Chapter 1

Blackout

I can't stop thinking about the bathroom sink.

I know how strange that must sound. Trust me, it's strange to me too.

But it's true. I literally cannot stop thinking about the sink in our apartment's bathroom.

On the subway ride home from school today, whenever I would lean my head against the window and close my eyes, all I saw was the sink. I thought maybe this was just because I'd had to pee, so our bathroom at home was on my mind. But then later, at dinner, with every bite of my mom's slightly over-baked macaroni and cheese, the image flashed through my consciousness like a slideshow of the same photograph again and again: the bathroom sink.

I think something's wrong with me.

Why would I be fixated on a stupid plumbing accessory like this? I'm worried that maybe I have some kind of abnormal psychological condition. Right now it must be past three in the morning and I can't sleep, partly because of the summer heat, but mostly because I have this unshakeable obsession with the sink, and I don't know why.

There's no electricity tonight.

All summer long there have been these rolling blackouts. The weather has been so hot and humid that everyone in the city keeps cranking up their AC's and straining the power grid.

Tonight the lights went off not long after sunset, and they're still not back on. So even if I succumbed to my urge to go stand in the bathroom and stare at the sink, I wouldn't be able to actually see anything. It's totally dark in there right now.

And it's way too hot to do anything, anyway. Without the AC running, it's like an oven in my bedroom. I've stripped down to just my bra and underwear, and still I'm sweating like it's the jungle.

I reach for my phone in the dark to see what time it is. But the battery is long dead.