Keep Moving Forward

She bolted upright and grabbed the alarm clock off the nightstand, but no red numbers blinked back at her. What time was it? The sunlight shimmering in the room told her that she had overslept. She was supposed to be up before dawn! In a flash, she leapt up from bed and flicked the lightswitch. Nothing happened. The lights weren’t working either?

Mildred threw on a robe over her nightgown but in her hurry, she forgot her slippers. She had always taught manners and the importance of being up early to her children, and now look at her!

Mildred opened the door and paused. Part of her was relieved, the other confused. It wasn’t her 8:30 interview for Max, one of the younger boys in the orphanage. In fact… these people didn’t seem interested in adoption at all.

The woman stepped forward. “Are you without power too?” Only then did Mildred notice the obvious. The woman had wet hair, like she hadn’t been able to dry it. The man had stubble on one half of his face. Suddenly it made sense. “Oh!”

“We’re from the apartment across the road. The entire neighborhood seems to be down.”

“Let me take a look. I’m sure I can reset the breaker and everything will be fine,” Milldred smiled and shuffled past the two.

She shuddered in the chilly morning air as she walked around the building to where the breaker was. She was so focused on the situation that she didn’t even notice the strange object on the ground until her foot bumped into it. Mildred looked down and raised her eyebrows. It was a strange… helmet? She looked up when she heard a weak groan.

Mildred jumped back.

“Jesus Christ!”

Above her, a man was suspended upside down, tangled in power lines.

He wore black boots and a smoking red jumpsuit of some kind. He hung just low enough that had she not noticed his helmet, his fingers would have brushed the top of her head. High above him on the utility pole, a blown transformer zapped and sparked with electricity that had nowhere to go.

And suddenly, the power outage almost made sense.

Considering the missing power, the transformer, and this man that smelled of smoke and gunpowder, Mildred could almost knit together a story.

The man twitched and sucked in a sharp breath. Before her eyes, it looked as if he came back to life. He looked this way and that, before a large grin spread across his face. “What a landing!”

His voice carried the cheerful confidence of a man that had no regrets. 

He locked eyes with Mildred. Despite herself, she startled slightly when he spoke. “Excuse me, Miss! Think you could lend me a hand?” 

In her surprise, all Milldred could do was mutter out a question. “...are you an electrician?”

The man laughed heartily, making her jump again.

“Me? No. I’ve been tased with a cattleprod before though. I’ve jumped fire, alligators, and chainsaw juggling clowns, oh and helicopter blades, but I’ve never thought to add electricity into one of my stunts… I like it!”

“Stunts…? Hang on, hang on. Let me get you down,” Mildred seemed to gain her bearings a bit. She had to jump a couple times to reach one of the lines wrapped around the man. 

“Careful, I think those are live-” He was cut off when his body jolted suddenly. “Those are definitely live.”

With a careful tug, the snare of wires came undone at last, allowing the man to fall and plop onto his back in the grass.

One stubborn wire hung onto his ankle, but he was able to reach down and undo it. Mildred meanwhile paced slightly, not at all sure how to handle such a situation. When she turned to pace again, he was suddenly on his feet. He took her hand and shook it vigorously “Thank you, Miss!”

“Uh- anytime…? Do you need me to call somebody?” Mildred asked, her voice shaking with the strength of the handshake.

He took a long look around, as if he were stepping onto an alien planet. “Nah, I’ll be alright.” Mildred turned to look up at the blown transformer. “How did you even get-”