When John Edwards came home from work, he found the garage door was broken. A cable had come off and the door was coming off its tracks. He couldn't leave it that way. After bidding the nanny goodbye and fixing dinner, John left his 18-year old autistic son Will inside the house and went out to try to fix it.
Mechanical things spoke to John. But they spoke in grunts and single
words. Much like Will. So he had to listen carefully.
The garage door consisted of four wide panels, one above the other, held together by hinges, rolling on wheels in a track on either side. There was an axle above the garage door with a huge spring wound around it. There were two spools firmly attached to either end of the axle and cables wound around the spools and attached to the bottom of the garage door.
He unhooked the door from the opener and manually moved the door up and down. Looking out from inside the garage, the detached cable was on the right. It was entirely off its spool and no longer attached to the door. The door skewed to the left, skewing worse the further down it went. His wife Jackie's car was still parked in the garage on the right, with stuff piled up in the corner. John moved the stuff so he could get a ladder into the corner, but being lazy he left her car there. He'd move it later if he couldn't figure out how to work around it. He'd have to be careful not to knick her car. It was her precision German driving machine. She was away on vacation, it was just him and Will at home this week.
The detached cable had a loop on one end and a nut on the other. The spool on the axle at the top had a slit. The cable must go in that slit and the nut prevents it from coming out, thought John. The loop, yep, there was a knob on the base of the door that the loop could go over. John checked the still-attached cable on the left side and yes that's how it worked.
He got out a ladder and negotiated it around the tail of Jackie's car. There was some cloth folded on the floor in the corner underneath some heavy stuff he didn't want to move, so the ladder didn't sit quite level.
First John tried having the steps of the ladder outside the garage, but he found it difficult to climb up and peer over the garage door. Maybe if he leaned his back against the wall while standing on the ladder ... the ladder came unbalanced, starting to fall over on top of Jackie's car. He quickly shifted his weight back and the ladder settled again. No that won't do.
He got down, couldn't turn the ladder around without hitting the car. OK, he
folded the ladder, then took it out of the garage, turned it around,
put it in again, set it up again. Now the steps were inside the
garage. But he couldn't get there because the ladder was in the way, wedged
between Jackie's car and the wall. OK, he walked around the car.
Tried the steps again. Couldn't see over. Tried leaning against the
wall again. The ladder wobbled a little, but if he was careful it
didn't fall over. Yeay! He could go up high enough, back leaning on
the wall, so his head was above the garage door and he could reach the
spool.
OK. He raised the garage door fully up. He climbed the ladder, cable in hand, leaned against the wall, and could reach the spool now. He hooked the loose cable over the knob on the bottom of the garage door and tried winding it around the spool. The cable was a metal rope, quite stiff, and it wanted to stay straight rather than wind around the spool. Rather than winding it around the spool directly, it was easier to wave the cable parallel to the axle between the axle and the wall. Once the cable was above the axle he could pull it over and around the spool. When he tried to repeat that, the cable violently unspooled itself, nut whipping around the axle by his face until the cable was entirely off the spool, though still partially wound around the middle of the axle.
OK. Try again. Wind the cable around the spool same as before, but this time be careful to press a finger on the end of the already-wound portion of the cable against the spool so it can't come undone. That seemed to work. Sweat was dripping into his eyes; he wiped them with his shoulder on his shirt. He wound the cable all the way up. But when he got to the end, the cable was half a turn too short. Or half a turn too long, hard to tell. Assuming half a turn too long, he still couldn't push the cable through the slit in the spool no matter how hard he pushed. The cable didn't want to bend that sharply. Even if he'd been able to, being half a turn too long left three inches of cable between the slit and the nut. That wouldn't work.
John tried tugging on the cable to tighten it. It covered his hands with black dirty grease. The cable was a metal rope, very strong. The cable would cut his hands before the cable moved any from him tugging it. He let his finger off the spool and the cable violently unwound itself again (John making an effort to guard his face this time). He tried winding it again, tugging as hard has he could in hopes of winding it tighter. Still no joy: half a turn too short (or too long).
Will came out and stood in the driveway, observing John's strange behavior. "See, I'm using tools," said John. Will picked up a pebble from the sideyard, went to the sewer and dropped it in, heard a satisfying "plunk", then went back in the house.
