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Mimi sat at the end of the bar past the last table on the floor of the Six Sentence Cafe and Bistro, the seat closest to the hall with the men's room door on one side and the women's on the other, and just past them, the Manager's Office where The Tall Thin Man presided.
Beyond this, who knew what was back there, the hall turned and turned again, with rooms and passages and staircases to the upper floors most of them unexplored and unused for many years since this ceased to be the bustling center of commerce in a warehouse area.
Just before you got to beyond, however, was a wide set of double doors which was the mechanical room, the A/C and heating units, large water heater, space for the larger janitorial supplies like the janitor's cart and big mops and wringer buckets, and this is also where the electrical panel was housed with what Mimi always called the "fuse box" from habit, although it was all circuit breakers now, including the panel for the emergency power generator they'd had installed in case of a major outage during storms.
As she sat taking a breather from kitchen duty (banana pudding dessert day was always busy), the light in the hall, never very bright and always trying to show signs of ceasing to function, did exactly that once again, plunging the hall into the darkness which seemed to be its natural state.
With a sigh, Mimi stood up and called Hūnga, "Boy, do you want to come with me and help me find which breaker tripped this time?" and always game for adventure, Hūnga came over, Mimi turned on the light on her phone, which led them both to the mechanical room doors, and by habit she went in and started running the light over the panel to look for the "soft" one, because it never fully tripped all the way to the "off" position but just wasn't quite making contact with the "on" side, either.
Flipping it all the way off and back on again, through the open door to the hall behind her she saw the light flicker on, very dim, so she closed the panel, she and the dog left the mechanical room and went back to the Bistro proper with Mimi muttering, "I know it's going to go out again, the electricals are as odd in this place as at my house, and there's something just not canny about the hallway."
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Table.
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" The quiet glue that holds a place together"
ReplyDeleteOh yes, finally, lights. Even the dim ones... This whole dark thingy made me a bit uneasy...
ReplyDeleteI think I finally found my favourite character in the story too: "the one who knows how to turn the lights on".
perfect!
ReplyDelete'cause, as with most Sixeseses, the details make the story... "mops and wringer buckets" ! and none of the new-seen-on-tv plastic affairs! no ma'am these are made of metal in a rounded rectangle shape with the wheels on little projections at the 4 corners... looks like tin, but heavier. the wringer is made of the same metal, in a broad cheese grater shape with drain holes on the two broad sides, the handle has a worn plastic end with a grip for the fingers...it weighs a ton when you need to empty it in the too-high slop sink
the mops? metal bracket holding like foot-long strands of twisted cloth (makes a very satisfy 'shhaaa Slap' sound as it hits the floor provided you have the skill to put the twist on it to spread the mop tendrils to maximum width between wringer and endless 3:00am floor)
nice Six
Oh, excellent, you've did it. Phew. The part of the building still needs work, but there we are. Once again, well done, my dear - I do hope I will see you soon. Also, I like the idea that this room - 215 - sounds rather like that door to get into a particular room in Potter world.
ReplyDeleteUna història amb intriga i una mica de terror.
ReplyDeleteBen fet!
Petonets, Mimi.
Electricity is nothing to mess with- even though the lack thereof makes for a wonderful storyline!
ReplyDeleteJust as well the scary bit came right at the end.
ReplyDeleteI love this cafe with all those mysterious rooms and a sketchy electrical system for ambience.
ReplyDeleteJava Bean: "Ayyy, when venturing into spooky scary potentially haunted dark places, always make sure to bring a dog. Preferably Lulu."
ReplyDeleteLulu: "I'm game, let's go!"
A great visit to the Cafe even though it was a bit chilling towards the end.
ReplyDeleteOh absolutely superb!
ReplyDeletefuse boxes have definitely changed.... i love how you had to go to the 'basement' to get to the box.... there's a million stories of finding the fuse box... getting there... which panel is it?.... hopefully it'll work... and getting back... how many trips have i had to make to getting my dryer to work... i loved your journey to the fuse box and did you have enough light?.... laughed all the way... great six
ReplyDeleteMost excellent Six, Mimi. Made more real as any place can be in the virtual world.
ReplyDelete