We stood in the aisle for a few minutes longer. The item I knew we needed for one task was tucked under my arm, but what did we really need for the other task? I let my eye scan the top of the shelves. Kitchen. Sink. Shower. Too generic, all of them. My situation was so specific. What I needed was someone to come to the house, look it over and give me the Magic Missing Clue. Standing in the Home Depot wasn’t going to help at all …

“Help you two?”

What? Oh, hello. We’re just kind of looking, but … well, we have this problem. I tried to install a sink, or rather a faucet. A drain. And where the drain meets the sink, it …

“Is it a kitchen sink or a lavatory?”

It’s a sink in the bathroom. A bathroom sink.

“No. That’s a lavatory. Now, look over here … under the sink, you’re gonna need a p-trap like this …”

We have that. It’s not that part. See, the drain we have, it’s not keeping water in the sink. I’ve put the plumber’s putty where the top part screws onto the bottom part, the part that sticks up into the sink, but with the gasket on the bottom part, it just doesn’t …

“Okay, brother, this is what you’re dealing with … this right here. Now, this part is where you put the putty and this part is going to fit right there and you’re just going to have to keep at it under it just draws right up in there. See?”

And I did. There was the Missing Magic Clue. Armed with the Clue, we bought a part and brought it home.

And the sink no longer leaks.