Mandy’s Fitbit buzzed on her wrist telling her she had 10 more minutes to get 250 steps before 4:00 p.m. She strode briskly to the office copier and back then was rewarded with her Fitbit buzzing on her wrist again to let her know she had achieved her hourly step goal. Only 3,427 more to go before 10:00 p.m. to achieve her daily goal.

She returned to her desk planning to send out a few emails before the end of the day. She sat down just as a pop up appeared in the middle of her screen. “System update in 15 minutes. Please save your work and sign off but do not power down your machine. Updates will require approximately 4 hours.” She sighed, saved her work, and signed off her machine with 7 minutes to spare. She might as well go home.

As she got in the car, her phone booped. She glanced down and it told her time to drive home was approximately 42 minutes. Right below that was a reminder she had a dentist appointment at 8:30 the next morning. She put her phone in her purse and turned on the car. The radio immediately blared out “Weather alert. High winds, rain and possible hail expected until midnight tonight.”

Sighing, Mandy started driving. She was almost home when the sky darkened, wind picked up, and heavy rain started obscuring the windshield. She pulled into her driveway and ran into the house. She was soaked to the skin in the time it took to run the 15 feet from the car to the house.

Stepping inside, she glanced at the clock on the cable box. It was 5:15. She went to her bedroom and changed into dry pjs. She went back to the kitchen and put some leftover beef stew in the microwave, briefly noticing that the microwave clock read 5:21 while the stove clock right before it said 5:23. She’d have to fix that.

She was just sitting down to eat when there was a flash of light and a very loud boom, followed by the house lights flickering once then going dark. For a moment she just sat there in the dark and silence. Oh no! She thought, and glanced down at her phone. Only 45% power. She’d better turn it off to conserve the battery.

Then she realized how silent it was. No hum of electronics, just quiet. The quiet was kind of nice. She went an got a candle to light and enjoyed her leftover stew by candle light. She had just finished when her Fitbit buzzed telling her she had 10 minutes to get 250 steps. On a whim, she took it off and tossed it in her purse.

She took her candle, a glass of wine, and the book she had been meaning to read to her couch. It took her a few minutes to find the battery powered book light her sister had gotten her for her birthday. She pulled a throw over her lap and started reading.

Some time later she looked up and it was completely dark outside. She wondered what time it was. It could have been a hour, it could have been a couple hours, she wasn’t sure. Was it time to go to bed? She almost got up to get her phone, but then decided she didn’t want to know. She would read until she was sleepy, then she would go to bed.

She hoped the power wouldn’t come back on until the next morning. For tonight, at least, she was not a slave to the clock.