The following days were a logistical exercise. The shifts worked surprisingly well. I kept track of expenses, organized shopping, and assigned tasks. Some seemed to enjoy the novelty of communal living; others complained a little, but they did so quietly.However, prolonged cohabitation revealed inevitable tensions.
A couple of nights I overheard quiet arguments between the couples because sleeping on mats wasn’t comfortable. The young people wanted to go exploring the mountains but didn’t want to wake up early. Laura’s mother constantly criticized the cottage’s minimalist decor.
Even so, strange as it may seem, I remained calm. Because deep down I knew that this situation, although exhausting, was putting everything in its place: they understood my limits, I understood my own resources, and a silent respect was beginning to emerge.
But the real turning point—the one that would change everything—came on a day of torrential rain. When the cottage, packed to capacity, lost power due to an unexpected outage.
And then everyone looked towards me… as if I were the only one capable of keeping the ship afloat.
I didn’t know how yet, but I had to answer.
When the light went out, there was first a second of absolute silence. Then, as expected, the murmurs began.
— “What happened?”
— “Don’t you have a generator?”
— “Mom, I can’t see anything.”
Laura looked at me as if asking for instructions. I took a deep breath, maintaining the same composure I had used since the first day.
— “Calm down. This happens often in this area when it rains heavily. I have flashlights in a closet. Give me a minute.”
I found them and started handing them out. With the dim light illuminating restless faces, the cottage seemed even smaller.
The problem wasn’t just the darkness. The refrigerator had stopped working, the hot water was gone, and the phone chargers were useless. In a group of twenty people, that was fertile ground for chaos.
But, against all odds, the opposite happened.
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