This story was inspired by a series of events involving bad capacitors over a period of many years, culminating in my fixing a monitor that had several capacitors go bad as described in this story.
It was first posted on Facebook.
I sat in my office looking out the dirty, cracked window at the dirty, cracked street and the dirty, cracked wall on the other side. The sky had a dirty, cracked appearance. A fine drizzle came down. It was enough to wet the dirty, cracked street but not clean it.
I turned to my dirty, cracked desk. I took a drink of java from my dirty, cracked cup. I opened my appointment book. It was full. Full of nothing. So was my pocket. A typical day for Private Investigator Blunt. That’s me.
I heard a knock. I said, “If you’re a bill collector, come back next week. If you’ve got business, the door’s open.”
The dirty, cracked office door opened. A long, shapely limb came in. The limb was attached to a long, shapely woman. She had Trouble written on her. It was right there on the name badge she was wearing. But I already knew she was Trouble. She lived in the same apartment building I lived in and the name on the mailbox said J. Trouble.
She walked in. An expression of shock appeared on her face as she looked around at my office. Finally she looked at me and said, “If you’re not busy ….”
“Let me check my appointment book,” I said. I gazed at the large empty white space. I scratched my head. “I believe I can fit you in. What seems to be the trouble, Miss Trouble?”
“I don’t know — I just know … I’m in trouble. Terrible trouble. You need to come to my place and take a look at something. I need help desperately.”
This woman was Trouble and she had brought trouble with her. I knew that I would find trouble wherever she took me. But I’m a sucker for a long, shapely limb, especially when it’s attached to a long, shapely woman with long black hair and a voice that could distill joy from the heart of a 3-day-old corpse. So like a fool I went.