Power

“Power”

People who live in cooler climates spend a good part of their lives looking forward to the annual start of summer. Those few, precious months of warm sunshine and green grass make the rest of the calendar more bearable. Peter and his wife, Kate, were among the many people who searched online travel sites while the snow was falling outside, looking for summer beach getaways and bargains at the campgrounds. But last year’s summer had brought record breaking heat and by late May this year’s had already begun to look like it was going to be even worse. Day after day and week after week the temperatures stayed high and the rain stayed away. By late July a strange kind of weather-caused malaise had settled in. People stayed indoors more than usual. Backyard patios and playgrounds were empty. Green lawns had turned brown. Even the birds seemed to be in hiding and the night-time breezes were warm instead of cool. There was nothing coming from the TV meteorologists that indicated changes were coming anytime soon.

Peter had spent part of the afternoon in the only alternative to their patio; an air conditioned sunroom with a large ceiling fan, both of which had been running steadily for weeks. He’d been looking out over his burned out lawn and withered gardens and feeling trapped indoors.

“I thought I’d find you in here.” Kate was carrying two margaritas and had her tablet computer tucked under her arm. She handed a glass to Peter and sat down in the chair next to his.

“Thanks, babe, alcohol will definitely make me feel better about our dead yard.”

“Good, I hope it works. I know that’s been bothering you.”

He took a sip from the salty rim and leaned back. “You know, this drink helps take my mind off of the heatwave but when I’m back in the office tomorrow that’s all anyone will be talking about. They’ll all be complaining about the heat just as the big fight with Allegheny Power is coming to a head. I’m at a point in the case where I’m up to my armpits in slimy lawyers and greedy regulators. The utility business sure is a dirty one.”

“Are you making any progress?”

“It’s hard to say. When we started the class-action suit against them in January they seemed like they were willing to listen about keeping their rates down. Then came the heatwave for the second year in a row and all of a sudden they’re back to being assholes. People are so desperate for relief that Allegheny thinks they’ll pay any price for the power that brings it.”

“So it’s going to get ugly again?”

“No doubt about it. You should read some of the emails I’ve been getting. Talk about nasty!”

“Just be careful what you say back to them. That big chip you always have on your shoulder is why you’re such a good lawyer but it’s gotten you into trouble before and it just might do it again.”

Another long sip of his drink. “I’ll be careful but the chip on my shoulder stays. I flat out don’t like this bunch. They’re all lobbyists or Board members in the pockets of lobbyists.” He turned toward her, a serious look on his face. “This litigation is starting to feel different somehow. I’ve done lots of class action stuff and it’s always been a group thing. But about two weeks ago, at a meeting at their office, things changed. It turned personal.”

“What do you mean by personal?”

“I mean the lead lawyer for Allegheny, John McDougal, and the woman who heads up the Utility Advisory Board decided the best way to get their big, obscene rate increase was to get me out of the way.”

“Is that what their emails were about?”

“Yeah, the emails, the phone calls, the meetings. When you read between the lines they all come down to the message, “Peter Hansen is the reason a new rate agreement can’t be hammered out.” No mention of the other forty people named in the action, just me.”

Kate smiled. “And if I know you like I think I do, you’re enjoying the battle.”

He got a sheepish look on his face. “Yeah, I admit I never walked away from a brawl and I won’t walk away from this one but I have a hunch. I think they’re going to find some way to use the heatwave to turn things their way.”

Kate opened her tablet and scrolled down for a moment then handed it to Peter. “You may be right. I saw this about an hour ago.” She waited for him to read the article and then asked, “Were you expecting that?”

He shrugged. “These rolling blackouts are used by the utilities when they’re afraid of overloading the power grid but this doesn’t smell right. They never mentioned anything like this in our meetings. I think the blackouts are going to be a big hammer to pound the public into backing down on the new rates. And Allegheny will blame the whole thing on the heatwave. It’s going to be hard for my group to stand in the way of all that public emotion.”

“They’d really do that to people?”

“Yep, as I’ve gotten to know these idiots I think they’re capable of almost anything. The heatwave is getting to everyone. Nothing feels normal and everyone is sick of it. Allegheny will give them a taste of no air conditioning, no fans and no working refrigerators, and when they say things will be better if you give us more money the people will agree to it in a heartbeat.”

“The article said the blackouts will start Monday morning. That doesn’t give people much time to get ready.”

