Serfs

Serfs

The hearth was literally the home now. For three weeks every house was dependent on a kitchen fire for warmth, cooking, and brewing tea. In the dark autumn evenings, you could smell the burning turf in the street air.The cold wet autumn sky blanketed the turf smoke so that it sank almost as soon as it left the chimneys. It smelt on my damp wool sweater when I got up every morning. All the street lights were out too and it was black as a shut cellar. On the street, figures revealed themselves only when feet away, each one looking like a threat coming out of the darkness. Reaching the dark porch of home, the left index finger felt for the keyhole and the right index slipped the key into the lock. Sliding a hand along the wallpaper helped reach the kitchen door safely. Inside--a dark room, no radio, no tv, no heat, no stove, no fridge, a candle to go to the bathroom, a candle to go to bed, pots of water slowly boiled on a camping gaz stove to fill hot water bottles to put between damp sheets.

In the kitchen, under candlelight she looked shockingly older than her 55 years. Her hands a-tremor trying to light a small camping gas stove--too numb with cold to light a match and fearful it would topple over causing a fire. She missed her electric blanket most of all.

It had been announced in advance. We had known. But when it didn’t come at 3 pm on the first day we thought there had been a last minute change of mind, a flinching on one side or the other.

We had taken everything for granted. We thought it would never happen but then suddenly at seven pm the electricity went out.  Neither side had flinched, neither the Union nor the Government.

In three short weeks, everyone had learned to live in a new dark world. Some people would even miss it saying that it brought people closer together. The ‘essentials’ felt strange and foreign when they came back, almost like intrusions--the light, the radio, the tv.The fierce yellow street lights blinded us as they loomed out of the dark, black sky beyond.

Victims once, we would never take anything so for granted again that we could suffer so much when it was taken away. Until the transport strike in January.

©dominick egan 2013

Serfs

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The fire place was all. Warmth, cooking, and brewing tea lived there. In the dark evenings you could smell the burning turf in the street air. All the street lights were out and it was black as a shut cellar.

No radio, no tv, no heat, no stove, no fridge. A large column candle burned in the bathroom through the night. Hot water bottles were put between damp sheets. Under candlelight people looked shockingly older. Electric blankets, a favorite Christmas gift, were now remote as a star.

For 23 days and nights, neither the union nor the government flinched.

The country had learned to live in a dark world. Some people would even miss it, later saying that it brought people closer together.

Victims once, they would never take anything so for granted again that they could suffer so much when it was taken away--until the transport strike in January.

©dominick egan 2013