Kelly Drake and the Tears of the Dragons

Chapter Two - The Plumber as Goalie

Alejandro Perez had always been slow – in thought and movement. His Speedy Gonzalez moniker was a sarcastic ode to his sluggishness. He actually did not mind being likened to the cartoon rodent, as much as he hated how childhood bullies changed his family name to Perezoso, Spanish for "sloth." And so he was elated when his father – who studied fresh water algae for the Colombian Waterworks – decided to relocate their family to Glasgow after having had a taste of Scottish air during a three-month overseas training. The only things Alejandro was quick at were growing tall, catching soccer balls, and fixing leaks.

Being big and having hands the size of baseball mitts, of course, posed a bit of a problem for an aspiring teenage plumber. At first, Alejandro did more damage than repairs wherever his services were required. Then he discovered he could fix anything connected with toilets and pipes and sinks without lifting a finger! He just had to think about the problem, and his wrenches, pipe cutters, rooters, and Teflon tapes would come flying out of their weathered leather case and start fixing the leak or removing the clog. He did such a fine job from the moment his family was adopted by their new neighbors that his reputation spread even to adjacent towns. Every plumbing crisis received his utmost attention for the most reasonable fee. He only required one thing: that he be left alone while working.

His biggest break came when William Fischer, the previously unknown master of the ridiculously large house with ivied walls and stained-glass windows, requested him to check out all the plumbing fixtures in the family manor. It was a plumber's veritable gold mine – an old mansion that had a total of twelve toilets and bath; most homes in their town had only one, two at most. Alejandro had refurbished all but one toilet – the biggest – when the oddest thing happened. His "talent" did not seem to work in what he heard William refer to as The Reading Room.

"Problem, Alejandro?" William asked from behind the door when the plumber had not finished after nearly an hour in that last room.

"Nada, Señor," Alejandro answered sheepishly. "The pipes, they are old and stubborn but made of hard iron. Do I have permission to remove them con fuerza? Also, I do not know where all these shiny dust is coming from. They keep flying around and sticking to my hands and face. Help me out, Señor. Perhaps you have an Electrolux I can use?"

William opened the door and saw the teenage Alejandro desperately brushing off the silver and gold dust with his oversize hands. The young plumber did not notice how William was able to enter even when he had locked the door for his usual privacy.

"No, we don't, but you are, indeed, the man I've been looking for, Alejandro," said William, sounding pleased. "Come, I have something of import to tell you."

For the next hour, as William sat with Alejandro in the parlor, the young man listened intently with his mouth agape and his mind spinning from all the new – and strange – information flooding in.

"You are not like ordinary boys, Alejandro. You're a Goalie," William said.

Everyone in town knows I'm the goalie of the football team. How does this make me special?

"I'm not talking sports here, son. I know you're not an ordinary plumber. You don't do much muscle work; in fact, you merely have to think of the problem and the taps are fixed, leaks of the normal sort are plugged."

¡Dios mio! How could he possibly know?

"Don't worry. That's just an odd manifestation of your true powers."

Is he reading my mind?

"As a matter of fact, I am." William's mouth didn't move this time, but Alejandro distinctly heard what he said.