Susan LaffertyNew Delhi, 2012. The electricity goes off. Right after a loud explosion. Most likely a transformer that’s blown in the neighborhood.
It’s late afternoon when shadows lengthen and shade our second floor flat. I sit in the dark. And wait.
The mental checklist forms automatically. Honed by long experience. If it’s an extended power outage, there are things to do.
Sometimes we want to chart the future. Check out the land first. See if it’s a good fit.
And while the fruit is inviting, enemies can seem awfully big. Cities and their barriers, overwhelming.
So we hem and haw. Hesitate to go.
Step back from the border.
Night sky. Stars lost in the city’s loud light.
Raised in a large urban center, I look back on my childhood. And remember something different.
Limited electricity. Unpredictable outages.
Frequent darkness in the evenings.
And stars.
