Mark sat down to lunch. To conserve the meat, Mr. and Clarice had decided to serve PB&J. "We’ll have meat for dinner every night. But breakfast and lunch will be different." Clarice had explained.

Mark and Jennifer had enjoyed a great time while they were alone. They didn’t have sex, of course. They were both trustworthy, which was part of the reason that Mark was allowed to sleep in the same room as Jennifer. Another factor was that Jennifer’s parents respected her to make the right decisions, and they new that if she chose to do something it was for a good reason.

To pass the time, they had played some twister, had a pillow fight, and they watched a movie together. And, of course, they had kissed a little. Mark tried not to snicker at the thought. A little…

When they were done eating, Mark and Jennifer went outside to take a walk together. They had on thick clothes, but it was still fairly cold. Mark was startled for a second when he saw the pitch-black sky. He still wasn’t used to the idea of total night at 12:30 PM. He flipped on his flashlight. Good thing I have this.

The flashlight shorted out.

"God damn it, why does that keep happening to me?" He always got stuck with broken flashlights.

Jennifer looked back at him in the dark. "Boy, Mark, you sure have a way with flashlights. I wish I could get them to work like that," she teased.

Mark groaned. "That isn’t funny."

Jennifer laughed. "I know. Well, we should probably go inside until we get some new flashlights." She rotated back in the direction of the house and then walked towards it. Mark followed her.

Jim was sitting on the couch when they walked in. "Back so soon? What’s the problem?"

Jennifer held up the busted flashlight. "This da… this thing broke."

"Oh, great. Well," he sighed as he stood up, "I’d better go to the store to get another one. I’ll be back soon. Behave while I’m gone." Then he walked down the hallway and out the front door.

Jennifer sat down and picked up the TV remote. Mark sat next to her. She flipped through forty channels before giving up and turning off the TV. "Got anything in mind?"

Mark shrugged. "No, not really. What about you?"

"I don’t know. Can’t think of anything…"

"We were going to take a walk…" Mark reminded her.

Jennifer shook her head. "Too cold outside."

"Well, we could go down to the store and buy some more supplies."

"If they aren’t sold out, they are charging ten times too much… Hey, I’ve got an idea! We can set up all the stuff my dad bought! We could hook up the backup power generator, and set up the floodlights outside."

"Are you serious? He bought floodlights?" Mark asked incredulously.

Jennifer laughed and nodded. "What better way to serve the community than keep it bright?"

"Keep it warm! But how would he go about that? Ok, we’ll set up the stuff."

Mark helped Jennifer unpack the medium sized power generator her dad had purchased. It was big and ridiculously heavy, but they managed to get it down to the basement and wire it in. Mark applauded the choice of generator. If there was a power failure, all they had to do was fill the generator up with gas and it would power the whole house for days. Most families bought small generators that could barely keep the lights on, but this was a top quality model. Mark wondered how far back it had set the Reys. Probably at least five grand!

When they finished with the generator, they unpacked the floodlights. There were four total, with 16 replacements bulbs besides. Easily enough to keep the street well lit. And he was pretty sure the other families on the street would be willing to pay for more bulbs when they were needed. After all, we are giving them free light!

Mark grabbed the first floodlight. "Hey Jen, since you don’t like the cold, do you want me to set this up myself?"

Jennifer beamed. "I’d appreciate it!"

"Okay. I’ll be back in a minute for the next light," he told her.

He carried the light outside, and set it down on the front lawn. Then he went back inside and retrieved a cordless drill and a twelve-foot ladder. After that, he toted both things outside, the ladder in his left hand and the drill in his right.

Once outside, he dropped the drill and grasped the ladder with both hands. Careful not to damage the rain gutters, he leaned the ladder forward until the roof supported it. After giving it a shake to test its stability, he pocketed the drill, slung the light over his shoulder and climbed up onto the roof. From there, he drilled four holes in the shingles above the front porch. He aligned the holes on the light with the ones on the roof and carefully screwed it into place.

When he was satisfied that the light was secure, he climbed down, and moved the ladder. He walked inside to get the next light.

"Hey, can I get a light?"

"Sorry, no smoking inside."

Mark glared at Jennifer. "You know what I mean."

Jennifer nodded, and smiled mischievously. "Okay, but it’ll cost you."

"Aww, go to hell," Mark said jokingly.

Jennifer laughed. "Maybe I will. Word has it that it’s warmer there…"

"Now, as for the payment…" Mark leaned forward and pecked her on the cheek. "Will that work?"

Jennifer laughed and gave him the light. "Always has in the past."

He went outside and repeated the installation process for the second light.

When he had attached all four lights to different points on the roof, Mark went inside and got the wiring. "Uh oh," he remarked when he looked at it.

Jennifer looked at him. "What?"

He frowned. "I spaced the lights pretty far apart. This cord might not be long enough."

Jennifer groaned. "I’ll go outside with you and see if I can help."

