Our cracks, perhaps, may join the ghosts

The council's Clerk of Works has handed Epiphany Library back to the Library Service. T.Aldous and Seth are not keen...

For some reason, when the contractors relaid the concrete floor they left a one-foot square rough patch.

"It was there before we came,"

the Clerk of Works tells T.Aldous. What he doesn't say is that there was also umpteen hundred square feet of rotted, sandy concrete but they covered that over.

Equally inexplicitly, the building's handed over without having had the gas meter installed. Doreen and Thelma were on site all Monday to wait for the gas man, taking the opportunity to start tidying things up a bit. The gas man duly arrived.

And went.

He'd forgotten to bring the gas meter.

Back on Tuesday ("some time between 8am and 6pm," as we all know and love). Seth's turn to hang about. The Clerk of Works popped in his head through the door (to check out the concrete footings which already look a bit iffy)(and to ignore the paint spillages in the entrance to the library).

"Can I borrow your mobile?" he asks.

"What for?"

"So's I can ring the gas man to let me know when he's coming. I'm just working up the road."

"Why aren't you waiting here for him then?"

"I've got work to do."

"So have I, mate."

"That's your job mate."

Imagine Seth's delight a couple of hours later when he noticed the Clerk of Works and the gas man, parked up in their vans in the car park, talking to each other on their mobiles. He suggested that they might want to get the job done and dusted.

Looking good so far.