A van with a faded yellow logo and the smell of coffee and grease arrived within the hour. The man who stepped out was named Kev. He had the weathered face of a Birkenhead docker and the calm, unshakeable patience of a plumber who had seen God only knew what congealed in the pipes of Wallasey.
For the next three hours, Edith watched from her kitchen window as Kev became part archaeologist, part surgeon. He dug a pit in her prized dahlias without complaint. He uncoiled a high-pressure jetter that screamed like a jet engine, blasting away the calcified fat and the writhing, pale root hairs that had snaked through the crack like fingers reaching for a meal.
Kev didn’t use a fancy electric eel first. He used his eyes. He lay on his belly in the wet moss, a torch clamped between his teeth, and traced the line of the clay pipe with his fingers. “Collapsed joint,” he announced finally. “About four foot down. The roots have got in. Sycamore. Nasty buggers.”