Outage

Becky packed up her computer and headed for the lecture theatre exit. Students were bustling all around, scrolling, laughing, planning or just biting into their lunch burrito.

One final check in the mirror and Becky  was on her way. How nice to be dating someone that wasn’t a college student. Jeff was a tech pro in a bank. Sounded  really exciting. Today they would, for their fourth date, sip coffee in the park and stroll through the spring cherry blossoms. This was Becky’s happy secret. Having had her twenty- one  year old heart broken so many times this time it would be different.

‘Maturity,’ her mum said. Maturity teaches us how to cope better.

Mums could be so boring about romantic matters. After all it was more than twenty years since Mum had felt love’s first flutterings.

It was just another busy lunchtime ride on the metro to downtown. People everywhere, heads down, phone in hand.

‘Two more stops,’ Becky calculated, ‘and I’ll be there.’

Having stepped out of the train she hurried excitedly to the square to meet Jeff.

Before reaching the square all the lights, roundabout, went out. People lifted their heads from their screens and stared, bewildered,  around them. Some banged their phone screens hard. Others shouted obscenities at their now blacked out piece of technology.

Glancing backwards Becky saw that the Metro station was in total darkness. Babies were crying, children clung to their adults. A look of terror began to take shape on peoples’ faces.

Some people pulled out power banks from their pockets hoping for a reconnection.

Fortunately, it was early afternoon in May and the sun was still high in the sky. Becky’s excitement at meeting Jeff was not dampened. He would definitely have some answers to this crisis unfolding since tech was his forte.

‘Tech problems could wait,’ Becky thought. She just wanted to hold Jeff’s hand in hers and share some precious moments.

How glad Becky was to be still wearing Grandad’s old battery operated army watch that she had forgotten to return on her last visit. She could at least know the correct time. Draining the last dregs of her coffee cup, Becky made her way to a bench in the square. There was no room to sit down. People huddled together as they sought refuge from this tech outage. Dismayed, they were at a loss what to do next. No one had any answers. People besieged coffee kiosks, newspaper stands. hurling questions at the assistants as to what was happening.

The rattle of shutters being pulled down as stores closed for the day filled the people with a quiet dread.

‘It’s end times.’ a voice intoned from among the crowd. People stared and shook their fists  in the direction of the prophet of doom.

Children clung on to their adults begging for answers.’ Mom, is the world ending? Are we going to die in the square?’

Adults put on a brave face while searching for comforting answers: ’No, honey. It’s just  a blip.’

‘What’s a blip grandma, Mom says it’s just a blip. Is a blip good or bad?’

By now the crowd’s patience was beginning to wear thin.

The Metro station had hung a handwritten notice on the door saying :‘No more trains today.’

Parents with children in buggies looked distraught as they wondered how they would return home. One frightened Mom enquired from a taximan parked in the square, ‘No mam, all traffic lights are out.’

And Jeff, where was Jeff? Becky was crestfallen. How happy she was not to have shared about Jeff with her friends. Now there would be no silly questions about what happened.

Maybe Mom was right after all about maturity and coping.

Nevertheless, a big hot tear rolled down Becky’s cheek as she stared at her dead phone.