Chapter 6 - The Night the Lights Went Out
For a moment, everyone waited for the lights to return.
The refrigerator stopped humming. The ceiling fan slowed. Through the front windows, the streetlamps remained on.
“It's just us,” Della said.
Above them, somebody began knocking on doors.
Arthur went to the entrance while Sadi called the building's emergency maintenance number. The call went unanswered.
Mr. Finch stood carefully, feeling for the cane beside his chair.
“Mrs. Alvarez is upstairs.”
Sadi looked toward the dark stairwell.
Arthur's colleague accompanied Della to check on the residents. Sadi stayed by the door, calling the utility and then emergency services when a neighbor reported that a resident depended on powered medical equipment.
She gave the address. The facts she knew. The number of people who might need help.
She didn't tell herself it would be embarrassing if the problem turned out to be small.
Outside, two men in work jackets were loading equipment into a van.
Arthur spoke to them from the pavement.
“Who authorized the disconnection?”
One man held up a work order.
He looked tired, not dangerous. That made the situation feel worse.
“We were told the building was vacant.”
Behind Arthur, residents were emerging with coats over nightclothes.
The man lowered the paper.
“It clearly isn't,” Arthur said.
Sadi took a photograph of the company's name and sent it to Maya.
Ten minutes later, Maya arrived carrying the file she had been preparing for morning.
She asked to see the work order. She called the building's management representative. She spoke to the responding officer after emergency crews arrived.
The notice on the workers' paperwork referred to renovation preparation. There was no order authorizing the removal of the tenants, and the occupants had not agreed to the interruption.
The workers stopped.
That didn't put the heat back on.
Sadi watched an emergency crew assist the resident with medical equipment into a waiting vehicle. Mrs. Alvarez came downstairs clutching a handbag and the tin box containing her late husband's papers.
“I thought they were throwing everything out,” she said.
Sadi took her free hand.
“You're coming somewhere warm while they sort this out.”
A café two doors down opened its back room. Della knew the owner from years of borrowing sugar during delivery mistakes. He put on another pot of coffee and moved chairs without asking who would pay.
Sadi called people from Second Table. A driver from a partner organization brought the passenger van normally used for training placements. Blankets appeared. So did soup in insulated containers from a restaurant at the corner.
Roman arrived carrying a cardboard tray of hot drinks.
For the first time that night, Sadi nearly cried.
Not because he had brought an answer.
Because he had brought something useful.
“Maya's talking to the officer,” she told him. “The utility is sending an authorized crew. We need to keep a count of who's here and who's been taken for medical care.”
“Show me.”
She did.
He set down the drinks and began asking names.
The man people feared at negotiation tables sat beside Mr. Finch and listened while he explained which upstairs neighbor would refuse to leave her cat.
“Then we ask about the cat,” Roman said.
Mr. Finch nodded, satisfied.
Trevor appeared shortly after eight.
He stepped from a black car wearing a coat that looked chosen for a warmer evening. When he saw Roman, he stopped.
Maya approached him before Sadi could.
“Your office supplied the contractor's authorization.”
“My client is preparing its property for scheduled work.”
“Your client has occupied premises and an active dispute about the residents' rights. Who represented that the building was vacant?”
Trevor glanced at the officer nearby.
“I'm not discussing privileged communications on the sidewalk.”
“Then preserve them and respond through counsel. The condition of the building tonight is being documented.”
He looked past her toward Sadi.
“You couldn't leave it alone.”
She stood with a clipboard in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.
Her knee hurt. She was tired. Her hair smelled of the diner's kitchen.
She recognized the invitation in his tone: become upset, become personal, help him change the subject.
“Mrs. Alvarez couldn't leave her home safely in the dark,” she said. “That's what we're discussing.”
“Don't act like you understand the legal position.”
“Maya does. You should answer her.”
Behind her, Roman remained seated.
Sadi could feel his attention. She could also feel him allowing her to finish.
Trevor looked from one of them to the other.
He had expected marriage to a powerful man to turn her into an extension of that man.
It seemed to offend him that she still had her own voice.
The contractor's foreman returned with his supervisor on the phone. The paperwork and the communications connected to it would be preserved. He apologized to the residents for accepting the description of the building without checking occupancy.
Nobody cheered.
Mrs. Alvarez wanted her bedroom warm again. Mr. Finch wanted his medication from the kitchen cupboard. Della wanted to know whether the food in her refrigerators would survive.
Accountability wasn't much use unless it reached the ordinary damage.
Close to midnight, the authorized crew restored service after the required checks. Maya advised the residents individually about the immediate arrangements. People returned carefully, carrying blankets they hadn't needed when the evening began.
Sadi sat on a chair somebody placed beneath her.
This time, she didn't argue that she could stand.
Roman crouched beside her.
“Home?”
She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his.
“Soon.”
Maya came out of the diner with her phone in her hand.
“We have the emergency hearing tomorrow morning.”
Sadi straightened.
“Good.”
“The developer has filed its own application. They're describing tonight as organized interference with lawful work.”
May you like
She looked at Roman, then at Sadi.
“Both your names are in it.”
