Homeland (short story)

Homeland

                                                                             Chapter 1

Good job man! I'm so pro — Chris was about to type proud and hit send when the light on her laptop screen flashed and went dead.

"Oops!" She exclaimed, stunned by the sudden trip. She looked around the dark room curiously, wondering what exactly had happened. She looked behind the desk to check that her power pack was still connected to the socket on the wall. It was.

Setting her hand on the edge of the desk for leverage, she pushed the desk chair back and lifted herself to her feet. The obeche desk and chair had come as a set from her carpenter friend in Africa. She'd met Abu on one of her research trips to the continent. When the old man heard she was quitting her job at the news agency that had sponsored their meeting in the first place to start up her own business, he'd shipped the furniture to her. Two years later and Chris had no plans of upgrading. The simple pieces suited her just fine.

After rolling her palm gently against the rough textured wall, Chris finally found the light switch she was looking for. Whenever she was working, Chris liked the room dark. She believed it helped her thought process. Being blocked from seeing anything around her, but what was in her head brought out her inner Shakespeare. Some of her best works, even back when she'd been working for Whistle Inc. had been produced in a dark room.

She flicked the light switch on, but nothing happened. She tested the knob several times, alternating it between the off and on position, but still, nothing happened.

"What the hell?" Chris whispered then opened the door that led to the hallway. She moved with familiarity across the dark space and stopped at the door just before the stair hall. Rolling her palm into a fist, she banged on the door severally before waiting for an answer.

Taron was always sleeping with his headphones plugged in and one had to scream at the top of their voice or blow fireworks before he would hear you. When he finally came to the door to put an end to his sister's knocking, his eyes were drowsy from the short sleep he'd just had.

"What?" he asked groggily in a voice so hoarse the words were barely audible.

Chris grimaced as his breath hit her face. In that split second, she smelled everything he'd eaten the night before and she stepped back. "Oof! Power's out. Go check it out."

"What?" Taron looked back into his room to confirm. He tested the light switch too and when nothing happened he groaned. He shut the door to his room and headed for the garage below.

Chris followed him behind and when they got to the garage it was to see that the circuit had blown.

"Looks like the power's gonna be out for a while," he revealed and shut the door to the box.

"You can do anything to get it back in temporarily? I'm in the middle of an important meeting." Hamid had just told her about the job he'd finally applied for. After pushing him to overcome his fears, she'd been just about to applaud him for his bravery when her laptop went off.

It was to her disappointment when Taron shook his head no. There was nothing he could do about it except call an electrician and he didn't know any that made house calls in the middle of the night. Neither did Chris so her reply to Hamid would just have to wait till the morning and he would probably be asleep by then. Damn!

They exited the garage and while Taron went back to his room, Chris stayed in the kitchen to sulk while snacking on a bag of potato chips. She really should do something about her laptop battery. After it went bad, she hadn't made out the time to buy a new one, but now that there was no way to get the laptop back on without getting to a power source, every other thing she had planned for the day was just going to have to wait.