Aunt Maggie’s power outage

I was just reminded of the night the power went out in my quaint, little hometown. My aunt sat outside on the hood of our station wagon wearing nothing but a bra and a pair of white cotton “granny” panties. Incidentally, the bra was one of those full coverage deals with enough hooks to trap and hold a bull. My aunt hadn’t seen her feet in years (if you get my drift) but she was ok with that and she always managed to keep the girls securely wrapped and covered. Apparently on that particular night, with it being so hot and so dark she felt like it would be alright to wrap but not cover the girls and to let the “grannies”air out, too. Well, it was ok, right up until my older brother shouted “dear Lord aunt Maggie, you’re outside in just your undies”. Why is it that when the power goes out rendering the entire neighborhood pitch black, the world seems to go totally silent, too?  In that instant nothing could be heard except my brother’s loud mouth and it’s grand announcement – which seemed to come less than a millisecond before the street lights flickered…

and then there was light….

……and the sound of crickets,

crickets chirping and Aunt Maggie’s fleshy, backside, flopping forward off the hood of that car,

then thud, thud, thud, thud, thud as she galloped to the house and grabbed the door knob…

but the door was locked.