Lightless

It's 9:30p.m. on a Sunday night and save for the odd cricket, my town is silent. Even the street dogs seem to have been lulled to sleep by the darkness and lack of activity. The usual scene on a Sunday night is something akin to a carnival- neighbors, music, taco stands and burning trash piles. Tonight, it's more like sleeping. A country wide electrical outage is the culprit. The peace is unusual and I'm soaking it in. Who knows how long it will last. My laptop has power and my satellite internet modem continues to function, so I'm bathed in the blue glow of my computer screen while my neighbors sit at their kitchen tables surrounded by the soft yellow light of candles.

I hear some dogs beginning to bark again. And the lights are back.