Kiss of A Titan
Chapter 15

I was distracted by what they were doing and had wandered off on my own, walking past through some muddled pieces of junk that lay piled up at one side of the basement, to explore the basement which was a bit different from the way I saw the attic since there were four shelves positioned next to the wall beside the a closed window, containing a lot of whiskey which was neatly stacked in every part of the shelf in such a manner that it was difficult for anyone to steal a crate. Most of them were Italian brandies from the early sixties and were now very much outdated in the brewery market though a few of them remain confined with the dust on the right side of the shelf were of a different origin. I wasn't expecting that the previous owners would own such a huge collection of brandies which have been abandoned rot away in the dust in the underground trapdoor.

Some were Swedish and Spanish popular drinks that were present in that period and I wondered if the family who lived here had some brewery business of their own since there was a whole stock of the drinks still intact in the crates even though they had expired. To each one of us particularly aunt, the brandies wasn't a huge discovery as I had earlier thought when we first saw the collection and I thought at first, aunt would make a fortune out of selling these even though they had expired but it was clearly not the case.

The liquor were in fact wine when I took a closer look but they were now crude and very old even though the liquor was still very much inside each bottle I saw arranged together and a lot of dust had corroded the entire surface of the bottles as a result of the huge presence of the dusty particles that was highly prevalent in the cellar not to mention that it was of no surprise that the surface of the four shelves as well as the crates would be covered in dust while some gigantic cobwebs dangling loosely close to the window seemed to obstruct much of the light coming into the room from outside.

I took a peep through the opaque window after brushing aside some of the cobwebs with my fingers and saw some grass swerving around according to the windy breeze brewing outside. What I saw were leaves from the bushy green shrubs that were growing wildly in the garden and there were a lot of them preventing much of the sunlight penetrating into the compartment from the outside.

Still, I could see the stony pavement that formed the walkway at the backyard and at a closer glance, the twigs I saw were creeping their way further across the pathway that was once used by the former owners to walk around the garden. Far ahead, my eyes trailed further hoping to see something of great importance and I could barely see a tap that protruded out from the wall of the house, maybe from the right wing of the apartment.

The man had been right all along that there was another way into the basement but it so happened that it was only this window that was the only exit to the outside world and it was shut tight to prevent rodents and night-crawlers particular thieves from getting into the house through the cellar.

The basement was by far a bit better than the attic since it was a bit spacious for all three of us to move around even though there was a bunch of heavy stuff stuck around the left corner close to the wall which was covered by some large cloth. which was now very dirty due to the length of time it was left to rot underneath the house, not to mention that the air was warm in spite of the dusty particles duly present in the room.

As for the walls forming the four corners of the room, it was made of strong bricks and a section of it had withered off leaving a whole lot of missing holes in them. Just like the attic, it had a single light of its own already wired to single bulb on the roof apart from the sun, but it wasn't working since there had been absence of electricity for two days now and I felt a lot lonely without having to charge my phone which was now already dead including that of aunt and I wondered how she was able to make some calls in the morning when the entire house lacked power electricity.

Behind me I could hear a whole bunch of stuff being tossed aside to the ground by Aunt and the man who were busy checking for the presence pipes and I didn't take notice of this for I was still gazing at the garden through the window until their flashlight found some, two in fact, lying straight underneath some huge groups of stacked cartons which looked completely similar to the ones at the attic but more bigger and contained a lot of old, dusty items.

It took them quite some time to move the heavy stuff to one side to make room for them to observe where it came from as well as where it ended while I was a bit still lost in my own thoughts standing in between two of the huge shelves, staring outside through the window.

I traced my footsteps back to where they were kneeling beside two hefty corroded pipes with the light of their torches fondling the dirty surface of the old pipe as soon as I was satisfied with my discovery and found the stacked rubbles shifted to one side for them to stand close to it. Aunt bent down close to the man who squatted next to the pipes checking for something that got to do with his interest.

As I walked over to where they were, two rats bolted past me into a large hole at the stairs and I almost stumble out of fright. They noticed even when I pretended nothing happened.

