Strangers in the Night

A thunderous noise came from out of nowhere. Before that it had been a lovely evening. I had even been sitting outside with a decaf latte and some chocolate biscuits. My favorite thing to do on a week day evening while I waited for Shane to come home from an evening shift.

Holy Moly, I thought. I have never heard thunder this loud in my whole entire life. I wondered if my hubby was inside a building or if he was out in this shocking weather on the runway of the Auckland airport where he was not due to finish for another two hours or more. I will bet ya bottom dollar he's out there with no rain jacket and he comes home looking like a drowned rat.

More thunder and a lighting display that out did anything I'd ever seen before. I would even go so far as to say it was better than last years guy Fawkes display that had cost the local council over half a million. Then with that last clap of thunder and brightest light that hurt ones eyes, sudden darkness. First the street lights, and I thought, yaa. I hate the street light on the roadside just outside our bedroom window and on the odd occasion that it blacks out I have a really good night sleep. I don't know how many times I have said I am going to have drapes made over the venetian blinds. Just to completely block that bloody street light. Just never got around to it.

Then with that thought still in mind the house lights went out as well. I was in complete darkness.
Strange, I thought. It's 7 o'clock in the evening. Normally it isn't this dark for another hour or so, or maybe it is and I'm just not used to the street lights blacking out. I fumble around for the phone to ring my daughter and the phone doesn't work. Can't see a thing, absolutely nothing. I need to get my mobile phone but its on charge. walking very gingerly into the hallway I find the phone and try to ring. The phone is completely dead. Dead as a doorpost. This is getting stranger by the minute. A great way to finish my birthday, I thought.

Outside there is complete silence and I feel like I've gone blind, that's how dark it is. Looking out the window into nothingness. No stars, No moon, No nothing. Just a spooky darkness.

I shiver and fumble out to the kitchen walking very slowly so as not to trip over anything and feeling my way with walls to guide me.

I praise myself for the junk I had removed out of the hallway just two hours before. If I hadn't I would be tripping over everything. Just as I had that thought I tripped over the vacuum cleaner and caught my balance just in time. My head was narrowly close to hitting the side of the kitchen door. I had had a really good spruce up that day because we were having a family gathering for my 50th birthday.

Finally I find the cupboard that's got the candles and the matches. As I pull them down a light bulb falls out of the container and smashes onto my foot. Buggar, I thought, as I could feel warm blood slowly dripping from the top of my left foot. I light several candles so I can assess the damage. Emmm, a piece of glass lodged into the top of my left foot. Exactly the same place I had been cut by a glass milk bottle as a child and still had a deep scar. I slowly removed the glass and reached for a paper towel that was sitting on the kitchen bench top. I just squatted in there for about 10 minutes, a bit scared to move in case I stood on more glass.

With the candles lit and put on a tray I began to move more freely through the house. I found a bandage and put it on my wound then hopped into bed and waited. I gave myself a pat on the back for putting all the essentials into one cupboard in case of an emergency. Well done, I thought.

Blowing the candles out, all but one, i fell asleep for god knows how long and when I awoke I just laid there listening to the silence. The one candle had long burned out.

At that time I realized I had not heard any traffic. Not even the odd siren you would hear on a night where all the power had gone out.
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. Nothing but silence. No clock, No phone, How long did I wait. I have no idea.

I finally decide to leave the house. No power, Can't get the car out. With only a candle to light up the garage it was a struggle to open our internal garage door with no power and I really didn't have the strength to lift it all the way. After what seemed like 20 minutes or more it was up enough to get the car out. Thank god for that, I thought. I hop into the car and turn the key. Battery is as dead as.

What the heck is going on, and by this time I am shit scared.

I remember in our courtyard out back I have a lantern and make my way out to find it. The lantern was already filled with kerosene and was a small comfort when it lit for me with no problems. I go into a drawer on Shane's side of the bed and pull out an old watch that had belonged to his dad and hoped like hell it would wind up for me. It probably hadn't gone in 20 years. Waa laa, it worked and I set it at midnight even though I didn't know what time it was, I could at least keep an eye on how long I would be in darkness from that point.

I shut the garage door and it came down with an almighty bang as I couldn't slow it down. I was terrified someone might just walk in off the street if they saw it open.

Waited, Waited and Waited some more. No sign of Shane or anyone else. 4am, 5am, 6am comes and goes. It's still dark. Pitch black, not just dark, pitch black. As black as the ace of spades. 7am, 8am. Nothing changes and I have run out of kerosene. I find some in the garage cupboard and refill the lantern. Still complete darkness, complete silence.