They went outside. Mark climbed up the ladder and onto the roof and Jennifer tossed him the end of the cord. Mark unraveled each of the four sub-pieces of the cord and ran them to their respective lights. The first three he could reach fine, but the fourth strand couldn’t quite make it to the fourth light.

As he tried to determine a solution, it started raining. Damn! Mark looked up at the sky. He couldn’t even see the rain in the darkness. "Oh, now it’s raining. Beautiful!" he yelled sarcastically.

"Hey, I think I fixed your flashlight," Jennifer called from below. A beam of light suddenly swept passed him.

"Can you toss it up here, please?"

There was a moment’s pause and then the beam of light was spinning around in the sky. Mark estimated the location of the source, reached out, and grabbed the light as it started to arc downward.

He pointed his flashlight straight upward to look at the rain and groaned loudly as it shorted out. "NOT AGAIN! I thought this damned thing was waterproof!"

"I’m sorry! The box says it is!" Jennifer called to him. "Are you okay? Can you still see?"

"A little bit. I can’t connect the cord to the fourth light. It won’t reach!"

Jennifer’s voice floated up to him over the sound of the rain, now coming down rather hard. "Damn! Well hurry, or you’re going to catch a nasty cold!"

"Is there any more slack down there?"

"No! Sorry!"

Mark tried to think of a solution. He ran his eyes up and down the length of the power cord. Wait a minute!

There was a big knot in the cord just a few feet from the end. He carefully untied it. Without the knot in it, the cord was just long enough to reach the light. Marked cheered. "I got it!" He plugged the cord into the light. Success!

"Great! Now get down here so you can dry off!"

Mark started to climb down, but he slipped on puddle forming on the roof. He unceremoniously slid towards the edge and then tumbled off the roof. The situation struck him as so amusing that he was laughing as he fell. He landed in the Rey’s bushes.

Jennifer gasped and ran over to him. "Are you okay?"

Mark laughed loudly. "Yeah! I’m freezing cold, soaking wet, and I’m probably gonna get pneumonia, but I’m not hurt!" He laughed again, then slowly climbed out of the bushes and examined himself. He didn’t feel anything broken, and he wasn’t scraped or cut. He walked up to the porch. "I hate being wet!" he called.

Jennifer laughed too. Mark stared at her. "What’s so funny? Are you laughing at me?" he said in a joking voice.

Jennifer burst out laughing. Then she shook her head, which sent little droplets of water flying from her golden-brown hair and into Marks face.

"What are you, a dog?"

They both sat down there on the porch, cold and wet, and just laughed for a minute. Then they both went back inside.

Clarice handed each of them a towel. "Dry off, then I want both of you to go take a shower."

Mark bowed at Jennifer and gestured towards the bathroom. "You first, my lady."

Jennifer giggled. "No, you were out there longer than me. You should really go first."

"Fine!" Mark said with exaggerated annoyance. He went to get into the shower.

He took a ten-minute long shower, with the water as hot as he could stand it. He would have gone for another twenty minutes except for fear of looking like an idiot. Nobody takes thirty-minute showers, not even when they just got drenched.

Mark climbed out of the shower and slowly dried off. He looked at his clothes. They were still dripping on the floor.

Someone knocked on the door. "Mark, are you done yet? I’m cold!" Jennifer yelled.

"Wait! My clothes are all wet!"

"Well I’m not waiting for them to dry off!" Mark heard the click of a key going into the lock. He scrambled to wrap the towel around his waist.

The door popped open. Jennifer walked in backwards. "There, I can’t see anything." She held out a pair of pants and some boxers. Mark grabbed them and pulled them on. While he did so, Jennifer continued to look the other way.

"Hey!" Mark grinned and poked her back with his left hand. "Well, okay, your turn." He swept his right arm in the direction of the shower.

She nodded, and he walked past her and out the door. As he turned to close it, he saw her take off her shirt and then bra. She was facing the other way, but Mark could see her bare back. She knew damn well I would see her do that! Mark thought. He thought for a moment, then closed the door. He didn’t feel right standing there watching her undress.

After a few minutes, Mark heard Jennifer yelling from inside the shower. He went to the door to see what she wanted.

"Dammit, I forgot my dry clothes!" she yelled.

"I’ll get ‘em," Mark responded. He went into her room and grabbed the clothes that Jennifer had left on her bed. He walked back to the bathroom.

"You’ll have to open the door!" he told her.

The door opened slowly. Mark walked in backwards, the same way Jennifer had. He handed all her clothes except for her shirt.

He heard her pull on the clothes. "Wait, where’s my shirt?"

"You didn’t give me a shirt," Mark whined, trying to sound hurt.

"You little pervert."

"I’m teasing. Here." He held the shirt out behind him. "Oh, I forgot to get your bra."

Jennifer walked in front of him with her shirt on. "Forget it, I don’t want your perverted hands on my underwear. I don’t know where they’ve been!" she teased. She walked out of the room.

Mark just stared after her. Man I love her.