theoutlands
Official Resister
Keith woke up slowly as Janna shook him. “Mm?” This early in the morning, a grunt counted as intelligent conversation.
“Power’s out, love.”
He pried one eye open and looked for his wife in the pre-dawn darkness. In her bed, the baby grunted in her sleep and rolled over. Keith thought for a moment, working to get his brain-cells awake and functioning. It was Monday. It was early-morning dark. The power was out. Janna was fully dressed.
He levered an arm out from the tangle of sheets and pointed toward the computer desk. “Watch.”
Janna looked at the computer uncomprehendingly for a moment. “Get watch.”
She giggled self-consciously and rooted around on the desk for a moment, finding his watch. Pulling it close to his working eye, he pushed the light button. The display read “5:30.”
“It’s five-thirty. I could have told you that. I checked the wind-up in the living room..” Keith closed his eye in a frown. Why was she always so chipper when she got up before the sun? “I opened the windows in the living room, too. It’s still a bit cooler outside than in.” He nodded once in reply.
“K. Uh. Call Entergy.”
“Can’t - no power for the cordless.” Without saying a word, Keith pointed to the desk-set shoved underneath the computer desk. Janna growled in exasperation. “you’re right, I forgot about it.”
She lifted the handset as she pulled the base close enough to make out the numbers. “1-800-4-OUTAGE? I think that’s right.” She started punching numbers and then worked the hook. “Great. No tone.”
Keith snorted. “Forgot - it’s unplugged. Tina tried to call a doctor for her Pink Bear the other day.” He worked himself upright and pushed gently on Janna’s hip. “Go find the electric-bill and double-check the outage number. I’ll get it hooked up.”
By this point, his reluctant brain was more awake than asleep and he was beginning to function. Finding his glasses, he sat down in the floor and fished out the phone-wire that was plugged into the back of the computer. He got the phone hooked up and waited for Janna to verify the number.
“K, hubby. 1-800-9-OUTAGE.” Keith dialed the number and put the handset to his ear.
“Lovely - here I am reporting a power outage at the end of August on a Monday morning sitting in the floor stark raving naked.”
Janna giggled quietly and poked his arm. “Hush, you! You’ll make me wake the baby.” Keith grinned and pinched her ankle as he waited for the call to go through. “Busy signal?”
Keith frowned in the darkness and shook his head. “No - nothing at all.” He worked the receiver hook. “Line’s dead.”
“Is it plugged in right?”
Keith glared at her, glad she couldn’t see him in the dark. “I dunno. It’s an hour before I normally get up and it’s a Monday to boot. Would you like to check the wire yourself?”
Janna clapped a hand over her mouth and sat there silent for a moment before answering. “Sorry, sweetie. I know, I disturbed you and expected you to start thinking immediately. Um, wanna open that window while you are there? Might get a little breeze that way.”
“Yah, I will. Go get me the fluorescent lantern and I’ll recheck the plugs.” He slid the narrow window open, gratified by the slight puff of fresh air moving inside. It was damp, but in Louisiana it usually was. Most of the past week had seen morning temps and dew-points coinciding. How and why they kept living in such a soup remained a mystery. Sitting back down, he carefully traced the phone-cords, pushing on them to be sure they were all properly seated. Still no dial-tone. Janna knelt beside him and turned on the lamp, casting a washed-out blue glow over everything.
“Let me guess, you did it by feel in the dark while you were waiting on me to get back.”
“Kinky as that sounds, I’ll admit to it. Still no tone. Friggin chip-truck on 43 musta had a problem.” He fished the inverter out from where it sat atop the computer tower-case and plugged it into the jumper-pack that he had for use as an emergency power-supply. “Hand me the radio, babe.” He plugged the battery-hog boom-box into the inverter and turned it on. He hit the automatic tuner and waited for it to find a station. After a minute, he leaned close to check the display. The tuner was working properly - it was racing through the FM band, looking for a broadcast to lock onto. He watched it loop the complete spectrum twice before stopping it and trying to manually tune to a country station that was quick to interrupt its broadcast to cover local emergencies.
Static. He tried adjusting the antenna, but was greeted by no change in the noise.
He looked at Janna, whose face showed a clear understanding of the problem. “Hand me a CD, babe.”
She fumbled the top one off the stack and passed it to him. He slipped it into the the turntable and selected CD on the player’s controls. The display blinked for a moment then cleared up to show the number of tracks and length of the CD. He winked at Janna and tried to smile. “Well, at least the end of the world will have a soundtrack."
