“You should be sitting down, and don’t thank me yet. I haven’t fixed anything. I think the issue might be outside, which means we might have to deal with DTE, and that probably won’t be until tomorrow. I’m going to take a look around.”
“Okay, thank you. Sorry,” she replies quickly.
“I’ll come out with you. I’m still damp from the walk home anyway,” Oswald offers.
“He made you walk in the rain?” I tease.
“I fell asleep and didn’t hear the phone,” Memphis defends.
“You didn’t hear the phone?” I’m a little surprised. Memphis is probably the most responsible person I know, especially at his age. He’s been taking care of Oz forever, and he’s never missed a call before.
“It’s been a long few days,” Memphis explains with a small sigh.
Waylynn lowers her head a little like it’s all her fault, which makes me wish I hadn’t said anything. “All right, I’ll be back in a few. Take her to sit down,” I tell my friend.
Memphis urges Waylynn down the hall with the pressure of his body, not needing much encouragement. “I’ve been sitting so much, my butt hurts,” she gripes as she swings down the hall. Memphis mumbles something under his breath, but it’s too low for me to hear as he follows behind her.
Once they are out of earshot, I ask Oz, “Think he was really sleeping?” with raised brows.
“Probably. He’s too worried about her to do much else. Besides, don’t you see how comfortable he is here? It’s been like that since the first day… Well, maybe the second day.” He tilts his head to the side, thinking. It would have to be the second day, since we all got kicked out the first day.
We take the small path leading around the side of the house, where there’s a privacy fence that separates Waylynn’s yard from the neighbor’s. There’s a fallen tree limb wedged in the narrow space, and when I shine my light up, I see the wire from the drop is no longer taut. “Stay back.” I hold my arm out as Oz makes a move to pass me when I stop.
“Oh crap, no wonder she said the house shook.” He observes the heavy limb dangling off the wire.
“It’s good she didn’t come out here. We need to report the issue. The neighbor is probably going to lose some of that tree.” I point to the oak on the other side of the fence.
When we get back into the house, I think about taking my boots off, but I would just have to put them back on, so I call out, “Memphis,” loud enough that he should be able to hear me.
“What do you need?” Oz asks, using the toe of his shoes to push down the back of his sneaker.
“I have a small generator at home I can grab,” I tell them as Memphis and Waylynn enter the kitchen.
“That’s okay. Is it not fixable?” Waylynn asks, leaning her butt on one of the stools.
“Not tonight, unless they decide to come out, which I doubt. You need to call your electric company. There’s a tree limb on the line.”
“Oh no.” The glow of my light is enough to let me see her scrunch up her face. “I haven’t even gotten the first bill. Our house manager set everything up for me,” she explains, looking around.
House manager? I don’t even know what that is. “The address and your name should be enough to report the problem, but you’ll need account details eventually.”
“I can talk to Beth.” She looks at a clock over her shoulder. “Wait, she might still be up. It’s earlier there. Let me call her now.” She peers up from her phone and glances over at us. “Please be quiet. I really don’t want to answer questions tonight.”
Oswald mimes zipping his lips, but I watch Memphis lean back into a stance that makes me think he doesn’t like the idea. He doesn’t voice it though. I’m not going to say anything. I still live at home in an apartment on top of my parents’ garage, so I get what she’s saying.
“Hello, Beth, sorry to bother you so late. I need to report an issue to the electric company. Would you be able to get me the account details?” she says into the phone.
“It’s good to hear your voice too.” Waylynn smiles. “And yes, tonight if possible. There was a storm, and we have a tree limb interrupting power.” After a short pause, she turns to the side. “Just me, I didn’t mean we,” she says softly.
“Oh, okay, can you just text me a screenshot? Thank you, Beth. No, I’m perfectly fine, promise… Yeah, I’ll let you know when it gets fixed. Bye.
“She’s going to text me the info,” Waylynn tells us when she turns back around to face us after ending the call, even though we were all listening to the entire conversation. Her phone chimes a few seconds later, and she looks down.
“I’ll call.” Memphis holds out his hand, and she readily gives him her phone without any hesitation. “That’s your phone number, correct?” He holds up the phone for her to look at it.
“Yes.” She nods.
Memphis makes the call directly from her phone but puts it on speaker as the automated service picks up, identifying her account by the number he’s calling from. He goes through the prompts, telling them the power is out due to a downed tree, then gets a canned response about heavy storm damage and to stay away from the area until they can repair the line, with no timeframe when they will come out to fix it.
