What a Great Day!

Rescue Me is now 99 cents as a Kindle download. How exciting! I've been working to promote the sale by coming up with some of the great quotations from the book. But do I have an all time favorite? Well, many years ago, I went home with my college roommate for the weekend. As college folk tend to do, we brought our laundry home to her parents house.

While doing the laundry, their washer broke. It was quite unfortunate, but my girlfriend and I shrugged our shoulders, gathered up our clean and not clean-yet clothes and left. The next day, the repair guy arrived at their house to fix the washer. Apparently, a pair of black undies had plugged up the appliance.

My black undies.

When the repair guy explained the problem to my friend's dad and gave him the evidence, he said this:

"Lord, deliver me from fancy women."

The line stuck with me, and so did its context. And so it ended up in Rescue Me. Here's part of the scene:

Riley stared into the swirly depths of Lon’s washing machine. Well, technically, it was Carol’s machine. Meeting the Chief’s eyes, he gestured helplessly.
“Chief, like I told you on the ‘phone, I don’t know anything about fixing appliances.”
“Oh, what’s to know? A washing machine has four parts to it: the tub, the drain, the hoses, and the electrical panel. I’d do it myself, but my sciatic has been acting up. If Carol even thinks I moved anything bigger than a dinner plate, I ain’t gonna hear the end of it for a week.”
“Okay. So I moved it away from the wall. What else do you want me to do?”
“Feel down in there and see if there are any more clothes in the bottom.”
Riley leaned over the machine and stuck his hand into the cold water. Ignoring the chill, he touched the bottom all around the agitator and shook his head.
“Something’s causing that water not to go down. Let’s take off the back and see what we see.”
Riley knelt on the floor while the Chief sat in a kitchen chair. With a metric wrench, he removed the nuts holding on the back panel. After it was removed, he set it carefully against the wall, and followed the older man’s directions concerning disengaging the hose and catching the water in a bucket.
He had the bucket positioned under the tub, but it didn’t prevent some of it from splashing his arm and most of the front of his shirt. Riley inhaled deeply attempting to absorb the shock of having frigid water soak him. Shake it off, man. Shining the flashlight in the hose, Riley peered inside but there
appeared to be nothing blocking it. He turned his attention to the drain of the washing machine tub. When Riley reached into the drain from the bottom, his hand made contact with soggy material.
“There’s something there. A piece of clothing. It’s caught on something,” Riley reported.
He was half in the machine. Lying on his back, he shone the flashlight in the hole.
Interesting.
Black silk. Wet black silk. He’d bet his life on it. He pulled once, twice, and it was free. Slow as not to kill himself getting out of the washer, he inched out, and stood up.
“Here’s your culprit.”
He dangled a pair of black panties from his finger.
Lon’s eyebrows practically met his hairline. He stared at the panties, then up at Riley.
“Lord, deliver me from fancy women.”
Riley laughed. “Oh, don’t act like they aren’t yours.”
“I’m pretty sure I know who they belong to, as no purty drawers ever plugged up the washer before Amy moved back.” With pained effort, Lon rose
to his feet. “Why don’t you ask her out.” It was more command, than question.
Riley tried to hand the underwear to Lon, but he wouldn’t take them.
“Why? So, she can plug up my washer with silk panties?” He set them on the machine and knelt back down to connect the hose.
“Is them things silk? Lord, no wonder she’s broke. Don’t tell her I said that,” He hastened to add.

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