I put on one of Shane's reflector jackets and venture outdoors. I knock on four of the neighbor's doors and nobody answers. I remember one of my neighbor's often rides a bike and go in search of it. Their dog isn't barking. In fact that's another silence, I thought to myself. Who am I kidding, I haven't ridden a bike in years, and start making my way by foot down to my daughters house just 1 kilometer from me.

I'm about 1 minute from home and in the middle of the park that is on the opposite side of the road to our home when I see a light. Shit this could be anyone, I think to myself, and freeze for just a second before I hear a ladies voice. "Hello, hello, I see your light" The voice sounded friendly so I answered.

"What the bloody hell has happened?" she asks me in a very shaken voice. I could tell by the sound in her voice she was crying. I put the lantern up to her face and recognize her from the local supermarket.

"I have no idea and you are the very first person I have seen since this black out."

She tells me it's the same for her.
Introductions take place and we fumble through the park and find a seat. "What an end to my 50th birthday" I say to her. She grabs my arm, laughs a little and says, "Hi birthday buddy, I also turned 50."

We decide to stay together and walk to my daughters home. We walk past a small block of shops and see lantern lights. Linda, my new friend, yells out, "Hello is anyone there?" An answer was returned, again a woman's voice. "Yes three of us over here." We make our way to them. Two women and a man.

"Can any one of you people enlighten us as to what's happened?" Of course what I heard next sounded so far fetched and upsetting that I didn't want to believe it. The man named Bryce spoke first. He asked Linda and myself, "Did the two of you turn 50 yesterday?" "Yes" We answer at the same time. "So did I and my new friends here." "Okay so now things are getting really, really strange" I said. "Five people all with the same birthday, how could that be?" "Well Maria here, our Irish lass, has a theory and it possibly makes a little sense, I think," said Bryce and he laughs a little.

"Actually it's not my theory and this might be a little like Chinese whispers but here I go. Before I came here I banged into a woman and a guy, and you guessed it, same birthday. The woman had walked up the Pakuranga Highway where she had spoken to some other people. One of those people had spoken to someone called Anna, She was from Scotland and this is what she was told." Here we go, I thought, a tall tale.
"As a child her birthday was going to be a special day in the year 1986. It was written in the Doomsday Book. All those born on the 6th of June 1966 shall survive and the earth shall be plunged into darkness for 20 days. It was knowledge of the whole town and further where this lady had originated from.
So we have to ask, What happened to 1986, it's been and gone, in fact it had been and gone exactly 30 years ago to the day."

"Holy crap" I thought out loud. "Whoever does the math for the big man upstairs wasn't using his calculator." Everyone laughed. "So what's next, I suppose we just wait out the next 20 days more or less depending on wrong dates and times and let's see what happens, shall we?"

"I suppose when you rationalize it all it could make some sense. We would have all been exactly 20 years old and of breeding age. The world was supposed to end and we were supposed to go out and copulate."

Well I was about to move on and head for my daughters place when one of the group described her final seconds before darkness fell. She said she was with all her family and about to blow out candles on her cake when they simply disappeared from right in front of her.

Are you kidding me, I thought, and with that thought the lights came on, traffic was around, everything was as normal as it could be. Not 20 days, it was more like 20 hours, and the guy Bryce checks his watch and says. "Exactly 20 hours to the minute."

"Seriously, God turned too much water into wine," Bryce laughs. "Our math man got a lot wrong." Again we laugh before wishing well to everyone there and heading home.

Linda and myself head back towards the direction we had come from. I pointed out my home from standing outside hers and we promised to make frequent contact with each other.

Arriving home with my mind totally confused I was met by my beautiful ginger cat. The phone was ringing. I answer and it is Shane. "Got off early hon. Happy 48th Birthday." I didn't say anything. I just stood and thought, Is this a joke? I have come home to be greeted by a cat that passed away 2 years ago, A hubby wishing me Happy 48th Birthday, and the computer is telling me it's 6/6/2014.
So many unanswered questions. Is this going to be a case of ground hog day? What will happen two years from now when we all turn 50 AGAIN?

Maybe this has happened before and we just can't remember.
Maybe the doomsday book now has a revised date. Must check on that one.
Will this be all over the news tomorrow?
If I don't write it down now maybe I will forget.
Will I remember writing this?

Shane is yelling out from downstairs, "You have spent all night upstairs typing away. Come and enjoy what's left of your birthday!"

10/6/2014. Just found this story on the computer. Who wrote it? I know it sounds like it was written by me but I swear I can't remember. I am however puzzled as to how I cut my foot. Just thought is was a scratch from being out in the garden. Maybe not, Who knows.

The End