Objects of Code and Desire / Page 26 of 31


	the screen yawned and the computer went click as if it'd gotten bored of my conversation with the compiler and left to run some errands. but the fan, the stereo and refrigerator went click as well. power outage can be the first warning of an earthquake, not the fast hard ones shaking everything at once, but the slow stone tidal waves rolling towards you car alarm by car alarm, street by street. giving you time to remember your earthquake insurance has a $50,000 deductible. but the neighborhood was quiet and when i got out the radio, the one with batteries. they said the interstate intertie had shut itself down and, except for the lack of power, the system was working great. now and for awhile california was an island disconnected from the continent like some bad sci-fi joke the villain plots to make nevada beach front property. oh. and every traffic light from oregon to mexico was out and the diablo nuclear power plant had been taken off line to avoid overload and the chevon refinery was venting a black cloud of half-processed fuel in an emergency depressurization so if the smokers in martinez, bencia, and richmond could just refrain from lighting up. and when it's quiet like that without the background hum of current through the wires i hear a tiny voice saying i have no skills to save my ass after the end of civilization, when the computers won't work. so i better count on looking good in mad max leathers

the screen yawned