Thursday August 14th started like any other day. My morning commute to work was uneventful, and the day itself was slow. My job as a financial analyst in mid-town Manhattan keeps me pretty busy, arriving early and usually leaving late. Most days I do not get to leave until 7:00 pm or so, but this day turned out differently.
At 4:10 PM on this hot and sunny Thursday all the lights went out, not just in my building, or the area, but most of the northeastern United States. I was frightened at first; being a survivor of the 9-11-01 World Trade Center attacks has left me easily frightened by unexplained events like this. I was suspecting the worst for the first few minutes before I realized that there was no attack, just a power outage. My building was evacuated and I was unpleasantly escorted from the 25th floor down the steps to the service exit. I made my way to my car parked at a commercial garage, and waited for over an hour for all the people to file out of the five-story structure. I may be nervous in events like this, but I fail to see why people think in a catastrophe they should immediately hit the highway and head home.
It was slow going for everyone getting home that day. Millions of people were walking the streets heading home on foot. More were driving and trying really hard not to hit the pedestrians who had taken control of the streets. There were no traffic lights, streetlights, and the sun was setting soon. I had just reached the southern tip of Manhattan at about 7:20 PM and crossed into Brooklyn a little before 8:00 PM, I was now about 20 minutes from home under normal circumstances, but tonight who knew how long it would be.
By 8:30 I was almost home when I saw something that woke up my Good Samaritan nature. There was a woman walking along 4th avenue, obviously pregnant and from the looks of it completely worn out. I pulled over and opened my window to speak to her.
“Excuse me miss?” I called. “I would really like to help you get home. Do you have far to go?”
She looked at me cautiously and was obviously trying to look into the car to see if there was anyone else with me. I turned on the overhead light to let her see me more clearly.
“I’m not going to charge you anything, or take you anywhere you don’t want to go, I just can’t stand to see you having so much trouble.”
She approached the car and looked in. “A ride would be really nice.” She said in a sweet but tired voice. “I have about 2 miles to go. All the car services want 20 bucks or more, and no one would stop to pick me up otherwise.”
She opened the door and tried to maneuver into the seat. I pulled the seat all the way back to make it easier on her. When she finally got in I extended my hand and said.
“I’m Brian, nice to meet you.”
“Clarisa.” She said as she took my hand. “Thank you so much for this.”
“I have a cell phone that has been working pretty well if you need to call your husband or anything.”
“Well, there’s no-one to call really. I’m not married and my mother lives in Puerto-Rico so she probably doesn’t even know this is going on yet.”
“So is there anyone home waiting for you then?”
“No.” she replied as she sunk into the bucket seat. “No one but us.” She said patting her belly.
“Well, I don’t want to be rude, so feel free to tell me to shut up, but how far along are you?”
“I just passed my seventh month yesterday.” She said with a smile. “I loved it at first, being pregnant, but now I am just so tired I want to get it over with.”
“Well, enjoy the quiet time while it lasts, the little one will be a lot noisier when it comes out.” I said with a chuckle.
“She will.” She replied. “I know I’m going to miss it, but right now I am just so beat.”
“Well, if you look ahead you can see two tall towers. I live in the one on the left at the 18th floor. There’s no A/C tonight, but that high up I get a good breeze.”
She just laughed and after a minute looked at me and said “And how am I supposed to get up 18 flights of stairs like this?”
“Oops. I forgot about that. Where should I take you then?”
“90th and 4th avenue, I live right off 4th.”
“No problem.” I said.
The rest of the drive was pretty easy going, except for one close call with a poor guy dressed all in black carrying a guitar and amp. He was running across 4th avenue waving his open cell-phone to make himself noticeable. I almost hit him, but luckily we avoided each other. We finally arrived at her place, a small three-family house in a nice area of Brooklyn.