Blackout

Saturday 17th July 2013, 18:00pm

Sara had never been at home during a blackout and the gravity of the situation was only now hitting her. Outside there were no lights. All the street lamps were dead and there were no constant lights of the neighbours televisions or computer screens flashing through the windows. Instead the street was cloaked in an impenetrable eerie silence. It was so quiet; the only sound Sara could hear was the sound of her own nails drumming impatiently against the door. She was standing outside on her porch waiting for her friends to arrive. Inside, her younger brother’s Suntendo DS was out of battery so he had reluctantly decided to go to bed early. Her mother was furious at not being able to get to her scheduled conferences for the week with all planes down and was busy sulking away her stress in her rare hour long baths.

Taylor was already at Sara’s house after having slept the night and was now diligently lighting all their candles around their house. Taylor was happy, she still had her Strawberry Bold 3G so the world was still all right. She had nothing to complain about, for now.

“Sara!” Nina squealed enveloping her in a death-like hug, “You’re alive! I heard about what happened… with the whole island thing and all. I would say it was our fault, but things were so crazy with the blackout I didn’t even notice. I thought we were going to die, driving home in pitch black and then those hours of utter boredom at home. It was the worst hours of my life, just sitting there doing nothing, cramped up in our small house. My dad was driving me mad… And then fancy their being another blackout today, when you invite us round. My mum wasn’t going to let me out of the house, but then I said no, I’m leaving. I don’t think I could take another second with her holed up in the house with her.”

Sara stood nodding, marveling at Nina’s ability to talk and talk without stopping for a breath. She put her coat aside and led her upstairs.

“Are you in mourning for something?” Sara teased referring to her heavy makeup and black jeans and t-shirt.

“Only the death of my Bliss laptop,” Nina frowned, “and… the other day something really weird happened with Nathan.”

“Yeah?” Sara replied, stopping off at the kitchen to grab some crisps before they went to her bedroom.

“He was listening to his music in his room – as he always is, messing with his tracks as per usual. I didn’t even notice anything as our parents had his room sound proofed a while ago, so they never really know how loud he’s playing his music. But yesterday he had to go to the hospital because ‘apparently,’ he’s blown out his eardrum, and possibly, permanently lost his hearing! It was quite shocking actually. Poor Nathan was so worried, our parents were out and we had to have an ambulance come for him…”

Sara paused, frozen in shock on the landing, her hand poised on her door knob. Nathan – deaf? “You’re kidding?” she asked, even though she could tell from the tone of Nina’s voice that she was telling the truth.

“Nope. You should have seen his face. He looked like a little confused puppy. I thought he was just faking it and all, especially when we were in the ambulance. I don’t know what he’d have done if I wasn’t in the house.” Sara couldn’t believe it that Nina was actually laughing about this. Any other day Sara would have just taken the whole story as a load of nonsense, but she was quickly realizing that nothing was certain, any second your whole world could change and turn itself and everything inside, upside down.

“Anyway, he wanted me to tell you that he couldn’t come,” she smiled politely, gently stepping past Sara into her room.

“Well I hope he gets better, really,” Sara said earnestly, anxiously gripping Nina’s arm. She couldn’t imagine Nathan without his sense of hearing. His music was his life. It was like Taylor not being able to text. It made her shudder to think about how loud his stereo must have been to make him temporarily lose his hearing. Or it maybe was something that had happened over time?

Sara was beginning to think that Nina was the only one coming, when Jude arrived a couple minutes later looking dead on his feet as if he’d been up the night. Sara was about to ask him about it when Luther came barreling through her whole door.

“Sara!” he gasped, gulping in lungful after lungful of air. “I ran all the way here. How on earth did you know so quickly!”

“You only live across the road Luther, and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sara smiled amused by his sudden arrival.

“You mean you don’t know! I thought with you inviting us all here, it was as a sort of celebration party?” Sara folded her arms across her chest, getting bored of the guessing game already.

“Out with it Luther, what is it this time? Did your dad finally release the new the Bliss Laptop? I’ve been waiting for that update for ages” Nina whined from her comfortable position on Sara’s bed.

Luther only shook this head, “No, this is something way bigger. I think it’s best if I show you guys.” Sara simply shrugged, and watched enthralled as Luther pulled a small radio from his back pack.

“You know there’s no power, right,” Jude said from the corner of the room.

Ignoring him, Luther also took a small generator from his bag.

“His father founded the company Gadgets’ r’ Us,” Sara said, as way of explanation, as she sat down next to Jude on the carpet.

“And like the movies say, like father like son,” Nina added, too quietly for Luther to hear himself. Taylor immediately jumped up from her seat and began to search Sara’s room for a lead to plug her mobile into the generator aswell.

“Let me just find the right channel…” Luther smiled, pressing his ear towards the small device as the radio blared into life.

“…it’s been so many years since any previous strife’s or conflicts, yet with so much tension within the country some politicians have worried that the protestors will even go so far as to create civil war within the country…” a newsreader announced.

“Wait!” Jude called leaping up from his seat. “Leave it on that channel, I want to hear that.”

Sara and Taylor looked at each other simultaneously their faces equally as shocked and disbelieved as the other.

