Diary fragment · 2 min read ·
Diary of the Night Mechanic
A bus depot mechanic records the faults he fixes after midnight, and the faults keep coming back on buses that were scrapped in the spring, in the exact pattern he left them.
- dated: From the start of the autumn timetable
- narrator: Keith Mullen, night mechanic
- reliability: unreliable
Monday. Quiet shift. Did the brakes on number 14, the usual squeal. Left the cab light on for the driver who never comes back for his flask. Good night.
Tuesday. Number 9 came in with the offside door jammed shut. Freed it with a spanner and some oil. The driver said the door had opened by itself on the bridge and closed again at the stop. He was not pleased.
Wednesday. Found a tyre on the scrapyard line that I had signed off as sold in April. The chalk mark on the wheel is my own. I did not chalk it. I checked the sheet and it says so, in my handwriting, with the date.
Thursday. Number 14 again. Same squeal, same brake pad, same place on the left drum. I changed the pad. The pad I took off was the one I had fitted in May and I had written my name on it. Put it back in the bin. Perhaps I am getting confused.
Friday. Had a cup of tea with Dave from the early shift. Asked him about the scrapyard tyre. He said he had not been over there since the sale, and that he did not like to go in that yard after dark. I asked him why. He said there are buses in there that still have their lights on.
Saturday. Went over to the scrapyard after my shift, with a torch. Most of the hulks are rusted through and stripped. But one of them, the old green Leyland at the back, had its lights on. The headlamps were glowing faintly, the way a car does when the battery is nearly flat. There was a fault card hanging from the steering wheel. My handwriting. The fault said *brakes, left drum, squeal, fix on next night shift*.
Sunday. I did not sleep. In the morning I found the fault card on my own workbench, under the tea mug, and the card had a second line on it in a different hand: *Good. Come back Monday.*
Monday. Quiet shift. Did the brakes on number 14. Did not chalk the wheel.