Article March 17, 2003 Issue

A late-night call for HELP

By Charles Rankin

It Was The First week in December 2002, and I was at home in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I go to college at Queens University of Charlotte. Because of an ice storm, all the power in Charlotte had been knocked out for the last few days, but finally about half the city had its electricity restored. On top of all the inconvenience and difficulties caused by the storm, at about 1:30 in the morning, I got a phone call from a friend whose apartment had flooded from broken plumbing. He asked if I would come over with my wet/dry vacuum and help him clear out all the water.

When he called, at first I just felt as if I didn't want to go—it was too late and too cold. He lives 35 minutes away from me, which was a pretty big factor at that time of the night. But then I realized that this was my friend and he needed help, so of course I would go.

As I got out to my car, I wanted to get going, but the thought strongly came to me to go back into the house and get a flashlight. Again, this seemed at first like a lot of trouble, but then I thought that with the city still being half blacked out, it would probably be a sensible thing to have the flashlight. So I went back in. And while I was getting the flashlight, it occurred to me to take a pocketknife along as well. I didn't really see any reason I'd be needing a knife just to vacuum up a lot of water, but I followed what was, again, a very strong impulse, and took the knife along.

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