“Well, by law, they can only shut off the power for a period of one to two hours at a time and then move the outage to another area. That’ll give them time to spread the misery all over town.”

“Does this mean they won’t be going after you anymore?”

“Only time will tell.”

Peter’s Monday commute was uneventful until he pulled into the parking garage next door to his office. He’d parked in his space and was heading for the sidewalk when the lights went out. A few seconds later the emergency lights turned on. “And so it begins,” he thought. The garage’s power outage meant that his office must also have been shut down. When he walked into the lobby it was darker than normal, with only a few ceiling fixtures providing enough light for people to see their way out of the building. It also meant the elevators had no power. He’d have to walk up four flights of stairs to an office that would be equally dark. “Thanks Allegheny Power,” he muttered.

His two partners and four assistants were already in the office, standing near the window looking down on the street. “Morning, all,” he said, walking toward them carefully. “Looks like it’s our turn for a blackout.”

Their office manager, Marci, nodded. “Yeah, I heard about it driving in this morning. They said they’re doing it because of the heatwave.”

“I have a different take on things but I’ll save that for later. They say the blackouts only last an hour or two so I think we can tough it out.”

His partner, Dave, was still looking out the window and said to no one in particular, “This is so strange. Check this out. Our building’s power is out but the Merit Building’s is on and they’re just a block away.”

Peter shrugged and replied, “I guess they have to make a boundary somewhere and they decided Sixth Avenue is it. Lucky us. I have a feeling everyone will get a taste of this outage before Allegheny wraps it up.”

Dave chuckled and answered, “So you better start being nicer to them, Pete.”

Everyone in the office went about their daily tasks and Peter concentrated on his case against Allegheny. When eleven-thirty came, surprisingly, the power was still out and the team was discussing going home and working from their laptops. Peter had a noon lunch appointment and told them he’d do the same when he was finished with it.

Fifteen minutes later he walked through the lobby, out the door and on to the nearly empty sidewalk. The traffic lights at the intersection were out and the few cars driving by were moving cautiously. It was an eerie feeling to see things so quiet in the middle of a workday. The restaurant where he was meeting his friend was a hot, three block walk. Moments after he’d gotten there the traffic signals, storefronts and lights on the block all went dark. “Great,” he thought, “no lunch today.” When he turned and looked back up Sixth Avenue he froze. The traffic lights were working again and the lights were back on in his building, a coincidence that seemed more than a little odd. His first experience in a rolling blackout really had him frustrated.

His friend arrived and they stood on the sidewalk debating whether to try another restaurant or another day. They decided to try again later in the week. The long, hot walk back up Sixth Avenue and the chaos of the off again, on again power just reinforced his feelings that it was being done deliberately.

The lobby was back to normal and he didn’t have to climb hundreds of stairs to get back to his office. The place was empty and when he sat down at his desk it seemed like a good time to call Kate. She had told him she was going to work through the lunch hour so she could leave her office early to run an errand. He’d also planned to leave early and meet her for a drink.

Her phone rang twice before she answered. “Hey, babe, I thought you had a lunch meeting.”

“I did, but it was a victim of the rolling blackout. So was our office, everyone left to work from home. How are things there, do you have power?”

“Yep, everything’s normal here. Do you still want to meet, like around four or four-thirty?”

“Yeah, I have to pull some things together for the hearing but…oh, shit, the lights just went out again.”

“What the hell’s going on? I’m glad I don’t work downtown.”

“I wish I knew but here I sit in the dark again, trying to work on a case against the people who turned off the lights. It’s kind of surreal.”

“Well try to get some work done so you can unwind when we get to The Keg. Let’s do four o’clock.”

“Sounds good. If you get there first try to grab the stools at the corner of the bar.”

The glare from the windows made it hard for Peter to see his laptop screen but with just emergency lights he had no other choice. It had only taken half an hour for the temperature to rise without the air conditioning and a contentious phone conversation with McDougal made it seem even warmer. He pushed it out of his mind as he worked to finish his final comments on the case. The initial hearing and public comment sessions were over. The administrative law judge would be making a final decision on the rate increase and Peter’s arguments would be the make or break point for the class action suit. It would be a high profile event with lots of media coverage. The pressure to get everything right was almost overwhelming. By the time he’d finished up, his shirt was sticking to him and he had sweat running into his eyes. Sharing a cool drink with Kate would be welcome relief.

