I set Ed down on all fours and closed the door behind me. “You have a leak?”

“I have a plan,” he said. He put the wrench down and inched his way carefully from under the counter, holding a J-shaped ninety-degree fitting made of PVC. “Sink trap.”

“I can see that.”

He struggled to his feet, shaking his head at his own creakiness. Henry is eighty-nine years old and in phenomenal shape for a man his age (or any other age, now that I think of it). He’s tall and lean, with thick snow white hair and eyes the color of bluebells. He held up the trap and tilted it, emptying the contents into the plastic bucket. “Water creates a seal that prevents sewer gas from passing from the pipes back into the room.”

“I thought the trap was to catch stuff in case you dropped a pricy diamond ring down the drain.”

“It does that as well.” He moved the bucket into position under the sink, which I could see now was filled with soapy water. “Watch this.”

He pulled the plug and the sink full of water drained noisily into the bucket below. “What you’re looking at is Step One in my new water conservation system. I can dump this bucket full of gray water in the toilet to make it flush. I can also use wastewater to irrigate my lawn.”

“Which is why you have a hose hanging out the bathroom window, yes?”

“You got it. I’ll keep the tub stoppered while I shower and then siphon the water out the window into my shrubs. Think of all the city water I can save. I probably waste a gallon every time I run the tap, waiting for the water to get hot. Last week, I ordered a book on gray water use, and we’ll see what more we can do.”

“Sounds good. Is that a new flower bed?”

He looked at me blankly.

“I saw the empty mulch bags.”

“Oh! No, no. The mulch bed is there for purification purposes. You can’t store gray water for more than twenty-four hours because of the bacteria content, so any runoff has to pass through healthy topsoil.”

“News to me.”

“And to me as well. My big shock was the water bill, which jumped sky-high. I called the water department and the woman checked the meter readings, which she swore were accurate. She says landscape irrigation is the prime culprit. Household use is minimal by comparison. The more lawn I can eliminate, the better off I’ll be. For the moment, the water department is asking us to voluntarily reduce our usage by twenty percent. I’m hoping to get ahead of the game.”

“Well, I’m being careful.”

“I know that and I appreciate your efforts. We still have to tighten our belts. If the city restricts us further, I want to be prepared.”

“You can count on me.”

He clapped his hands together once. “Let me change clothes and we can have supper up at Rosie’s. With all this going on, I haven’t had a chance to shop today, let alone cook,” he said. “Almost forgot to tell you. We have new neighbors.”