“War?” Sara said out loud. The word sounded foreign and weird in her mouth. The announcer had been right, a war in this day and age it had to be some kind of joke. “Maybe…” she began but was instantly hushed by Jude as he turned the volume louder.

“….Yet another violent protest held by Media City’s very own neighboring town citizens takes the headlines today. The angry protestors claim company; SIM have not considered all the consequences of their massive new product that is the super computer. The rebels claim outrageous theories and have even mentioned the word ‘autonomy,’ and suggest that a computer that exceeds the brain capacity of humanity can become self-sufficient. According to the police the protestors aren’t sure that SIM has thought about what attention this will bring to the country or how other countries will react to this creation. There is even some new found evidence claiming that these protestors may be the cause of the current power cuts plaguing our city …” As quickly as the radio came to life the voice came to a stuttering halt.

“What happened?” Nina demanded now all ears.

“I think, I may have forgotten to properly charge the generator,” Luther frowned sheepishly.

Sara didn’t know what to stay. Nina looked lost for words; Taylor had stopped typing and was nervously biting her nails. Jude looked like he had seen a ghost and had turned as white as a sheet.
“Well that was smart Luther. Is that the good news that had you running over here so eager to tell us?”

“Of course not.”

“Then, what was it?”

“It seems a bit, unimportant now.” he sighed, but still continued. “It’s not for certain yet, but last night the makings of the first supercomputer was built. It’s just a prototype, but my dad says that this is already a massive step to our future. A massive step to the technological singularity, even.”

Supercomputer, singularity? Sara’s mind was spinning. It was all too much, “I didn’t know they were making super computers,” she said.

“I didn’t know, they were riots going oneither,” Nina grunted, “They didn’t even mention which other cities are causing trouble. We never get told anything,” she muttered crossly.

“Or maybe you just haven’t realised. Don’t any of you guys watch the news?” Jude exclaimed.

“And you are?” Luther asked finally noticing him.

“Oh sorry,” Sara smiled, remembering her job as host, “Luther, Jude, Jude Luther. Jude’s new here. He also happened to be the only person that was stranded on that island with me, thanks to Mr. Kerry.”

Luther looked away, he still felt bad about that. Thankfully Nina interrupted the awkward silence, “What is technological singularity exactly?”

“Um, it’s like an event, okay more like a time, when technological process has grown very quickly and so fast that the future after this ‘time’ becomes unpredictable and unclear. So, basically anything can happen, only we, humans cannot predict our future anymore, because computer capability and intelligence exceeds that of our minds.” Luther was getting more and more excited as he spoke. “Creating the first supercomputer is probably going to trigger the technological singularity. It’s like the dawn of a new era! And Media City will be right behind it.”

Despite what they had just heard on the radio, Sara couldn’t help keep her heart from swelling with pride and patriotism. “How did I not know about this?” she smiled shaking her head.

“I have no idea Sara. Your dad has been right behind the whole thing, along with a whole lot of other tech geniuses. They couldn’t have done it without him.”

“Your dad?” Jude looked terrified.

“Yeah, Luther’s and Sara’s dads are co-workers, and brothers. Luther and Sara are cousins. And now it looks like everyone’s parents are going to be famous, except mine,” Nina sighed while examining her nails.

“My dad is only really involved of the promotion of the product,” Luther added.

Next to Sara, Taylor was tapping away furiously on her phone. In a couple minutes, power cut or no power cut, everyone was going to be hearing about the new supercomputer. And Sara had found out at the same time as her friends. She couldn’t help feeling angry at her dad who was always holed up at the centre, it was no wonder Sara didn’t know anything. “Hey, where are you going?” Sara asked as Jude made his way to the door.

“I just realised, I have to go home immediately,” he said shrugging on his jacket.

Behind her, Sara’s friends were finding a DVD to put on, which was exactly what she didn’t want to happen. She had wanted this evening, for them to actually do something different, to actually socialize and prove to Jude just how close friends they were. Only now he was leaving and they were going to be anti social and just watch a movie.

“A film, really guys? Can’t we do something different today?” she pleaded.

“Like what exactly?” Nina replied.

“Besides we can’t, with the power out...” Sara stopped mid sentence when Nina flicked the lights on. Okay, so the blackout was over. Somewhere between listening about war on the radio and talking about supercomputers the electricity had come back on. Sara swiveled around only to realise that Jude had successfully managed to vanish. Rolling her eyes, she sped down her stairs just in time to catch him at the door.

“You only just got here,” she said only too aware that she was sounding like she was begging. Jude, however didn’t seem to notice. He still looked like he seen a ghost. “Is something wrong?” Sara asked as he bit his lip and nervously ran his hand through his hair. “You know I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that day on the island. I’ve been thinking about going back there, now that there are no more storms or bad weather scheduled for a while I’m sure it would be… safe. It’s just that I was so sure that there were people on the island and I know if I could go back there, I could prove myself right… or wrong. It doesn’t matter, it would just be a relief to know, for sure.”

“Sara,” Jude said seriously, “what would you say if I told you that I knew what the true cause was of the black outs?”

Sara thought he was joking, “Then I’d tell you to tell the authorities straight away and we wouldn’t have to endure any more of these annoying power cuts!”

Jude shook his head, “Wrong answer.” And with that he left.