He’d managed to beat the early rush hour traffic and he pulled into the parking lot of the bar just a few minutes after four. Kate’s car was already there. She was sitting at the corner of the bar when he walked in and he bent down, kissed her and dropped on to his stool. The air conditioning diffuser directly above him chilled his back as the cool air passed over his still damp shirt. They had just taken their first sips of wine when the power went out.

“Oh shit, here we go again.” he growled. “This can’t be happening. Everywhere I go the power shuts down.” The emergency lighting kicked on and he looked around the bar. The confused wait staff seemed unsure of how to handle the situation.

Kate put her hand on his. “I just had a strange thought and I hope I’m wrong. Let me see your phone.”

He handed it to her. “What’s up? What’s your strange thought?”

She scrolled through the screen icons for his apps and stopped on the last part of the array. “You have a tracking app on here.”

“Yeah, everyone in the firm has it so we can find each other when we’re running all over town. Why, is that important?”

She looked up from the phone, handed it back to him and said, “I think someone’s tracking you with your GPS. And I think it’s somehow tied to the blackouts.”

Peter sat for a moment, looking at the screen and thinking back on the day’s events. “My God, I think you might be right. Everywhere I went today the power went out just as I got there, and it went back on after I left.”

“I assume somebody from Allegheny or their lawyer has your number.”

“Of course, we spend a lot of time arguing with our phones to our ears.” He paused then said, “I told you before that these people are capable of doing anything to win, especially McDougal. The more I think about it the more it makes sense. I think they knew I’d figure it out eventually. Actually you did, so thanks, babe.”

“What’s their game? What do they think’s going to happen with all this?”

“They think when I figure it all out it will scare me off. Keep me in the dark everywhere I go, with no air conditioning and I’ll cave in on the case.”

There was a long pause and Kate finally asked, “Will you?”

Peter smiled. “Hell no. You know that big chip on my shoulder? Well, it’s going to turn things my way.”

The bar was starting to get warm and the few other patrons had already left. Peter stood up and put his phone in his pocket. “One last thing to try, just to confirm your suspicions. I’ll follow you home. If the power goes out there, I’ll put my phone in the glovebox of my car and drive over to Walmart. You follow me and I’ll leave my car there. I think it’s far enough away from our house to keep our lights on.”

“What if they shut off the power at Walmart?”

“Who cares, it’s Walmart.”

Peter’s plan confirmed Kate’s suspicions. Five minutes after they’d gotten home the power went out. By the time they’d dropped off his car and phone and pulled back into their garage the power was back on. Solving the mystery of the blackouts was as unnerving as it was satisfying. They sat in the sunroom wondering what to do next.

Kate spoke first. “Well, obviously you’ve got to get your phone back and keep them from tracking you, right?”

Peter stared out the window and she saw his smile slowly forming. “What if I let them track me but it really wasn’t me?”

“I don’t follow.”

“Here’s what I’m thinking. The Advisory Board is meeting tomorrow night. They have a timeclock rule that says tomorrow is the deadline for them to make the Recommended Order. That’s the utility rate they agree on and after that there are no more meetings or appeals. It’s a done deal.”

“And I assume you’ll be there.”

“I was planning to go but there’s no comment allowed from the public or legal teams. They had to move the meeting to the auditorium at the community college because they’re expecting such a huge crowd. It’ll be observation only so I won’t be able to change anything that happens. I can only sit there and watch my group lose their fight.”

“So I guess it’s over then.”

He leaned toward her, smirking, and asked, “How would you like to wear the chip on my shoulder for an hour or so?

When Kate got to the auditorium lobby the crowd was already filing in. She took an aisle seat in the last row, what Peter called her “quick getaway seat”. He waited for her in his car in the parking lot so he wouldn’t be seen. It didn’t take long for the crowd to settle into their seats and the Board, lawyers and Allegheny people seated themselves at a long table on the stage. When the head of the Board grasped her microphone and called the meeting to order Kate reached into her purse and pulled out Peter’s phone. When the power went out no one could see the smile on her face.

The next morning they had their coffee in front of the morning TV news. The lead story was how the rolling blackouts had disrupted life all over town and how that disruption ended where it began. The reporters on every station seemed to have trouble telling the story with a straight face; the story of how one of the electric company’s rolling blackouts rolled right over their own meeting. How the Utility Board missed its own deadline and had to start the rate process all over again. And how Allegheny Power had become the butt of jokes all over the region.

Peter looked at Kate, smiled and asked, “Can I have my chip back now?”

She laughed and answered, “Sure, but can I borrow it again sometime?”