Susan Pfeffer - Life As We Knew It

Mom had the good sense to look at her watch. It was 2:05 AM.

By 2:09 the electricity was off.

But we all can’t help thinking if it came on once, it’ll come on again.

“You know,” Mom said at lunch today. “That little burst of electricity got me thinking.”

“Me too,” I said. “About washing machines and dryers.”

“Computers,” Jon said. “DVD players.”

“Refrigerators,” Matt said. “Electric heaters.”

“Yes, all of that,” Mom said. “But what I was really thinking about was radio.”

“All we got was static,” Matt pointed out.

“But if we have electricity, maybe other places have it, too, and radio stations are broadcasting again,” Mom

said. “And we don’t need electricity to find that out. We should turn on a radio and see if we can get any

stations.”

For a moment I wanted to tell Mom not to try, that the whole world had probably died from the flu and we

were the last ones left on earth. I think that sometimes.

But then I realized someone had to have done something to give us those four glorious minutes of electricity.

The thought of our not being alone was thrilling. I ran into the living room and got the radio.

Mom’s fingers actually trembled as she turned it on and tried to get a station. But all we got was static.

“We’ll try again tonight,” she said. “After sundown.”

And we did. We waited all day for the sky to go from gray to black.

When it finally did, Mom turned the radio on again. At first all we heard was static. But then we heard a man’s voice.

“In Cleveland, Harvey Aaron,” the man said. “Joshua Aaron. Sharon Aaron. Ibin Abraham. Doris Abrams. Michael Abrams. John Ackroyd. Mary Ackroyd. Helen Atchinson. Robert Atchinson…”

“It’s a list of the dead,” Matt said. “He’s reading the names of the dead.”

“But that means people are alive,” Mom said. “Someone has to be reporting who died. Someone has to be listening.”

She played with the dial some more.

“In other news today, the president said the country has turned the corner. Better times are predicted for the weeks to come with life being back to normal by May.”

“The idiot’s still alive!” Mom cried. “And he’s still an idiot!”

We burst out laughing.

We listened to that station for a while, until we figured out it was broadcasting from Washington. Then Mom found a third station, out of Chicago. It was broadcasting news, also. Most of the news was bad, the way it had been last summer. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, the litany of natural disasters. There were a few things added to the list, though: Flu epidemics and cholera. Famine. Droughts. Ice storms.

But it was still news. There was life going on.

We aren’t alone.

Matt figured if the radio stations were back on, maybe we had phone service and just didn’t know it. So he picked up the phone, but it was still dead.

The only person who might be trying to reach us is Dad. Other than that, it doesn’t matter.

Electricity again.

This time at 1 in the afternoon, and it lasted for 10 minutes.

Jon was outside skiing so he missed it.

“We’re going to start a laundry next time,” Mom said. “Whatever gets done gets done.”

It’s so glorious to think there could be a next time.

12 minutes of electricity at 9:15 tonight. Mom changed her mind about the laundry. “We’ll give it a try in daytime,” she said. “Maybe tomorrow.”

6 minutes of electricity at 4:45 AM.

Big deal.

I know I should be excited because we’ve had electricity 3 days in a row, but we need food more than we need electricity. A lot more.

Unless electricity can make us some canned vegetables and soup and tuna fish, I don’t know what good it’s going to do us.

I wonder who’ll read our names on the radio after we’ve died of starvation.

No electricity for the past 2 days.

We were better off without any electricity. Why did they have to give us the taste of it just to take it away? Mom listens to the radio for half an hour every evening. I don’t know why. She goes from station to station (we’re up to 6 now) and all they broadcast is bad news.

No, that’s not true. They broadcast bad news and the president saying things are looking up. I don’t know which is worse.

It scares me a little that Mom is willing to burn up batteries just to listen to the radio. I think it’s her way of accepting that there’s no point in the batteries outliving us.

Matt had been up to 10 stairs and I was sure by the end of this week he’d be climbing the whole staircase. But today he only did 6 stairs. I know because I tiptoed behind him and peeked through the living room door. Mom knew that’s what I was doing and she didn’t tell me not to. Jon was outside, but even he’s down to 20 minutes skiing.

I don’t think Matt knows I was spying on him. I got back to the sunroom before he did and I was real quiet. Mom hardly spoke all afternoon. Matt got back on his mattress and slept for 2 hours. Not even Jon walking back in woke him.

Sometimes I think about everything I went through when they were all sick and it makes me so angry. How dare they die now?

It snowed all day. At least we could watch it through the window in the sunroom.

I don’t think we got more than 4 or 5 inches, and Matt pointed out it was good to have fresh snow for drinking water.

Mom’s told me not to bother washing the sheets for a while. I guess I should be glad, since the sheets are my least favorite things to wash (they’re just so big). She says it’s because if we get electricity back for good, it’ll be so much easier to wash the sheets that way, but I think it’s because she’s worried I burn up too much energy washing things that bulky.

I finally figured I should know the worst and I checked out the pantry.

I wish I hadn’t.

Jon was outside and Matt was sleeping this afternoon. Mom gestured to me and we went into the living room.

“I hate to ask this of you,” she said. “But do you think you could skip lunch a couple of times a week?”

Mom’s been eating every other day for a couple of weeks now. So she was asking less of me than what she’s doing herself.

“Okay,” I said. What was I supposed to say?

“I want Matt and Jonny to still eat every day,” she said. “Can you live with that?”

I burst out laughing.

Even Mom grinned. “Bad choice of words,” she said. “I apologize.”

“It’s okay,” I said. I even kissed her to prove I meant it.

I think Mom figures Jon still has the best chance of surviving. And I think she can’t bear the idea of seeing Matt die.

Neither can I. Better Mom should go first, then me, then Matt. Matt will see to it Jon makes it through.

This is so stupid. I started looking at this diary and all its empty pages. I was so excited when Mom gave it to me at Christmas. I even worried I’d finish it up by April and have to go back to the blue books.

So many empty pages.

Electricity again. This time for 16 minutes around 3 this afternoon.

I don’t know what that means.

Mom fainted this afternoon. I don’t think she’s eaten in 3 days.

I made some soup and forced her to eat it. I’m not ready for her to die yet.

I did another inventory of the pantry. There’s so little in there, it didn’t take much time for me to check. There’s maybe 2 weeks worth of food if only Jon and Matt eat. With Mom and me eating occasionally, we’ll run out of food in 10 days. If after we die Matt stops eating, then Jon gets another few days, which could give him enough time and strength to get out of here. Matt can tell him who to go to so he can barter any leftover firewood for food.