Do it Yourself

Flash Fiction

Do it Yourself

“How’s it going?” Ted asked. Andrea was putting together a do it yourself piece of furniture. A cabinet with shelves for the dining room. They wanted to keep their “company” dishes separate now that the kids were getting older, and making many meals and snacks for themselves.

“I’m not sure…” Andrea said, “I’ve reread this sentence a number of times but I can’t seem to figure out what it’s telling me to do.”

“Want me to try it?”

“Yes! A different point of view might help.”

Ted read it, and then read it again. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“I thought so too! They’re telling us to use the three-inch bolts on the framway but there doesn’t seem to be a framway. What is a framway?”

“No idea. See if it’s in the dictionary.”

Andrea tried looking it up on her phone, “Not in this one. Maybe it’s a technical term, just in woodworking… or new?”

“Maybe, but they usually have all the words in the phone dictionaries… A foreign term?”

“I would think they would be more diligent in ‘do it yourself’ directions than to put in a foreign term, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. OK, I’m skipping this step, when I get done there should be one place left for those screws. Right?”

There wasn’t. So, assuming the screws were accidently added. They went on with the project. Then they loaded all their good dishes onto the shelves. The shelves which once completely loaded, immediately, tipped sideways and sent all their best dishes crashing to the floor.

Back at the company George was reading an email, “Hey, this guy says there’s a typo in the 10674 Shelving manual. He says step eighteen is calling the frame, a framway, what a hoot! That isn’t even a real word!”