Short
Sandy slammed her key into the lock and flung the door open. She flew into Katy’s apartment, her mind racing. “Katy, are you here? Your phone is… Katy?” She stepped into the dark expanse.
“Stob ride dere. Dode come ady closer.” The girl’s muffled voice filtered through the room. “Take ob your wadtge an leave your bag at d’ door.” A loud, nasal honk filled the air.
“Katy?” Sandy frowned as she complied with the instructions. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m siiiiiiiiiiiick,” Katy whined pitifully.
Sandy dropped her purse in the hallway and carefully made her way into the living room. The floor crunched beneath her feet as she gingerly nudged them along. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that all the electronics had been unplugged from the walls. “Oh no…”
“Oh yes.” Katy sat huddled in an armchair, swathed in blankets. “I’b-“ She pulled down the blanket that was covering her lower face and tucked it beneath her chin. “I’m sick. Look at the TV.”
Obligingly Sandy looked over to where the TV sat. She gasped when she realized that it actually was lying on the floor with the screen blown out and scattered across the floor.
“I sneezed,” Katy said acerbically. “Normal people sneeze and people bless them. I sneeze and things explode."
“Are you okay?” Sandy crept over to the television’s corpse and peered at it, fascinated.
Katy popped a hand out of her cocoon and waved it dismissively. “Yeah. I unplugged everything, which is why the phone doesn’t work, it’s one of those cordless jobbers.”
“Oh.” Sandy crossed back over to Katy and ran a hand across her forehead. “It’s just a 24- hour flu,” she said, grinning wryly.
“For you, maybe,” she grumbled, “For me, it’s a life shattering experience. Literally.” Katy gestured at the remains of the television set.
“Ah, it’s just a TV.” Sandy shrugged. “Big deal.”
Katy snorted. “You haven’t seen the kitchen, have you?”
“No.. Why?”
“Just go look.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah. Think the landlord is going to have a fit?”
“Uh huh.”
There in the center of the kitchen was the remains of a formerly pristine white electric stove. Still attached to the wall, the floor was scarred where it had apparently joltingly danced across it. The top and sides of the stove were scorched. The oven door hung drunkenly from one hinge, and the heating coils that normally laid flat on the top of the stove were outstretched in all directions, as if trying to escape the oncoming conflaguration.
“I wasn’t fast enough.” Katy dropped her head onto her knees. “I don’t know WHAT I’m gonna do.”
“It’s not that bad…” Sandy protested weakly.
“Think about it, Sandy. The landlord is going to take one look at that and he’s gonna toss me out. He’s gonna figure out I’m a- a- AAAARGH! I’m never ever ever ever going to be able to find another apartment!” Katy screamed into her blankets. “I’m going to have to live out on the streets in a cardboard box and use my textbooks for pillows-“
Sandy watched the other young woman freak out, her expression slowly changing from shocked to exasperated. “Don’t you think you’re over doing it a bit?”
“-leftovers out of the dumpster behind Mc Donald's and- what did you say?” Katy looked up at her with a dazed expression.
“You. Are. Overreacting.” Sandy clearly enunciated each syllable. “We can fix this. Did anything else get fried?”
“No. Just that and the TV.”
“Fine. So we’ll clean up the TV and that’ll be that." Sandy marched resolutely into the kitchen. "Have you taken anything yet?” she asked as she gave the stove a more thorough examination.
Katy twisted around in her chair to look at her. “Huh? Um, yeah. Some cold pills, a while ago.”
“Good." Sandy came back out into the living room. "Is there anyway we can make it look like the stove was an accident?
“It WAS an accident” Katy wailed.
“You know what I mean. Like a power surge or something.”
“Ohhhhhh.” Katy’s eyes rounded as she understood what Sandy was about. “Like it shorted out. right?”
“Riiiight.”
"Well..." Katy stretched her arms out and rested her elbows on her knees. "I don't think I messed up the wiring per say, just sent too much electricity through 'em at once." Her brow furrowed and she began to mutter to herself. "So if I like, maybe, y'know, got rid of the TV, that's just the stove then.."
"And then you could fry a circuit in the stove and tell the landlord that that's what caused it to break," Sandy prodded gently.
Katy snorted."I don't think that'll work, exactly, but I'll come up with something." She grabbed a handful of tissues and blew her nose. "I don't like it though. It's not honest."
Sandy put her hands on her hips. "And a moment ago you were worried about not having a place to live."
"True." Katy stuffed the tissue in her pocket and pushed to her feet. "All right. Lemme get a trash bag." She shuffled into the kitchen, skirting around the former stove.
Sandy watched her go. "Hey Katy?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"How're you gonna watch Conan, tonight?"
Sandy ducked under the dustpan that came flying at her head and laughed shamelessly.
-fin-
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