"Yikes!", "What's wrong, Rosalie?" Aunt asked with a sudden curiosity at what made me shout unexpectedly. Even the man was puzzled like she was, as to what was going on. I shifted my hair from my face and got my act together. "Uh...Nothing aunt, I kind of miss a step, that's all", "Geez, you almost scared the shit out of me", "Please, watch where you're going next time",

"I will be more careful", I took a step closer to see where the pipes ended and saw that it was connected with another at an intersection but it was cemented along with the brick wall at the end as it ran further into the house. A little red wheel already fastened onto the pipe at the point of intersection a long time ago, was now covered with dirt mixed with little spider webs which shrouded it partially. He saw it with the help of his torch as it lay covered in the dark. "Goddamn the guy that did this", "Looks like the screw is not working", "I can see that but that's not the main problem", "Oh really?"

"Yes, as you can see there are only two pipes leading into the house and I ain't sure this is the right one", "Use your instincts", "Instincts are only speculations", "But that's what led us here, isn't it?", "It works sometimes but not in this case", "So, you mean you can't start work from the cellar", "Not without the blueprint, yes", "All this was for nothing", "Not exactly, these pipes surely are among the main pipes transporting water in the entire house judging by the little wheel but we can't do anything hasty that may damage the way it was first constructed when this house was built", "What are you implying here?"

Aunt looked at him roughly. I chose not to intervene and watched them as their discussion was about to get heated up.

"What I'm saying is quite simple", "Then make a lucid explanation so I can understand you clearly", He stood up after aunt's response and sniffed off the dust from his nostrils as he took some time off to respire deeply. "It's a good thing that we found that this house has a basement...", "And?" Aunt rejoined impatiently with her arms folded.

"Thankfully, we have a place to start to get the drains fixed but I still need the blueprints just to make sure that these pipes really supply water to the entire house and I believe there ain't the only ones", "I get what you mean", "No, you don't get it. For all we know, these pipes could lead to the sewers and it would really make the whole job a bit difficult for me if I were to break any of them", "I think he's right on this, aunt", I intruded not minding the fact that aunt was a bit upset with the whole thing.

"Fine, we'll do it your way then", "Thank goodness. You won't regret it following my idea", He answered feeling elated that aunt had brought her guard down.

"What should we do about this mess?" she asked looking at the whole mess which was turned upside down "No idea. We can't arrange it back the way it was before, can we?" he responded by looking at it as well.

"I suggest we leave it the way it is", "Good idea. It won't hurt to take a break upstairs and as for this, it's best to leave them to make the job easier when next I come", "You can grab something to eat before you leave", "Thanks for your hospitality but I got to be going now", he said making forward steps for the stairs and he was careful enough to avoid another rat poop which was lying not too far from where he stepped on the first one.

"Be mindful of that", "I can see it. Thanks. Gosh, I hate rodents", "I thought you said you had a knack for pets", Aunt followed behind him as they headed for the stairs while I joined soon after taking a brief moment to look around the whole basement.

"I do like pets but never rats", "Well, that makes two of us", she replied climbing up the stairs behind him and it took us less time to climb out of the basement to the surface. This time, he didn't take caution in trampling hard on the wooden stairs which creaked violently as we went back to the living room.

He helped shut the door to the underground basement behind us as soon as we were out of the cellar. The plumber left us sooner than aunt had wanted him to leave the apartment after refusing to take even a cup of water from us when aunt offered him one.

To my aunt, he seemed like an adherent who loved sticking to his own principles though his masculine features weren't bad when I first saw him and he didn't even say his name nor did he mention to us when he was going to come back in full preparations for the repairs before he left. But I knew that he would only appear once aunt delivers the original blueprint of the apartment to him for him to have a critical look.

Little did we know that he had intentions of going back to town on foot after our time in the basement and it was only after aunt kindly requested to take him back to his town in her car which he fervently refused that I understood that he was the kind of guy who had a queer peculiar personality of his own that seemed in sharp contrast with his handsome looks.