Wally Wrench

First key out of the ring

Wally Wrench opens Latchford's municipal market on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are people who know the custodian's footsteps well enough to put the kettle on before they hear a key. He leaves a folding stool at his last inspection point because if he sits down sooner he'll take a jobs list out and start offering things. The lift company gave him that stool. One of their fitters said he spent half his visits convincing Wally to keep clear of a job another person already had.

His mother worked upstairs in the market offices until the winter the roof got replaced. Wally wanted her office back before they gave up the temporary room, so he spent a day trying to fix a door he'd been asked to leave propped. The latch fit kept changing against the new strip of wood. A woman collecting keys found him with a wrench too wide for the gap and offered something from a roll in her coat pocket. He remembers how quickly he could turn the little wrench once she told him to put his thumb behind it. He got the door working and went down to apologize for missing all the calls from his desk.

Second key, garage entrance

The Ford Escort Rally gives him a place where the day has one clear appointment. He has been known to miss that appointment looking at a loose bit of the start gate. On a track repair day he hauled a wrench to the hinge only to find that the handle couldn't get past the post. Amara Keene, the Rescue Rocket driver, saw the wrench arrive from her spot at the volunteer first-aid post. Wally took the little one out of his pocket and asked if she would give him a hand holding the gate while he did the reachable part. The big wrench went back in the crate without ever coming near the screw.

He is a patient driver once the Ford is going. On the first pass across a closed section he likes to see what the steering asks for if he eases off a fraction sooner. Someone told him he would have time to go back and look at the loose bit after that pass. He sometimes needs to hear it before he remembers.

The very last clean rag

Rally Parton found Wally rooting under the Escort's side of the bench for a rag she was already holding. He said he'd put it there clean. Rally said he had put it under a dripping mug. They went round once, then she handed him a second rag out of a coat he hadn't seen her take off. Wally repaid the loan by cleaning it and bringing it back to the same place. She asked if he'd thought to write down where he left it this time.

She has yet to ask for it again.

Late on a Thursday

Wally's sister has promised to mind the market on an upcoming spring morning so he can get to the garage before an early practice. The offer will stand if he tells her where the spare keys are without walking over to point them out. There's still a little knock he wants somebody to hear in the Escort at the end of the return lane. The small wrench is already in his pocket. He has arranged to get to the bench before the first look at the gate.