A few months after Irma hit us in 2017, our AC died. You really can’t live in South Florida without air conditioning during the hot months, so we called our AC company. The news wasn’t good – the unit needed to be replaced. Less than a year later, the new AC stopped working.
The technician – Dustin – who came by the house took the whole thing apart and announced we needed a new compressor. Since the unit was still new, he suggested we email Trane to find out if we could get a partial refund. I emailed them and they did refund about a third of the cost. Four months later, the AC unit started making weird sounds, the same thing it had done when the compressor had gone out. Rob called and the tech said he had two other stops to make, but would be by tonight. Free of charge. The technician was Dustin. It was also ten o’clock at night.
“Wow,” I said as he went to work. “Talk about dedicated. I hope you’re getting double time for this. What were your other calls tonight?”
“One was a clogged line, like what you guys have. The other was a compressor I have to put in tomorrow. This woman just lost her husband this morning. And then the compressor on her AC goes a few hours later. I’m thinking, Lady, go buy a Lottery ticket because your luck’s got to change.”
Rob and I looked at each other, recognizing the synchronicity. We’ve written about clocks stopping when a loved one dies, about car batteries failing before hearing about a death, about certain books falling at someone’s feet shortly before or after a loved one dies. We’ve heard about animal messengers – birds, butterflies, white feathers – connected to the passing of a loved one. But an AC compressor is a first.
Just look at the symbolism. From a website on what a compressor does: “
“In simple terms, an A/C Compressor is a pump. The compressor is the ‘heart’ of the air conditioning system, moving refrigerant through the system. … Refrigerant is ‘sucked’ into the compressor, compressed, and ‘discharged’ through the outlet, headed for the condenser.”
In other words, the compressor is the heart and breath of an AC unit, the same processes that help keep us alive.
The metaphor on this one is eerily obvious.