The Cascade

Short Story Day 109 of 365

“As soon as I finish washing these dishes, we’ll go to the party.”

“Ah, you shouldn’t be doing them, Sweetie, it’s your birthday today.”

“Never mind me. It shouldn’t take me more than another ten…”

The spigot sputtered to nothing and the lights blinked on and off, and then finally off.

“Get the flashlights,” Barry said. “Third time this week and it’s only Friday. Man, I hate that. I’m half way through with the dishes, but what are ya gonna do? Hopefully, the Tamaras have electricity and water in their district. Seems to go district by district in waves.”

Barry and Sandra had been in the capital for two years and it was only recently they had been experiencing rolling blackouts and rationed running water. Prior to this, it happened maybe twice a year and then only for a couple of hours. The UN had wanted them to live in UN housing under UN security, but they refused and wanted to live like the people they were there to serve.

Two hours later, Sandra and Barry were in the cab coming home from the party. The lights and water were restored but there was a commotion at the entrance to their apartment building.

The landlord stopped Barry and told him to turn off their faucet because it had overflowed and was now pouring into both apartments below.

Barry ran up three flights, flung open the door, waded over to the kitchen sink, and shut the spigot off. He turned around to see six other people crowded into his kitchen with water higher than their ankles, yelling at him because of all the damage the water was causing in the apartments below.  

He scrambled to get all available rags and towels in the kitchen to mop up the mess upstairs to limit more damage downstairs.

Earlier, when the water had stopped while he was doing the dishes, he didn’t think to turn it off. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem but several dishes blocked the drain. Instead, the water overflowed the sink, filled the kitchen floor, and cascaded to two apartments below. The water had been running for two full hours because it came back on shortly after they left for the party.

After repairing and repainting the damaged apartments, Barry and Sandra decided to take the UN offer for furnished housing. Paying to remodel other apartments was just getting too expensive.