In The Dark

Sierra was up watching Saturday morning cartoons before her older sister, Michelle and parents even woke up. Sierra was just four and her older sister, thirteen. Rachel, their mother rolled her legs out of bed and then she swatted Charlie’s ass and reminded him that he had promised the girls that he would take them to the museum after lunch. She got up to start breakfast. Charlie yawned as he stretched and then he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back into bed. He rolled on top of her pinning her down and started kissing her neck.

“Stop it. We don’t need a third child,” she said as she became excited and knew that she could give in at any moment.

“Go see the doctor then,” he suggested.

“You know my body can’t tolerate the pill. And why is it always the woman who sees the doctor huh? Why don’t you go see the doctor? Snip snip!” she commented as she rolled him off of her.

“Forget I mentioned it,” he said as he got up to pee.

“Oh! So now it’s off the menu when the balls are in your court?” she quipped.

“Stop it Rachel. There may be young readers out there. I wouldn’t want you getting into any trouble,” Charlie warned.

“What do you want for breakfast? And don’t say s...” she started to say.

“Rachel Rae…” he warned from the bathroom. “Scrambled eggs will be fine.”

“Oatmeal it is,” Rachel said as she put on her robe and headed out.

Charlie finished, flushed, washed his hands and checked out his stubble. “Good enough for a weekend,” he thought and then he got dressed.

Michelle finally crawled out of her cave when she smelled the sausages frying and made her way into the kitchen.

“Is dad still taking us to the museum today?” she asked after she sat down.

“As far as I know sweetheart. Sierra! Turn off the TV and come eat while it’s still hot,” Rachel yelled as Charlie walked in.

“That would be an affirmative Mishey,” her dad said as he poured his coffee.

Just as he put the coffee pot back the lights went out.

“Damn! The circuit must be overloaded again. I’ll go check the fuse panel,” he said.

“Dad! The TV don’t work,” Sierra yelled from the living room.

“Odd. The living room shouldn’t be out. It’s not on the same circuit. Unless it’s not the fuse box,” Charlie offered.

Charlie walked outside and looked around, he needed to pick up the newspaper anyway. No porch lights on at the neighbors house, he never shuts them off. He grabbed the newspaper and walked back inside. He picked up the phone and dialed Pete’s number.

“Hey Pete… Yeah, that’s why I called… All over huh?… Okay, that’s all I wanted to know… Wait… You know if Dover is black?… It is?… Thanks Pete… Yep, later bye… Well it appears that the power is out all over,” Charlie explained after he hung up.

“Can you turn the TV back on daddy?” Sierra asked as she ate her scrambled eggs and sausages.

“No baby. Daddy can’t fix the TV this time. The electricity that makes it work stopped working,” he replied.

“For how long? Michelle asked. “I have to take a shower, wash and then blow dry my hair.”

“I don’t know sweet heart. Could be a few minutes to all day. It depends on what caused the power outage in the first place. You can still take your shower. This house runs on propane,” her dad stated.

“How will I dry my hair without my blow dryer?” Michelle asked.

“You’ll just have to use a towel,” he suggested.

“What are we? Neanderthals?” Michelle asked as she ate her eggs.

“Ugh. You just eatem you’re unborn baby chickens,” her dad said doing his worst caveman impression.

“Guess this means no trip to the museum then. Huh?” Rachel offered.

“They might get the power restored by lunch. Don’t count the day out yet,” he offered.

That was at eight am. The power was still out at eleven forty-five. Charlie made a few calls and was told that it didn’t look like the power would be back on anytime soon. Charlie went to the garage and dug out the camping tent, portable awning and the charcoal grill and with the girls help they had them set up in no time.

“Tell me again why we’re pitching the tent in the backyard,” Rachel asked.

“We’re camping. Since there isn’t any electricity today. I thought we could imagine ourselves out at a campsite enjoying nature,” Charlie answered.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go get the swimming pool and you can pretend you’re at a lake.”

“Good idea hun. Now you’re getting the hang of it,” he stated.

“I was joking. Sheesh,” she said as she went back into the house.

“Still a good idea,” he said as she disappeared through the doorway.

Charlie cleaned out the tent with a little help from Sierra. They brought out the cots and sleeping bags and set them up. He cleaned out the charcoal grill and got it ready so that they could use it to cook their supper later. He built a small fire in the fire ring for ambiance and smores. He tasked Sierra with making sure that it didn’t go out by putting small sticks in it every so often. He put their patio table under the big awning as well and then he went and got the kiddie pool. Sierra was having a ball running around the back yard, going in and out of the big tent and swimming in the “lake”. Michelle was mad because she couldn’t blow dry her hair or use the computer to instant message her friends.

“You can call your friends and have them come over,” her mom suggested.

“How? There’s no power!” Michelle stated.

“The phone has its own power. It’ll work,” her mom offered.

Michelle called a couple of her friends and invited them over. They sat around the fire ring making smores and talking all afternoon. They forgot about their internet for a few hours and actually had a good time. As evening approached, Charlie cooked up a mess of hamburgers and hot dogs and they had a fine camp supper. After Michelle’s friends went home, the girls went back inside to get ready for bed. Charlie and Rachel stayed outside for a while longer.

“This was a pretty good day honey. I think the girls will remember this Saturday” Rachel commented.

“Yes it was baby. I sure hope they have a lot of Saturdays that they can look back on fondly,” Charlie agreed as he dragged her into the tent and zipped it closed.

Nine months later little Billy was born.