Out of the Ordinary

When Alex woke up that morning, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He sat up on his bed and stared into space for a minute. Then he walked into the kitchen and started the coffee pot. As the coffee dripped into the pot, he looked out the window, which was slightly smudged and had a film of dust. He should really clean the windows soon.

Something seemed odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Once the coffee pot was full enough, he poured himself a cup into a Darth Vader mug, and then replaced the pot to finish brewing. The rich coffee smell brought him further awake.

It was quiet. Was the neighborhood usually this quiet? It was early, that must be it. He want's usually up this early, but he hadn't been able to get back to sleep.

He took his steaming cup of coffee to his home office, set aside the mug which was one quarter full of cold coffee, and logged on to his computer. He started his email program to check his emails for work, but no new emails appeared. Server must be down, he thought. He had tried to convince his boss to switch service providers.

Alex picked up his cell phone and dialed the office. The call didn't go through. The phone had a signal, but after trying to dial the office three times, he gave up.

Odd that both would be down at the same time, he thought.

He wandered back into the kitchen. There were dishes in the sink and the coffee had finished brewing. Alex was struck once again by how quiet things were. He wanted to ask someone what was going on, or to have the reassurance of someone else agreeing that something was off this morning.

Maybe his neighbors were having similar problems. On one side was a middle aged couple who he never talked to. The guy always gave him semi hostile looks. On the other side was a woman in her mid thirties with a couple of young kids.

The woman always said hello to him and smiled when she saw him, so he decided to start with her. Now what was her name?

After checking his reflection in the bathroom mirror, and running his fingers through his long, dark hair, he ventured next door. He had decided to ask her if she was having problems with her phone too. That would be a good place to start.

There was no answer when he knocked, which was odd, since her car was parked out front. Maybe she got a ride somewhere, he thought, and then decided to try the hostile gentleman next door.

No answer.