Irene Couldn't Stop 20 Hillside

When I went out at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday to get the latest , the drive gave the term pitch black new meaning. The darkness was like a presence.

Flashlights and lanterns weakly lit the backs of curtained windows in some of the units I passed, providing a brief break from silent, motionless homes.

When I turned into the 20 court of Hillside, though, I thought I saw light. I considered that it might be another car with its headlights on, but it was too weak for that.

That’s when I spied who I now deem the most survivalist couple of Old Greenbelt—well Joey Murray and Renata Atkinson might be up for that one as well—so we’ll give them the Research Road title. But I certainly found myself with the most survivalist couple on Hillside Road.

Emily Ascherl was planted in a bright green lawn chair in the middle of her court’s parking lot, eating ice cream out of the container with a lantern on the ground near her.

There was an empty green chair beside hers for Eddie Alvarez, who was busy cooking dinner. The menu for the night—chicken sausage and tortillas on a charcoal grill.

Donning a shirt amazingly close in color to the chairs, Eddie joked and laughed with Emily as they dined beneath the stars in their parking lot café, creating a portrait of cheerful green defiance.

There on 20 court, where Irene had slung a tree onto a rooftop, cracked a power pole leaving it dangerously looming like Pisa, ripped multiple homes’ power boxes off their mountings, and threw an enormous tree on top of two main power lines.

In the midst of this, Emily and Eddie, appeared undaunted, chatting and making merriment, while they cooked and munched.

They explained they had been prepared because they were campers. Plus, they, pointed out, after living in Greenbelt, they were used to it.

The truth of their statement echoed by the powerless state of reportedly all 3,200 homes in old Greenbelt.

I know making lemons from lemonade is a cliché, anathema to a writer, but I'm using it—because Emily and Eddie certainly epitomize the meaning in a way that is anything but cliché.