Power Outage

     The heavy blackness filled the street, and the humidity immediately filled my lungs. I out stretched my arms and extended my fingertips, then proceeded to gently feel up the wall, as if I was trying to seduce it. Creeping down the hall, I made my way through the darkness to the safe haven of the closet. Careful not to disturb the sleeping vacuum, various cleaners, tucked away chairs, and other household objects; I grabbed the flash light, and woke it with one touch. A click later, the small closet was lit up. The radiance of this handheld angel scared away the darkness and showed me the way safely back to my room.

     Of all the days to have a power outage, why did it have to be this night? The ghostly howls of assignments cried for help from the dead laptop. I picked up The Resourceful Reader as I sat down and did my best to recall any of the assignments I had to read. Excavating through my brain, I tried to uncover the lost memory.  No good. I went to my computer to simply look up the assignment, and then remembered that there was no power. Although alone, I still felt the blood rush to my cheeks out of embarrassment. The embarrassment then manifested itself into frustration. The heated blood surged through my body causing me to tremble and clench my fist. My nails dug into the skin of my palms almost piercing it like freshly sharpened claws. The pain shocked me back to my normal calm self. Then a different kind of heat hit me hard. Beads of sweat formed just below my hair line. Skillfully, I pulled my hair into a bun to relive some of the blanketed heat.

     Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bouncing ball of light coming my way followed by a soft tapping sound. The light became brighter and the tapping quickened as the distance between us diminished. I stood up to welcome the tight squeeze around my legs, and reached down to stroke the soft curls that rested on the tiny head. The baby came to greet me, and to show me the new toy he had obtained. His laughter and excitement brightened my mood just as much as the flash lights lit up the room. I picked him up and gave him a gentle squeeze. He smelled of chocolate and pickles, a combination I would never want to try. This was his first power outage at night and he was having a blast. He played flash light tag with the appliances that were shrouded by the shadows, and his shrieks of pleasure filled the house.  They seemed much louder now that everything electric based had stopped. There was no static, no water falling into the fish tanks, no breeze from the air conditioning, no radio, and no television. Nothing. All that was left was the trickling of rain on the pavement, and it’s tapping on the skylights.

     The baby soon ran off to explore the rest of the darkness. I sat back down and continued to try and remember my assignments. I hoped to myself that the power would be back soon. But until then I did my best to regain the memory I knew would not return to me.