Several nights ago, I was rudely awoken from slumber to find that I was drenched in sweat. The air was still, humid and heavy. The nightlight at the corner of the room was off and the fan and air conditioner was also not running.
I turned to A, still in very deep slumber, and gave him a few pats. “I think there is no electricity,” I whispered, “Can you please check the fuse box?”
Half asleep, his eyelids still heavy, he slowly got up from the bed, guiding himself through the dark using the light found on his phone. He checked whether a flip of a switch may be able to reverse this. Unfortunately, it was not a local problem - we peered out the window to find that our neighbours’ houses were also pitch black. This was officially a neighbourhood blackout.
A called the local electricity company to be informed that the problem is currently being rectified and it will take another 1-2 hours. We resorted to manually fanning ourselves with magazines to help us relax back to sleep. But we found it pretty difficult to unwind whilst breathing this solid, stationary air.
In the end, I decided to sleep on the marble tiles as that was the only thing that was remotely cold. The fridge was out of service and we had no portable fans. The tiles felt like ice on my skin and thats where I found enough comfort to shut my eyes temporarily and sleep. A could have slept anywhere - he is sturdier in withstanding heat than I am. But not wanting me to sleep alone on the floor, he too laid himself next to me albeit on the carpet. He held my hand in his and all that I could think was how lucky am I to be his. And how strange a predicament we have found ourselves in now.
After an hour or so, the lights were back on and we rejoiced at the prospect in snuggling under the duvet again.
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