No mister. Here I am dressed in my pajamas looking three parts zombie and one part confused with a toothbrush in my mouth. But I live somewhere else.
Morning disorientation during a relatively minor disaster? I’ve been there.
I used to live in a 1BR that faced the street, which was quite useful if I had to get up in the middle of the night. The bulb in the fridge went out and I never bothered to replace it until I was getting ready to move.
One time I had gone to sleep with my bedroom window open. A strange noise outside got my attention but not enough to wake me up. The second time I heard the noise, I saw a flash too.
Okay, what flashes. Lightning? Gotta be lightning, better close the window.
So I sat up, closed the window, then tried to go back to sleep.
Wait a minute, something’s wrong. It’s too dark in here.
Sat up again; sure enough, the streetlights were out. Then there was the noise and flash again.
Okay, something’s wrong with the power lines. Better call someone. But what do I tell them? Hmm…perhaps someone was working on one of the lines and got fried.
By that time, I did have enough presence of mind at that point to open the window again and shout, “Help is on the way!” But the fact that power lines arent usually worked on in the middle of the night didn’t occur to me until later. Satisfied that there wasn’t any lightning, I left the window open and went back to sleep. Didn’t last long though. I heard the crackle of a police radio, right when the dispatcher was talking about an odd 911 call about power lines.
That was quick. Hmm…they’re shining the spot light up onto a utility pole. That’s weird, why are they hanging like that?
I finally get out of the bed and go into the kitchen, where I can stick my head all the way out the window (someone took the screen down and never replaced it). I look left and notice a car had struck a utility pole at the other end of the block.
I was hoping that post didn’t go through so I could fix the last thought to read That’s weird, why are the power lines hanging like that?