PREVIEW: Black Out

Mom said the last power outage she'd seen happened when she was a very young girl. She said that they'd sat in their darkened home and her aunt had read to her by candle light.
"We didn't own a laptop then," she said, "We had one of those big, bulky computers that you had to keep plugged in."
I couldn't imagine it. Living without even a laptop? And those were so old! Expect for the old ones at the school that had long ago been converted to mods, the only laptop I'd seen was the one mother kept in a padded case under her bed. She said the mods were too fast for her. I couldn't understand why she preferred that piece of junk. She was a writer, but she hated mods? Unthinkable! Why would she rather sit and type everything out when she could connect to a mod and have her thoughts written down for her.
Mom rarely used her connect. She'd had it installed into her neck when she was in her 30's, when they'd first came out. They'd long since been upgraded. The newest was a patch that could be installed anywhere on your body. You didn't even have to plug in anymore, it was wireless.
"I miss how simple it was back then," she said wistfully.
The idea scared me. I couldn't imagine being stuck in the dark, without my connect. However, mother looked as though she wished she could relive that power outage she's experienced as a child.
I was thankful it could never happen again.