Twelve Short Stories of Christmas 8: The Last Candle

Day seven can be read here.

Rose was down to her last candle and the power still hadn’t come back on. The storm had been three days ago, but the electric company had warned that it could be almost a week before she got power back to her home. She had checked that on her phone before it had run out of battery. She had been able to text or call everyone to tell them she was safe, only that her power was down. For the first day or two, she had quite relished the no power. After all, it meant she did not have to worry about cooking Christmas dinner if it did not come back on in time and she much preferred the Christmas tree when the lights were off. The storm had prevented her from travelling to her daughter’s house for Christmas so she would be spending the day alone, but still, she had hoarded so many scented candles over the years that for the first few days she could still light all the rooms and the house smelt like a perfume factory.

Now her phone was out of battery, the roads were still too treacherous for her to walk to the village and she had used up all but this last candle. It was Christmas Eve. She knew without having to check her phone that the electricity wouldn’t come back on before at least the 27th now. The last candle sputtered and went out. Rose sighed in the darkness and used her hands to feel her way up the stairs to bed.