the rix mix

Saturday I went over to a friend's house to feed her felines - 4 inside & up to 4 outside strays, & bring in the mail & newspaper. She had gone to the shore for the weekend. Sometimes I just take a census, fill the dishes & leave. Other times, especially if the weather isn't good, I help myself to something from her kitchen & hang around awhile reading a book from her well-stocked shelves or channel surfing satellite TV. With the blustery wind outside, I opted for the final hour of The Exorcist when Linda Blair levitates & her head spins completely around. At one point, there was a huge gust of wind, probably near 60 mph, & I heard electrical popping & saw flashes of blue light reflected through the window. The TV didn't flicker, so I figured it was next door, looked out the window, saw nothing unusual, & went back to the puking & moaning of demon Pazuzu. A few minutes later I wandered into the kitchen & the lights were out. So was the bulb in the fridge & the clock on the microwave. The basement light switch didn't work. This was kind of alarming, given the sparking. I picked up the flashlight on the kitchen counter, went to the far end of basement, saw nothing obviously amiss on the circuit breaker board. I ventured outside, nothing happening out there, only the wind, & the stray cats expecting a bonus meal, but the motion detector yard light didn't click on. What to do? Try to find my friend's cellphone number? No point, she was at the Weird NJ Magazine Halloween Party in Asbury Park, had a room booked at the Berkeley Carteret, & I doubted very much she'd check her messages until late next morning when she'd be headed back anyway. Had to make a decision. So I stayed around through the 11 o'clock news, came home, left phone & e mail messages for her about what happened. About 3 a.m. EST (clocks back), two fire engines raced up my street in the direction of her's & all I could think was, "My god, I let her house burn to the ground. Or at least her garage." For a moment I seriously considered crawling out of bed, getting dressed, & walking the three long blocks over there. But I was warm & the night was so cold & windy. I waited. No more fire engine sirens. Elizabeth NJ would be sending additional equipment - definitely an EMT truck & a couple of cop cars with their distinct noises - if a house was ablaze in the middle of the night. There was an attic fire on this block at night last year & I counted 10 emergency vehicles just on my end of the street. Add to that my anxiety from the memory of an incident in Rahway when I was walking to Dunkin' Donuts at midnight & failed to follow my nose to the back of a large house that became a conflagration a few hours later, sending several families homeless into the street. Power was still out to the fridge & basement water heater when she arrived home Sunday, but then they mysteriously came back on, saving the contents of her freezer & permitting a hot shower. She said she would call an electrician. The Exorcist in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies.