After repeated calling Tristan, I finally managed to get him on the phone. I was pleased to discover that his ring back tone was “Moves like Jagger.”
He answered and I explained the situation to him.
“What color is your phone?” He asked.
“Um, let me check.” I said. We both laughed.
“It’s black.”
“Okay cool,” he said “I’ll order the screen for you, and when it comes in, we’ll meet up, I’ll fix it and you’ll have your phone back in an hour. Don’t worry, it’s not major surgery.” He reassured me. I laughed.
We arranged to meet up at the mall on Friday.
***
As it turns out, I lost my phone, today. I won’t be meeting Tristan, I guess.
I’m about to call him to break the news…
So I called Tristan, and it went straight to voicemail.
***
Like a bad ex-boyfriend, my phone showed up again, cracked screen and all. As it turns out I left it at Ari’s school. Wil sent me a Facebook message, because that’s how we were communicating since I had a distinct lack of phone.
He said “Ari’s teacher has your phone. You left it on the playground.”
When I picked Ari up, I also picked up my busted phone. I decided that I would be needing Tristan’s services after all.
***
This morning, I looked at my phone to find a missed text from a number I didn’t recognize, it said:
“Hi Sarah, sorry I’m sending this so late. Are we on for 10am tomorrow?”
It took me a minute to figure out who was texting me, then I remembered Tristan. I texted him back and told him I’d see him at 10.
***
I met Tristan at Target. At first I couldn’t find him, so I called him from my busted phone and he described the plaid shirt he was wearing. He answered and I spotted him sitting at a table with a woman. He was in the middle of a surgical procedure on another IPhone.
“Hi,” I said, “Wow, that looks intense.” I said staring at the parts of IPhone spread out over the table like tiny little robotic body organs. I watched as he expertly used a micro tool set to adjust various tiny screws.
“You can leave your phone with me and come back in an hour.” He said. He had a warm smile, and I immediately felt reassured somehow.
***
I left my broken IPhone with Tristan and went into the 1800 Mattress store to browse. The store was empty, and then I spotted the one employee in there. It was like he owned a giant apartment that consisted entirely of beds. We got to talking, and it turned out that his girlfriend was expecting a baby. So we spent a little time discussing baby things, then we talked about mattresses. I asked him if he ever took a nap in the store.
“I would totally nap, if I worked here.”
“Yeah, we’re not allowed to sleep,” he said “But sometimes we lay on the beds, our manager allows us to do that.”
We talked about other things besides mattresses, life school, politics, my blog. And then I realized that an hour had passed.
***
I went back to meet Tristan at Target. When I arrived, the same robotic organs I’d seen before were spread across the table, except they were my phone’s intestines.
“You’re more than welcome to watch.” He said peering deeply into the phone’s central artery.
“You don’t mind?” I asked
“Not at all,” said picking up a micro-screw with a magnetic screwdriver.
“So how did you learn to do this?” I asked. The curiosity was brewing inside me.
“YouTube.” He replied nonchalantly.
“Wow.” I said floored.
I watched as he carefully and methodically put my phone back together one tiny robotic piece at a time.
While he worked we talked about life, school, accounting, and more. He was 24 years old. I asked him how old he thought I looked. He said “28.” I said “Thanks, I’m actually 32, so that’s a compliment! I have a young soul.”
***
I watched as Tristan placed the last screw inside my IPhone. He handed me the finished product. It was flawless.
“Take a picture, you want to make sure that the camera works.”
“Okay,” I said gleefully.
So I took this picture, of Tristan.

Thank you Tristan, for fixing my busted IPhone. I’ll be sure to recommend you to everyone I know in the same predicament.
I’d also like to send a special shout out to all the DIY YouTube videos that made this day possible.