[MaC] An Interruption

[Mel Mason]

The party seemed to have settled down.  People were talking quietly now - 
and the sound of Anton's piano was forming a soothing background to the 
conversation.  He was playing light, popular classics, it appeared, not his 
usual style at all (as anyone who had attended his concerts would know).

And then everything was disrupted by a shrill whistling in the street.

"That's the ARP," said Oswald Skeffington-Nottle.  "We must be showing a 
light."

Marty Fitzroy swore.  "Put the lights out," he ordered Hodges.  "Perhaps 
that'll shut them up."

Oswald moved to the window.  "I'll see what they say once the lights are 
out," he said.

Soon the room was plunged into darkness - it seemed strange not to be able 
to see anyone else, and there were several nervous giggles, as though this 
were a party game.

In the next flat, Anton Barowenski could be heard continuing to play.

Oswald moved to the window and leaned out.  He could be heard shouting an 
enquiry - and a distant voice resonded.  Then he could be heard shuffling 
back into the room.

"Not good news, I'm afraid," he said.  "They've found an incendiary - 
unexploded.  They want us to stay put while it's defused.  And we were 
showing a light.  The warden's coming up to fix the blackout now."

Indeed, in the odd stillness that darkness sometimes gives, the clank of the 
lift could be heard as it started its descent.  Lucinda gave a little 
chuckle.

"You should have told him to take the stairs, Oswald!"