THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY

4:45 a.m. August in South Texas. My husband’s alarm clock has just sounded. He has made his way through a sleepy fog into the bathroom when the electricity went off. The house became completely quiet. No air conditioning or ceiling fan noise. No noise from the refrigerator. We have a water well, which means without electricity the pump won’t run so we have no water. But the worst part is no way to make morning coffee. I get up and slip into what feels like my robe. I inch my way around the wall until I find the door. The stairs to the lower floor are steep and narrow. And dark. Not a glimmer of light from anywhere. I feel my way along the kitchen wall, past the silent refrigerator until I find the cabinet where the flashlight is kept. Now I have a single beam of light. I find the emergency candles and began lighting them. I light four and take the first one upstairs to my husband so that he can finish dressing for work. I place the other three around the house. I go outside hoping for a breath of cool air, but it’s August in South Texas and it’s hotter outside than inside. By this time my husband has made his way downstairs. Under different circumstances our candlelit house might take on a romantic glow. But not at 5 a.m. in an oven of a house and with no morning coffee. My husband heads out to work through a pitch-black garage. The garage door opener is dead so he strains to open it manually. Then he is gone. I am left in total silence. I open a Sprite and take a sip. It is not a good substitute for coffee. I consider going back to bed but I know it’s too hot to sleep. The candlelight is too dim to read by. So I sit and reminisce about my years as a child. We did not have electricity. Every summer was like this one. Dark, hot, quiet, and natural. It was a time before my body and my mind became so adjusted to being cool and living with some form of constant noise. Those long ago mornings I awoke to the sound of Daddy loading wood into a wood burning stove so that he could start the coffee perking. Perking coffee has a different aroma than coffee dripping from an electric coffee maker. It awakens your mind and nudges your body to move. Sounds from outside were different too. This morning I hear cars driving by. Neighbors are spilling from silent dark houses, also facing the workday without their morning coffee. But back then I awoke to sounds drifting in through open windows. Birds waking up and singing a medley of different tunes. Dogs barking in the distance. Cows softly bellowing that it’s milking time. So I sit here this morning and write. Almost an hour has passed but I am lost in my writing. I drain the last of Sprite from the can. Then light and sound once again fills the room and my life. The refrigerator hums, cool air blankets the room, ceiling fans began to whirl. I blow out the candles. Things are back to normal. My journey down memory lane has ended. I close my notebook and head back to my cool bed. I lie there more aware of the cool air and of the noise. I drift off to sleep holding onto memories of those long ago mornings.