A Night without Electricity

It was raining heavily as I hurriedly ran towards my flat in Southern Park. It was already eleven when I was returning home after work. I soon realised by the darkness of the lane that there was a power cut in the locality which made it very difficult to find my way.  Adapting my eyes to the darkness of the lane, I strode along the path I knew so well. I quickly opened the door and entered the apartment. It was a three storey building, the ground floor was Dr. Kunal's Chamber and the first floor belonged to Mr. Bose while I lived on the second floor.  As I entered I could see a faint light coming from a candle burning in the doctor's cabin and feeling for the stair case in the dark , I slowly started to climb the stairs. There was an empty bird cage at the door of Mr. Bose who was a bird lover and would often go to the nearest lake with his DSLR camera early in the morning hoping to take a snap of  the river kingfisher or the common emerald dove. So carefully passing by the cage which I could not see in the dark, I made my way for the second floor. 

I called for my maid who would usually open the door and serve me dinner. Not getting any response from her, I turned the handle of the door which to my knowledge should be locked from inside but to my surprise opened and I entered the room. It was totally dark inside suggesting that no one was there. I thought may be the maid had left early today without even informing me and sighed at her negligence. There were four rooms- one kitchen, a bedroom, one dining room and my study room. Slowly feeling in the dark, I headed for my study room when I heard a loud crash like the sound of breaking of glass and wood from the adjacent wall. It sounded as if a photograph had fallen from the wall, but I knew I had never hung any photographs on the wall.  To my utter disgust, I took out my phone to turn on the flashlight, but it was dead, soaked in the rainwater.

Being so drenched, tired, and disgusted, I slumped onto a chair beside the window. It was best to wait for the electricity to return rather than step on broken glass and hurt my feet in the dark. The rain had come to a halt by then and a cool fresh breeze blew off my exhaustion. Slowly, the moon came out, creating a beautiful backdrop to the city lights beyond. Perhaps I had been dozing off when I was suddenly awoken by a noise from under my study table behind the chair that I was sitting on near the window. My senses were alerted and I heard low sound of someone breathing under the table. Was it a sneeze that awoke me? I panicked who else was there in my room and what was his intension. Should I confront him or will it bring me more harm? Scared and anxious, I heard the lonely howls of the street dogs . I realised that it must be around midnight now.  No sign of power resumption and I was there in a room with some else hiding. My phone was still dead. I was damn scared. 

I was slowly getting up from my chair. I could not imagine what on earth was going on. The door was unlocked, the maid was not there, then I heard the sound of breaking of a photograph though there was no scope of it and now someone secretly hiding underneath the table. Should I shout out from my windows? I was thinking what to do and what not to when suddenly the room was lit up. Electricity was back. I took a moment to adjust my eyes to the sudden light and then to my awful shock,  I saw it was not my room at all. I ran to the dining room and saw a broken photo, but clearly this room was not mine. Then it all came in my mind in a flash what had happened. I had entered the flat opposite to mine in the dark without even realizing it. Both the apartments were designed in a similar fashion since they were both owned by the same landlord. So without looking back, I left the flat and went out on the road. 

I ran to my flat on the opposite side and ran upstairs. My maid opened the door with sleepy eyes saying I was too late. I was relieved to find everything in place.  I understood that the man hiding must be a thief since the second floor of the opposite flat has been empty for about a  month now and taking advantage of the power cut, the thief must have sneaked in through the windows. However,  he was taken aback when I had suddenly entered the room and so in his haste to hide in the dark, he knocked off the photograph from the wall. After that when I had dozed off, he hid underneath the table in order to keep an eye on me and flee whenever an opportunity would arrive. I was stuck due to electricity and the thief was stuck due to me. I wasted no time and immediately alerted the neighbourhood and called for the police. The thief was caught red handed two lanes after ours as he had fled as soon as I left knowing I would soon call the police. So this was my experience of a night without electricity. I was grateful that I was not harmed that night.