Darkness Falls

The other night, we had a severe thunderstorm that took down the power in our neighborhood for at least three hours. It happened around midnight on a Saturday night, so Gllen and I were still up - he was working in his office and I was camped out in the living room. After a few flickers and wobbly attempts to stay on, the power went out and I heard an expletive coming from the office.

Two minutes later, Gllen wanders through the dark to the living room to sit on the sofa next to me. We sat in silence for a minute. He stared at me, every flash of lightning illuminating the blank stare turned my way. It was as if the power went out in Gllen as well.

After five minutes of feebly attempted conversation, Gllen is still sitting next to me, immobile. He tells me, "I've thought of at least 8 things to do, and all of them require electricity."

I tried to engage him on that topic... but he just countered with more silence.

Finally, he asked me, "Should we eat our ice cream?"

I'm sure he could hear the laughter in my voice. "No... It's fine. Just don't open the freezer door and it will stay cold enough in there."

We lapsed into silence again. I decided to light some candles and try to read a book. Gllen sat.

After I settled myself in and was about to crack open my book, Gllen asked about the ice cream again. "It's been a long time! I should dish up the ice cream so it doesn't go to waste."

"It's fine!" I told him. "Don't worry about it!"

An hour passed.

We finally decided to go to bed, but even that was futile. Gllen wasn't tired enough to sleep, so instead, he laid there, occasionally shaking his fists into the air and chanting, "Power, power, power. POOOOOWWWWEEER!!!"

After a while, I told him, "You know - you would never survive an apocalypse."

He scoffed at me through the tomb-like darkness of the room. "Yeah I would."

I rolled my eyes to myself. He added, "When the apocalypse happens, I know exactly what to do. You eat all the ice cream. And that way, it's like a celebration."