(no subject)
You don't realize how much water and electricity you use until it's taken away.
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SETTING: 7:20 A.M. A quaint house off of a paved, if rural, road. There is a noticeable lack of sewers on the road- the house depends on electricity to run the well on the property. Inside the house, VANESSA, 22, is waking up. She has her morning face on. The grumpy one. It's been a hot night and she's noticeably sweaty and probably emitting some sort of odour. Downstairs, MUM is doing some dishes. She hands VANESSA a glass, and VANESSA pours juice, sits down, and sips it. She sits and contemplates having a shower. Then...
BLACKOUT.
VANESSA & MUM: Oh. Shit.
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You'd think we'd be more used to power outages. After all, power lines are somewhat flimsy things- trees fall on them, animals climb and chew on them, drunk tourists drive into them. We are faced with power outages multiple times each year. But trying to get three women ready for work and school in the morning with no power just elicits a lot of whining. However, we are inventive- there was a case of water in the basement, and so all of our teeth are brushed and faces washed and hair at least wettened, if not shampooed. It's startling, though, to realize just how much we overuse. Mum started dumping bottles down the sink to rinse the sink out and my conservation instincts kicked in- all I wanted to do was save and store everything. How can we be so used to overusing things when so many people would die for the amount of clean water we used this morning, and yet all of us went to our various workplaces feeling grimy? I feel like I would be such a stronger person if I had to struggle for something other than social acceptance once in a while.
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SETTING: 7:20 A.M. A quaint house off of a paved, if rural, road. There is a noticeable lack of sewers on the road- the house depends on electricity to run the well on the property. Inside the house, VANESSA, 22, is waking up. She has her morning face on. The grumpy one. It's been a hot night and she's noticeably sweaty and probably emitting some sort of odour. Downstairs, MUM is doing some dishes. She hands VANESSA a glass, and VANESSA pours juice, sits down, and sips it. She sits and contemplates having a shower. Then...
BLACKOUT.
VANESSA & MUM: Oh. Shit.
---
You'd think we'd be more used to power outages. After all, power lines are somewhat flimsy things- trees fall on them, animals climb and chew on them, drunk tourists drive into them. We are faced with power outages multiple times each year. But trying to get three women ready for work and school in the morning with no power just elicits a lot of whining. However, we are inventive- there was a case of water in the basement, and so all of our teeth are brushed and faces washed and hair at least wettened, if not shampooed. It's startling, though, to realize just how much we overuse. Mum started dumping bottles down the sink to rinse the sink out and my conservation instincts kicked in- all I wanted to do was save and store everything. How can we be so used to overusing things when so many people would die for the amount of clean water we used this morning, and yet all of us went to our various workplaces feeling grimy? I feel like I would be such a stronger person if I had to struggle for something other than social acceptance once in a while.