//------------------------------// // Story No. Forty-Six // Story: THIS IS A STORY // by _NAME_ //------------------------------// The stallion, for the third time in as many minutes, called his two young foals over to him from the other side of the living room where they were playing. He stood by their backyard door, waiting patiently, while they dragged themselves over, grumbling under their breath about how they had been doing something, as if he could not hear them. But despite their protests, the stallion simply smiled at them and explained that one of the hinges on the gate out back had rusted through and fallen off and they were both going to be helping him bolt a new one onto the fence. They gathered up the wrenches, the bolts, the new hinge, and the other assorted materials and trudged around the side of the house where the gate was hanging limply from one hinge. The stallion could tell that his children were not entirely thrilled to be doing this, but he knew that it would be good to know how to do this sort of thing in the future, in the event they ever came across a gate or a fence in need of repair. With little difficulty, the broken hinge was taken off and handed to his son, and his daughter gave him the new hinge. He showed them how he first lined up the holes in the hinge with the holes in the fence post, and then put the bolt in, making sure to let both foals turn the wrench a few times before he took over and drove the bolt the rest of the way in, taking care not to overtighten it. The same happened with the rest of the bolts, and then the stallion had his foals help him hold the fence in place while he attached the other side of the hinge to it. It took a few more minutes, especially since he had his children do a bit of the work, but the hinge was finally in place, and the gate swung like it was new again. They may not have found it particularly enjoyable, but the stallion knew that his two foals now at least had a basic understanding of how to fix a gate, and he was happy about that.