=====
maybe more later... I'd like to use the story to be a fictional illustration of instructions on *exactly* how to do different tasks.
“Power’s out, love.”
He pried one eye open and looked for his wife in the pre-dawn darkness. In her bed, the baby grunted in her sleep and rolled over. Keith thought for a moment, working to get his brain-cells awake and functioning. It was Monday. It was early-morning dark. The power was out. Janna was fully dressed.
He levered an arm out from the tangle of sheets and pointed toward the computer desk. “Watch.”
Janna looked at the computer uncomprehendingly for a moment. “Get watch.”
She giggled self-consciously and rooted around on the desk for a moment, finding his watch. Pulling it close to his working eye, he pushed the light button. The display read “5:30.”
“It’s five-thirty. I could have told you that. I checked the wind-up in the living room..” Keith closed his eye in a frown. Why was she always so chipper when she got up before the sun? “I opened the windows in the living room, too. It’s still a bit cooler outside than in.” He nodded once in reply.
“K. Uh. Call Entergy.”
“Can’t - no power for the cordless.” Without saying a word, Keith pointed to the desk-set shoved underneath the computer desk. Janna growled in exasperation. “you’re right, I forgot about it.”
She lifted the handset as she pulled the base close enough to make out the numbers. “1-800-4-OUTAGE? I think that’s right.” She started punching numbers and then worked the hook. “Great. No tone.”
Keith snorted. “Forgot - it’s unplugged. Tina tried to call a doctor for her Pink Bear the other day.” He worked himself upright and pushed gently on Janna’s hip. “Go find the electric-bill and double-check the outage number. I’ll get it hooked up.”
By this point, his reluctant brain was more awake than asleep and he was beginning to function. Finding his glasses, he sat down in the floor and fished out the phone-wire that was plugged into the back of the computer. He got the phone hooked up and waited for Janna to verify the number.
“K, hubby. 1-800-9-OUTAGE.” Keith dialed the number and put the handset to his ear.
“Lovely - here I am reporting a power outage at the end of August on a Monday morning sitting in the floor stark raving naked.”
Janna giggled quietly and poked his arm. “Hush, you! You’ll make me wake the baby.” Keith grinned and pinched her ankle as he waited for the call to go through. “Busy signal?”
Keith frowned in the darkness and shook his head. “No - nothing at all.” He worked the receiver hook. “Line’s dead.”
“Is it plugged in right?”
Keith glared at her, glad she couldn’t see him in the dark. “I dunno. It’s an hour before I normally get up and it’s a Monday to boot. Would you like to check the wire yourself?”
Janna clapped a hand over her mouth and sat there silent for a moment before answering. “Sorry, sweetie. I know, I disturbed you and expected you to start thinking immediately. Um, wanna open that window while you are there? Might get a little breeze that way.”
“Yah, I will. Go get me the fluorescent lantern and I’ll recheck the plugs.” He slid the narrow window open, gratified by the slight puff of fresh air moving inside. It was damp, but in Louisiana it usually was. Most of the past week had seen morning temps and dew-points coinciding. How and why they kept living in such a soup remained a mystery. Sitting back down, he carefully traced the phone-cords, pushing on them to be sure they were all properly seated. Still no dial-tone. Janna knelt beside him and turned on the lamp, casting a washed-out blue glow over everything.
“Let me guess, you did it by feel in the dark while you were waiting on me to get back.”
“Kinky as that sounds, I’ll admit to it. Still no tone. Friggin chip-truck on 43 musta had a problem.” He fished the inverter out from where it sat atop the computer tower-case and plugged it into the jumper-pack that he had for use as an emergency power-supply. “Hand me the radio, babe.” He plugged the battery-hog boom-box into the inverter and turned it on. He hit the automatic tuner and waited for it to find a station. After a minute, he leaned close to check the display. The tuner was working properly - it was racing through the FM band, looking for a broadcast to lock onto. He watched it loop the complete spectrum twice before stopping it and trying to manually tune to a country station that was quick to interrupt its broadcast to cover local emergencies.
Static. He tried adjusting the antenna, but was greeted by no change in the noise.
He looked at Janna, whose face showed a clear understanding of the problem. “Hand me a CD, babe.”
She fumbled the top one off the stack and passed it to him. He slipped it into the the turntable and selected CD on the player’s controls. The display blinked for a moment then cleared up to show the number of tracks and length of the CD. He winked at Janna and tried to smile. “Well, at least the end of the world will have a soundtrack."
=====
maybe more later... I'd like to use the story to be a fictional illustration of instructions on *exactly* how to do different tasks.
