Yes Kids, It’s a Black Out

Yesterday, we were gifted the most beautiful rainstorm. As the self proclaimed pluviophile that I am, I smiled from ear to ear, while lying under the covers. I eventually made it out on the porch to experience this beautiful, natural phenomenon. I was content.

It lasted about fifteen minutes and it was like nothing happened. The streets quickly dried up from the sunshine and heat that preceded the rainstorm.

But then came a much dreaded text message from building management about an outage in my neighborhood. Whyyyy?!

Later on, I picked the girls up from the bus stop and shared the news with them. I prepared them for the walk up the dark stairwell. I lead with two timid girls with the flashlight from my phone up the stairs, whle my older daughter also used the light from her phone to guide the way. We made it to our apartment, and the girls let out a huge sigh of relief. They realized the apartment was indeed brighter than the dark stairwell and hallway as I told them it would be.

They did their usual after school routine, followed by some painting, reading, having a dance party—primarily my older daughter—and a few minutes on their pads. We then had dinner followed by a few complaints of boredom from the older kid.

I repeated my favorite saying, “Boredom fosters creativity.” She didn’t want to hear a word of it. Not a single word in this moment, but she had no choice.

As we moved from the evening sky, sunset, twilight and then the night sky, we found refuge on the porch. I dragged an extra twin mattress, a bean bag, pillows and blankets, along with some bug spray as we camped out and stared at the night sky. We kept the chitchat going for a while and discussed the movie for our family movie night. We then settled on the series “Blackish,” a show the girls have been enjoying and love so much.

“One episode, because I need to conserve my power in case of an emergency,” I warned. They couldn’t care less. They were just excited to do something with me.

We huddled, each person protected by their individual blanket in case the mosquitoes wanted to make dinner out of us. I guess the bug repellent I sprayed around us did its job, because we were safe the entire time.

During the show, they got distracted by the stars in the sky and the passing airplanes from the airport nearby. The show ended and we walked into the house, bringing everything in with us.

We then all went on my bed. There was no way they were sleeping in their rooms by themselves tonight. My younger daughter lay in the middle and my older to the far left end. They said how much they enjoyed hanging out on the porch under blankets to watch their favorite show. It was perfect.

Shortly after my little one fell asleep, I decided to make a mad dash to the car to get the flashlight I kept in my car for emergencies. I reminded my older daughter that she will be just fine. When I returned, I set up the flashlight and turned it on. This tiny flashlight brightened the room to a shocking level. We were both amazed and tested it out in a few other rooms.

We returned to the bedroom, placed it on the bedside table nearest to her. I told her if she woke up and the electricity hadn’t come back, she could use it. Shortly after, she fell asleep.

In the morning, when my older daughter got up, she walked over and gave me the biggest hug.

She said, “Thank you for helping me feel okay in the dark last night. I don’t think I am super afraid of the dark anymore.”

I hugged her and smiled. “I’m glad to help you anytime sweetie.”