For want of jumper cables

Crackle…Boom.. My sleepy eyes open to sounds of thunder.

Hoorah! Torrential rainfall is about to descend on smalltownamerica.

I knock on roomie’s door, giddy with joy at the thought.

“Why?” shouts roomie through door.

“I don’t know. They might close office because of torrential rainfall.”

“How old are you?” Roomie shouts, still refusing to open door to what she now knows is a halfwit brainless roommate.

I am now dressed but depressed because thunder has betrayed me. Crackling loud thunder has only led to tepid drizzle.
I run downstairs, past evidence of crazy neighbour’s flouting of apartment community’s rule to clean up after one’s ratlike dog.

Boyfriend’s car, which he so generously and kindly lend us for week, sits there.

I spent futile minutes showing off my gadget challenged ineptitude in drizzle, balancing umbrella, getting shoes wet, pressing on boyfriend’s snazzy remote car starter, with no success.

I open door the old fashioned way, insert the key into ignition, press hard and turn key right.

Boyfriend’s car does nothing. No sputtering start. No reving sounds. No turning over of six cylinder engine. I insert key again, press hard again and turn key right again. Nothing. I do it again and again.

“Atleast do something, give me something,” I shout.

Make irrirational calls (5) to boyfriend who lives 70 miles away and is currently without car.

“Dead battery”, he mutters, “probably need jumper cables.”

Having none and being extremely late, we instead get ride from colleague.

At work, I put finishing touches on several projects that I have a feeling will be deemed useless and obsolete by GiantCorpthattookoverus.

Send out emails to various teams for final responses so finishing touches to projects can be finalized.

No response.

I wait and try again, this time with a read receipt for the messages.

No sputtering half answers. No ping of read receipt for messages. No crackle of mass cced generalized responses.

Nothing.

Determined to get something, anything, I march off to find various teams.

Nobody’s in.

Team leader is at home with about to deliver pregnant wife

Oldboss is nursing jetlag after flying about for two weeks but promises response.

Rest don’t have answers and therefore felt no need to reply. But have promised to send me response by close of business day.

It is now the close of business day.

Only email in inbox is from roomie,

“Have you read “Keep the aspidistra flying” by George Orwell? I somehow feel that life now is getting unbearably like it, I am having such a “…desperate reaction against a monstrous system..” that I might just consider going to the deep end of the dam”

*Sigh*

Jumper cables. We need jumper cables.