Sergio De La Pava - A Naked Singularity

What about the homeless Jim?

They’re not listening to this Dave, they’re already dead .

Like my dream in The Orchard where I was scrounging desperately for food, this dream borrowed heavily from present reality because when I woke up the cold in the room made my eyeballs recoil from the lack of eyelid protection. And as cold as it was in that bed, even beneath multiple covers, I didn’t even want to imagine coming out from under them and onto the bare hardwood floors. But there was a definite knocking. And waking up into that cold in that way made me think of being a squirt and awakening in our tiny cold apartment where the only heat was in the very immediate vicinity of the unpainted radiators and how my mother would take the polyester uniforms we would wear to hear nuns yell at us and place them on top of those radiators so that when we were ready to slip them onto our chubby little bodies they would be nice and toasty and in large measure combat the frost of that place. And I looked for the radiator in my current bedroom, so I could put my prospective clothes on it, but couldn’t find it. I heard more knocking on my door. The radiator wasn’t anywhere. I looked in the rest of the apartment. No wonder it was so cold, there wasn’t the slightest hint of a radiator anywhere. How had I ever been warm in that place? I felt reasonably certain that the apartment had contained, at some past point, multiple radiators, but at that moment it was undeniable that no such contraption existed in that forsaken place and also that there was still that persistent knocking on my door that would need attending.

When I said wait to the knocking door I saw my breath escape taking most of my valuable inner warmth with it. I walked to the door with my comforter wrapped all over me and three separate times almost fell on my face. It was Alyona.

“Hi Casi, sorry, it’s almost eleven-thirty I didn’t think you’d still be sleeping.”

“Me either.”

“Anyway, I’m sure you’ve noticed there’s no heat.”

“Noticed.”

“Well, I’m sure you know about the blackout.”

“…”

“The whole damn city practically, no electricity. Seven hours and counting too and since we’re among the unfortunate few around here to use electric baseboard for heat I guess we’re shit out of luck. I told my uncle to leave those damn radiators alone but he was adamant that it would save money. Can you believe the timing? Wait, it occurs to me you’ve been sleeping, do you even know there’s been a blackout?”

“The radiators?”

“I know, they’re gone.”

“But when?”

“While you were in Anchorage remember? Ridiculous timing too. So you knew about the blackout?”

“Yeah but you’re saying they still haven’t gotten power back?”

“Exactly, all of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn have no power whatsoever.”

“Are like major riots and shit going on?”

“Good instincts but no. Everyone thinks the combination of the late hour of the blackout, which meant it was fairly quickly followed by the emergence of the sun, along with the ridiculous cold, is keeping people from flouting the law, against their base instincts of course. Nonetheless, there’s a great deal of worry about what will happen in about six hours if power isn’t restored given that people will have had time to digest and plan.”

“Oh.”

“Bottom line is this is a time we’ll probably never forget. You should see the Promenade. Anyway I just came up to tell you the deal with the heat and to offer you my cousin’s apartment in Staten Island where we will be sleeping tonight if the heat’s not restored.”

“Thanks, nice of you, but I’d probably just go to my mom’s or something.”

“Right, didn’t think of that. You get used to dealing with these guys like Angus and Louie who have no family for miles and you forget you know?”

“What do they say about it?” I said pointing at the paper in Alyona’s hand.

“Who Angus and Louie?”

“No, The Post.”

“Oh they got screwed big time. You know they’re the only paper actually printed in Manhattan so they lost all their power too and had to go with what they already had. So while everybody else has some cool variation on Darkness Falls or some such nonsense, they’re stuck with this. See for yourself.”

I looked at the front of the paper where it said MASSACRE! above a split picture of the sidewalk of 123rd Street and the inside of 410. I gave the paper back.

“You believe it?” Alyona said.

“Yeah.”

“So where were you last night? Angus was trying to introduce you to someone.”

“I was here.”

“No cause we thought we heard you like really late but then when we knocked no answer.”

“I was sleeping, deep sleep. I’m sick.”

“Telling you man, got to get that ear checked out.”

“It’s not my ear, my ear actually feels pretty good come to think of it.”

“So?”

“Just sick.”

“Well whatever it is, this cold won’t help.”

“No.”

“Well Louie and I are going to get some food. Want to come? There’ll be heat.”

No thanks I said and he left.

I remembered the baby so tried the phone, it didn’t work.

I wanted to go home. I wanted to meet my new nephew. I knew my entire family was in noisy, celebratory congregation, most likely in my mother’s house, even on a Wednesday morning, and I wanted to be there for that. Alana and I were the only ones who lived in New York and I knew from her message that she was already there. If I wanted any information I would have to go home.

I looked out the window. I didn’t see any chaos but the immanent stillness was possibly worse. Suddenly I was really hungry and regretted saying no to Alyona’s invitation. My initial reaction was almost always to say no to that kind of thing then, almost as often, to nearly immediately regret it. The apartment was so cold it made me feel hollow. I decided to go down and try to catch them before they left. Then I would get in my car, go home, and see everyone.

Angus answered the door and I saw that I’d already missed the others and Angus didn’t know where they’d gone only that they’d gone to get food and he had not gone with them because he was sure that at any moment everything was going to be all right and power would return and everything that was off in his apartment would go on again and he wanted to be there at the precise moment that happened just as he’d been there and fully cognizant at the precise moment everything went dead; he wondered, he said, if it wasn’t warmer in my apartment given that science tells us that heat rises.

“Who tells us that?”

“Science.”

“Oh. Well I don’t think my apartment is any warmer. I think the heat has to exist first before it can rise.”

“There’s always heat.”

“Not if its absolute zero.”

“True, but it isn’t, so there’s heat.”

“All right then, where is it?”

“It’s around, I’m sure, it’s just not having any effect.”

I went inside when he asked. I watched him as he returned to the middle of his sofa then I looked at the black screen as it reflected my face back at me. He wore a hat, I had never found mine, and one of those ridiculous coats that’s all bubbly and doubles your girth. His face was drained of all color, his visible hair shone with grease. He chewed at the skin on his fingertips.

“You okay Angus?”

“In what sense?”

“Do you feel all right, in that sense, because you don’t look great.”

“I’ve been better, no question about that. But be that as it may, I’m still perfectly sanguine about the fact that we are going to get through this little problem in a matter of a few more minutes. This too shall pass Casi.”