Perhaps John had to get the door straight in order for the cable to be the right length? If he could get it down to the ground, it would lay straight. So he tried to put the door fully down. Up was no trouble, but down grew gradually worse, the wheels pressed against the left side and being pulled out of the right side. The door was skew, and got more skew the further he put it down. Eventually it caught on a bolt on the left wheel track. Two hinges on either side of the door had broken off, but that didn't seem to related to the current trouble. (Don't they hold the door together? What's holding the door together? Don't know, and don't care as long as it's not causing trouble.)
John could force the door down further if he got up speed and rammed it down. But the door really wanted to go up, even though it was really heavy. The tracks must be being pushed apart so hard they're counteracting the weight, he though. That'll rip the tracks right off the wall. OK, no putting the door down. Anything that required excessive force usually meant he was doing something wrong. Try something else.
Up on the ladder, John tried winding the cable again, seeing if the spool would wind better with the door at various heights. That didn't seem to make much difference. Halfway down left the cable half a turn short. All the way up left the cable half a turn short too. He was sweating profusely and not making any progress. Maybe he'd have to call a garage door repairman.
The spool had two square screws joining it to the main axle. Maybe he
could loosen those screws and tighten them again with the spool
rotated enough that he could hook the cable on? He went into the
house and fetched a monkey wrench, and pliers.
"Still working on the garage door, Will," said John, waving the monkey wrench at him. "Just need the right tools." Will watched him. Will was clearly hoping John would go outside again so he could resume poking about the kitchen unsupervised.
John tried loosening the square screws. They wouldn't budge. It was very hard to reach them at all. How would a repairman undo these? He couldn't see any way anyone could get at these screws. Maybe they weren't supposed to be undone, maybe this was the wrong path. Sweat went drip, drip, drip. The sun was setting. This just wasn't working.
John paced back and forth in the garage and driveway, trying to think of some other way of doing it. He got up and looked at the spool again. There were little grooves, guiding where the cable should wind around it. His windings so far weren't anywhere near that precise. How could he wind it that tight? What if he hooked the nut in first, then attached the loop to the door afterward? He didn't see how that would help, but still it seemed promising, because it was something he hadn't tried yet.
OK, try again, but this time start with the nut in the slit instead of the loop around the bottom of the door. He put the cable in the slit with the nut against the slit. That's easy. He carefully wound the cable around the spool, keeping the cable in the right groove as it went, being careful not to let it spring unwound. That wasn't too hard either. Except once when his finger slipped and it violently unwound on him, whup whup whup whup. He untangled the cable and did it again from scratch, fully winding the spool this time. It left the loop three inches above the knob on the garage door. Still three inches off. But at least this time the cable was in the slit with the nut against the slit, and the cable was wound in the intended grooves. So, a little progress.
He put the door down as far as it could go before skew grew too great (halfway down), and the loop stayed three inches away. He tried lifting the door up while pulling the cable down but he was nowhere near strong enough to budge either. Next he put the door up as far as it would go, so the whole door including the base was horizontal. The loop was still three inches from the knob. But when he pulled on the door, now he was no longer lifting the door. Now he was pushing it sideways. (Since the door was horizontal, sideways was up.) That was easier. With a little effort (OK about the effort to lift fifty pounds), he was able to bring the loop to the knob. And with more effort, he was able to hook the loop over the knob. Success!
Success? He got off the ladder, folded up the ladder, hung the ladder back on the wall, reengaged the garage door opener, and pressed the button on the remote. Beep, the garage door stopped immediately because it was already up. Beep again, the garage door went down. Smoothly this time, not catching on a bolt, keeping level all way to the ground. Beep again, the garage door went all the way back up. The cable stayed on. Success! John was pleased. He hadn't expect to solve that one. He lowered and raised the garage door one more time to see if the cable would keep staying on, then one more time just for the joy of watching it all work smoothly.
It was night now. John was dripping sweat, shirt soaked, hair was all wet. He went in and washed his hands in the sink. That black grime just didn't want to come fully off, even if he scratched at it. His sweat got cold in the air-conditioned house.
He put Will to bed. "That was exciting, eh, Will?" he asked. "We don't get to repair a garage door every day. If it happens again I could fix it in five minutes, now that I know what to do."
Will did not respond. "Light off?" asked John.
"Oss." John turned off the light.
"Shut the door?"
"Shuss."
"Good night, Will," said John, shutting his door and going down the stairs.