Power Sabotaged : A New Life For Sheila

                  Part 4 : At Home With No Television And No Food

    Sheila found her way home through the darkness. Dim candlelight shone in some windows. Nearly everyone was indoors hiding from the unnerving gloom. She passed only a couple of characters whom she was unable to make out in the dim darkness. They seemed to be as frightened of her as she was of them because she heard them cross the road to get out of her way. What reliance they all had on streetlamps. Under their reassuring protection crime and the fear of crime seemed manageable, but without them all was fear and distrust. She was sure that somewhere robberies and burglaries were being committed, but thankfully after the mugging of Mrs X, the middle aged lady, there were no further incidents to spoil the remainder of her journey home.

     At home she was able to light the candles she had acquired from Mrs X to give her a modicum of the light she was used to. She went into her kitchen, reaching instinctively for the kettle, before remembering it was electrical. She found her way instead to the cupboard where she kept her pots and pans. Surely she had an old kettle which could be placed on the gas hob. She understood the gas supply was still on although she had heard rumours from both Mrs X and the man, Bob, who had tried to persuade her to go home with him that a number of attempts at sabotage of the gas supply had taken place, and there was every chance the terrorists would succeed in interrupting supplies at some time. That was all the more reason to have a cup of tea now, and cook something, while she had the chance.

    She had pulled half the contents of the cupboard out before she remembered that she had indeed thrown out the old kettle a couple of years before, thinking that it was a relic of a long distant past and she would never need it again. Instead she selected a saucepan, into which she ran some water. Thank God the water supply was not off. At least she could have plenty to drink, despite the food shortages to come. It occurred to her, shockingly, that if the electricity supply could be cut, and the gas supply potentially threatened, then the water supply might be threatened too. Surely they could not hit all three at the same time, she mused, reassuringly. Lighting a match, she ignited the gas ring successfully.