Once again I woke up to the plaintive beeps of the uninterruptible power supply system in my study. No juice. And then I heard fitful and faint drumming outside. Heavy rain. When I opened the shutters ajar, a thick fog peered into my bedroom. It was so dark out there, I closed the shutters without a moment’s thought. I lit a candle and washed my face in the bathroom. The beeps followed me everywhere around the house. Then I dressed, grabbed my umbrella, and walked out. No juice, no coffee, either. I felt like walking away never to see this damned hilltown again. As I walked at an ever-faster pace, the plaintive beeps followed me downhill: “Leave, leave, leave…”

Addendum (October 1, 2017)

Nearly ten years later, everything is different. Quite different, as a matter of fact. For better or worse, this is not because I have left the damned hilltown. Alas! Instead, I have gotten rid of the uninterruptible power supply system in my study. Over the years, I had two such systems in a row, both of which ultimately conked out because of so many problems with electric supply. In Motovun, it is as fickle as fickle can be. Be that as it may, the beeps are history as of several years ago. In retrospect, they were a nuisance past compare. Although the clever electronic devices that emitted them saved an important computer file every now and then, I found them hard to bear. In the end, I got tired of uninterruptible power supply systems as such. But I still shudder when I remember the plaintive beeps that occasionally went on and on for hours: “Leave, leave, leave…”