.

"Dinah, come here! Look at the sign."

Dinah comes out and reads it. "Reair Club," she says. "That is a funny name."

"It should say Repair Club," says Heidi. "The letter P is gone."

"So? It is only a letter."

"No. Look at the new word." Heidi points. "Reair. It has the word air in it. We do not repair things now. We put them in the air."

Dinah looks at her for a long moment. Then she bursts out laughing. "You mean the sign controls the club?"

"I think the sign is the boss of the club," says Heidi. "Maybe that is why our repairs always hold. I never saw it before."

"Why is the letter gone?"

"I do not know. Maybe it fell off. Maybe a bird took it." Heidi turns in a circle and searches the ground. "We must find it."

They search the street. Dinah checks the flower pots. Heidi looks under the bench and behind the bins. Marek comes out and looks up at the roof. A boy crawls under a parked car.

"Here!" the boy shouts at last.

He holds up a white wooden letter. It is dusty, and one corner is cracked. But it is clearly a P.

"Where was it?" asks Heidi.

"Under the car. It is a bit dirty."

"A bit dirty is fine." Heidi takes the letter with both hands. "Thank you. You are a hero."

She runs back inside. She takes a hammer and two nails from a shelf. Marek brings a ladder. Heidi climbs up with the P in her pocket.

Between the E and the A, there is a small gap. It is clean and empty. She holds the letter against the green board. It fits exactly.

"Hold the ladder," she tells Marek.

"I hold it."

"Hold it harder."

She taps the first nail into the wood. The sign shivers. She taps the second nail. A soft wind goes through the street. The white paint shines for a moment, like new snow.

Then, behind them, there is a gentle sound. It is the sound of a hundred small things landing.

Heidi looks down. In the club, the chair stands on its four legs. The toaster sits in the woman's arms. The lamp, the clock, and the radio all rest on the tables. A boy lies on the floor and laughs.

"It worked," says Dinah. She stands at the foot of the ladder. "You fixed the club."

"We fixed the club," says Heidi.

She climbs down and wipes her hands on her trousers. Dinah picks up her radio and turns it on. A warm song begins.

It stays right in her hands.

"Now it is a real repair," says Dinah.

"Yes." Heidi smiles. She looks up at the sign. The letters are straight and white.

Then one small nail falls from the P. It rings on the street.

Dinah looks at Heidi. "Hold the ladder," says Dinah.