Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Light

So, night before last, one phase of my building's power supply shorted out. What that meant was, one part of my house had its power supply intact but the living room and my room (naturally) didn't. That meant NO AC. Awoken by the heat, I groggily stripped down to my undies and went back to sleep. My sister, in the meantime, brought in an extension from outside and connected the standalone fan for some relief.

The next morning, I opened the windows for some light as I dressed in a mad rush. Once in the car, I called my mother and she promised to have the electrician fix it by the afternoon.

The day passed uneventfully enough, save for the fact that I fell asleep face down, on my keyboard and woke up with the right side of my face looking like a chessboard. Bygones.

Come 6:00 pm, I rushed home again to change into my jeans because I was to meet a friend at the salon. As I opened the door to my house, my living room was dark and still. "Dammit" I cursed. The electrician hadn't come.

I felt my way to my bedroom and stumbled over my bed to the open the window even further. After trying unsuccessfully for about 2 minutes, I gave up and decided to just change in the dark. As I walked around the corner of the bed, I felt something soft and furry under my foot. Before my brain had time to register that it was Lucy, our cat, my foot had come down all the way. The dark room was suddenly filled with the most blood-curdling scream I had ever heard. I've never said "FUCK" so loud in my house before. The hair on the back of my neck was standing as I dropped myself on the bed to take the weight off my feet. Without getting off the bed, I struggled to connect the reading light to the fan extension and turn it on.

Finally able to see again, I looked under the bed to see Lucy looking back at me, a little shaken but relatively unhurt. I apologized profusely and stroked the back of her neck reassuringly. Satisfied that she was going to live, I dressed up and stumbled out of my house and back to the waiting car. Still shaking, I called my mother.

Me: Hi. Where are you?

Mum
: At home. In my room. What's wrong? Are you alright?

Me
: Oh, I didn't see you. I'm fine. I just accidentally stepped on Lucy because I couldn't see a thing.

Mum
: Is she hurt?

Me
: No, I checked, she's fine. (Now audibly agitated) When can the electricians come and fix the damn problem? Sis and I slept with no air conditioning last night. It's summer and I don't want to have to share yours and dad's room. Why didn't they come in the afternoon like you said?

Mum
: Ri?

Me
: WHAT?

Mum
: They did come in the afternoon and fix it.

Me
: *choke* Bye *click*