The Sins of Our Fathers

Death to Bob

Rolling over Astra let out a yawn stretching her arms above her head. A big smile spread across her face her eyes still shut. It was the first night alone in her apartment, she hadn’t slept this good in so long.

The silence was amazing, no one screaming her name. No one tickling her awake or finding people in her bed with her. This is what she needed, a little alone time. Just her, her thoughts, and of course Mr. Pokey.

Mr. Pokey, he really was the best roommate. He never complained or woke her up way too early. He just sat in his pot on the table soaking in the sun rays waiting to be watered.

Taking her time she had her shower, got dressed in a pair of jean shorts, a cropped t-shirt with beetle juice on the front, and secured her hair into two French braids.

“Didn’t know I could do that.” Astra commented running her fingers along the braids.

“Mr. Pokey.” Astra tipped her imaginary hat to the cactus.

Walking into the kitchen she opened the pantry pulling out a loaf of bread. She did enjoy Nicole’s cooking especially breakfast, but sometimes it was nice to just have some toast and butter.

Tossing two pieces of bread into the toaster she turned the little dial before pressing the button down for it to begin heating up. Turning on her heels she headed back into the living room crashing down on the couch letting out a sigh of relief.

“You really are the best roommate a girl could ask for.” Astra looked over at the cactus a smirk on her face. Wiggling around she adjusted herself into a laying position on the couch closing her eyes.

“Wake me when it dings.” She mumbled out slowly starting to pass back out.

DING!

Jumping to her feet Astra nearly lost her balance crashing into the table and cactus. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around confused when the smell of burn toast slowly crept into her nostrils.

“Oh crap!” Running into the kitchen she slid to a stop right in front of the toast. “Darn it I put it on for too long.” Grumbling to herself she reached toward the toaster to get her burnt breakfast.

Just as her fingers tips reached the toaster a spark shot out making the toast ping. Suddenly all the lights went out. The fridge stopped humming and the apartment went completely silent.

What the heck was that? She thought looking around in confusion. Walking back into the living room she grabbed the remote hitting the on button for the television, but nothing happened.

Dropping the remote she rushed over to her radio pushing the on button, just like the television nothing happened.

KNOCK...KNOCK…KNOCK

“Astra!” Oliver shouted from the other side of the door. “Do you have any power?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Can I come in?”

“Of course.” Astra headed to the door unlocking it to allow him to enter her apartment.

“What is going on?” Oliver asked walking into the apartment.

Looking him up and down he had on a white form fitted t-shirt and pair of jeans. It was simple and yet looked amazing on him. How could someone dress so plain and look so extraordinary at the same time?

“I…I don’t know.” Astra bite her bottom lip nervously.

“What was the last thing you were doing before the power went out?”

“I was just about to get my toast out of the toaster when…” Pausing she turned away from Oliver biting her bottom lip nervously.

Did I do this? No that’s silly how could I have, but that spark. Her mind swam with worry at the thought that somehow this could be her fault.

“Astra.” Oliver’s voice broke her from her worries and back to reality.

“Huh.”

“Are you okay?”

“Oh yeah I’m fine sorry.” Astra turned around to face him again. Looking up at him she could see the confusion and worry plastered all over his face.

“I am going to get some air.”

“Why don’t we go for a walk. Maybe get some coffee.”

“STARBUCKS!” Astra shouted thrusting her fist into the air in excitement.

Oliver shook his head fighting back a smile as he watched her excitement. Exiting out of the apartment and surprise the hall lights where all out leaving them in the dark.

Groaning Astra went to walk forward crashing into an object knocking her back.

“Sorry.” Oliver ran his hand down her arm stopping at her hand inner locking his fingers with her. “Follow my lead.” Gently pulling her along they made their way down the hall.

What felt like an eternity they slowly made their way down the stairwell and out of the building into the warm sun.

“Finally, I thought we were going to have to just live in the stairwell for the rest of our lives.”

“So dramatic.” Oliver chuckled rolling his eyes playfully at Astra.

“I am not.” Astra pouted her bottom lip batting her eye lashes.

“Come on let’s go get that coffee.” Oliver shook his head chuckling at Astra’s pouty face.

Squealing at the sound of coffee she jumped up and down like a child in a candy shop. The walk downtown was peaceful, Astra needed this. It was nice to just go for a walk and enjoy the warm weather.

“BOB!” Astra shouted running toward the car dealership. The once lively wacky inflatable man was now laying deflating on the cement ground.

