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The Day the Lights Went Out
On a steamy, hot summer day, Nura and her dad found a place to cool off at the city’s natural history museum. They were enjoying the dim green undersea room when suddenly the lights blinked off and on. With a final pop, the lights went out completely, leaving the room cloaked in black.
‘Dad, what’s going on?’ Nura called out loudly with a frown on her face.
‘I’m not sure, but we’ll wait a minute and see if the lights come back on,’ Dad said calmly. In a moment, the glow of a torch approached. A museum worker waved the torch at them.
‘There’s a power outage across the city, so we have to close the museum,’ she said. ‘I’ll walk you to the exit.’
Nura and her dad stopped at Jasper’s, their favourite shop, for ice cream. ‘What a day, huh?’ Jasper greeted them, placing a cool towel on his pink forehead. ‘My freezers are out, so come on quick and get your cones.’ Nura and her dad ordered two cones, but when Nura’s dad tried to pay, the owner waved his hand.
‘Forget about it,’ he said. ‘It will all be soup soon, anyway!’
After a long, hot walk, Nura and her dad arrived home to find some of their neighbours on the steps outside their block of flats. Everyone looked sweaty, but they were talking and laughing together about the sizzling heat. They were sharing jugs of ice water.
‘I couldn’t stand it in my flat,’ Mrs Fong said, fanning herself with a newspaper. ‘At least out here there’s a little breeze.’
Another neighbour shrugged. Nura recognised him as the man who lived in the flat above hers.
A woman who lived downstairs was leaning against the doorway. ‘And I just stocked my refrigerator,’ she said. ‘If the power doesn’t come on soon, the food will go bad and I’ll have to throw it all away.’
‘I have some meat in the freezer, too,’ said Nura’s dad. ‘Maybe I’ll use the grill on the roof tonight. It would be nice to cook everything before it spoils. And it’s been a while since I’ve hosted a barbecue.’
The woman in the doorway nodded. ‘I’ll see what I have to contribute,’ she said. ‘I’ll make sure to bring enough for everyone.’
That evening, Nura and her neighbours gathered on the roof. Nura learned that the man from upstairs was named Sergey. The downstairs woman was Rachel.
As they finished their dinner, night fell over the city. For the first time in Nura’s life, their street became completely dark.
She gazed up and gasped. Stars blinked overhead, thousands of bright dots in the black sky. She’d never seen such a sight.
The night air was thick and hot, but Nura didn’t mind anymore. She had enjoyed free ice cream, and she had shared a rooftop dinner with her neighbours. She smiled to herself and continued to watch the stars.