The Night Is Dark And Full Of Errors

It’s mid-afternoon, I’m deep into uploading a huge quarterly report to the company server when the power suddenly cuts out.

The entire office freezes for a second in the dim emergency lighting. Most people start packing up to leave as there are no lights, no internet, and no working HVAC, but then our boss emerges from his glass office. 

Boss: “Alright, everyone, sit back down. Your laptops have batteries. Keep working.”

Coworker: “But there’s no internet.” 

Boss: “Tether to your phones. Make it work!”

I glance down at my phone: 12% battery left. My report upload, thanks to my phone’s spotty connection, says “two hours remaining.”

Me: “Boss, this upload won’t finish before my phone dies.” 

Boss: “Find a way to make it work!”

Me: “…Okay. Sure.”

I unplug my phone from my laptop, walk over to his desk, and drop the charging cable in front of him.

Me: “I’ll just plug my phone into your laptop while you’re working. That way, when your battery dies, we can both go home.”

The look on his face was worth every percentage point my battery lost.