“He had so much more life to live.” Astra said dropping to her knees in front of him she reached down picking up the arm of the wacky inflatable man.

“What are you guys doing?” Nicole called from behind Astra.

“Bob’s dead.”

“Who?”

“Bob. I introduced you to him when we first met, and I showed you around.” Astra looked up to see a confused Nicole standing beside her.

“Oh…Yeah…Bob.” Nicole said trying not to sound awkward or let it show that she had no clue who this Bob was.

Oliver Stepped forward kneeling down beside Astra. His hand began rubbing circles on her back trying to calm her.

“Once we figure out this power outage, we will get him back to doing what he does best.” Oliver said a small smile on his face.

“Yeah, your right.” Astra looked over at him with a smile slowly curving her lips. “Don’t worry Bob, we will fix you.” She looked down giving the deflated wacky man a reassuring nod.

Not wasting any time Astra headed toward the coffee shop, Nicole, and Oliver hot on her tail.

“Reggie! Up top.” Astra high-five the cardboard cut-out of the man shooting his hands in the air.

Climbing over the counter she beelined straight for the coffee machine flicking the switch on. Waiting in anticipation for the usual groan from the machine to indicate it was alive, only for it to not come to life. No groan from the machine, no little red light on the switch, nothing.

Sighing she slammed her hands onto the counter dropping her head in frustration.

“Son of a b***h!” She shouted to the heavens. “First my apartment goes out, then Bob dies, and now I can’t even have coffee. Whose cruel joke is this? Tell me you two have any idea what’s going on.”

Oliver and Nicole shrugged almost in unison indication that neither of them had a clue to the causes of the blackout.

“Maybe we could check out the substation?” Oliver suggested. “I think I saw it just behind the Costco.”

“Yeah, yeah, good idea, let’s do that,” Astra said neurotically, the caffeine deprivation evident in her demeanour.

“You two go do that, I’ll check the stores to make sure food isn’t going bad,” Nicole announced not wanting to be around Oliver for longer than she had to be.

“Good idea Nick.” Oliver mocked to Nicole’s dismay.

Nicole stormed off leaving Oliver and Astra alone in the coffee shop.

“You could try to be nicer to her.”

“Where is the fun in that?” Oliver teased. “Come on this town isn’t going to turn back on by itself.”

“Aye Aye captain.” Astra saluted while rolling her eyes at him. Both exited from the coffee shop heading in the direction of the Costco.

“Are we there yet?” Astra whined.

“My answer is the same as before. We are almost there.”

“Why is it taking so long. How is this town so big and yet look so small?”

“Stop your whining.” Oliver scolded. “You want your caffeine fix, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Astra’s said her bottom lip pouting out.

“And look at that here we are.” Oliver pointed ahead to the nearing Costco.

“Thank the heavens!” She shot her hands up to the sky pressed together.

It didn’t take them too long to get to the substation once they had reached Costco.

“Now what?”

“I’m not too sure, but I am confident we can figure it out.” Oliver smiled trying to reassure Astra.

Walking along the fence until they found the door to get in, thankfully the gate wasn’t locked allowing them easy access into the substation. Splitting up Astra began searching around for what Oliver called the main power relay. The sky was a dark grey above them; a little ominous, she thought to herself as they scoured the grounds.

“Astra,” Oliver shouted from the other side of the enclosure that reminded her of the dinosaur pens in Jurassic Park. “Come take a look at this.”

She made her way to him and saw what he was referring to, the main power relay had scorch marks on it, as if it had been hit by lightning.

“One in a million strike,” she said inspecting the damage.

“It’s weird because there was no storm last night,” Oliver commented.

Astra shrugged and looked for something that could help them restart the power. “There’s gotta be a breaker or something that we just have to flip and boom, power is back.”

“It will probably be labelled if there is one,” Oliver said.

“Maybe.” Astra began opening panels on the side of the relay to try and find the breaker. After going through three or four of them she finally got to the one with the main breaker switch,

“Huh,” she huffed quietly, “that’s weird.” The breaker wasn’t tripped, there should be power flowing, but there wasn’t. She touched the breaker switch and felt a surge of electricity flow through her fingertips. Alarmed, she quickly yanked her hand away in fear of getting shocked.

A hum began to emanate from the substation and just like that the power was back. Astra was really weirded out, but she wouldn’t tell Oliver of what happened.

“Hot damn,” she exclaimed.

“You found the breaker obviously,” he said rounding the corner.

“Yep,” she replied. “Now let’s get some friggen caffeine and see if we can’t get Bobby boy back to life.”