It Will Only Take 5 Minutes

Daniel had been meaning to fix the cabinet door under his kitchen sink for weeks. Every time he opened it, the door dropped a little and scraped the floor. So on Sunday afternoon, he finally grabbed a screwdriver and decided to take care of it.

“It will only take five minutes,” he thought.

A few minutes later, one of the screws slipped from his fingers and disappeared under the cabinet. Daniel searched for it, checked his toolbox for another one, and finally gave up. He grabbed his keys and drove to the hardware store.

By the time he returned, his five-minute job had already taken almost an hour.

As Daniel stepped off the elevator, he saw his neighbor, Mr. Alvarez, standing outside his apartment with a screwdriver in his hand.

“You know anything about doors?” Mr. Alvarez asked.

Daniel smiled and held up the little hardware-store bag. “Apparently today I do.”

Mr. Alvarez showed him the bottom hinge. It kept coming loose and the door was dragging against the frame. Daniel looked toward his own apartment and thought about the cabinet still hanging open, but he agreed to help.

The repair took longer than either of them expected. After about half an hour, Mr. Alvarez apologized for taking up so much of Daniel’s afternoon.

Then the elevator doors opened.

An older woman stepped into the hallway using a walker.

Mr. Alvarez smiled. “There she is.”

He explained that his wife had been away for several weeks recovering from surgery. He had been trying to fix the door before she came home because he was afraid she might lose her balance trying to push it open.

Daniel tightened the last screw.

When Mrs. Alvarez reached the apartment, her husband opened the door and asked her to try it.

She pulled it open easily.

“Oh, that’s much better,” she said.

Mr. Alvarez looked at Daniel. “Thank you. I really mean it.”

Daniel picked up his tools and walked back to his apartment. The cabinet door was still crooked, the cleaning supplies were still spread across the floor, and the missing screw was still nowhere to be found.

He looked at the mess and smiled.

It could wait.