Yesterday Light

exigent (EK-si-jent) adjective

1. Requiring urgent attention.

2. Demanding; exacting.

Yesterday afternoon I wrote an entire entry about how the most difficult aspect of breaking my lease deals with the intermittent periods between action, how every message I leave contains information about a message I received, and how waiting for an accurate interpretation of the received messages ("Should I be concerned about this? Is it a substantial threat?") compares to a child's imagining of what might sit inside a wrapped Christmas present. I named the entry "Clear and Present Danger" and based it on the above word.

Then, before I managed to save, every computer simultaneously turned off, making an unannounced machine-sigh. The office lights died and the dim, distant generator lights flicked on, and we sat in near darkness answering the occasional phonecall in a kind of dull, sleepy silence. Someone lit a lone candle; the room caved. I remembered making tents of blankets on chairs, holding my breath, sheltering a small flame of secret excitement, and waiting for the unknown to happen.