Blackout

I work at a company that mainly employs men. This isn’t really out of the ordinary, there just aren’t a whole lot of women in engineering, and since this is sort of an engineering firm, well there you go. We have one female engineer, two if you include me (but I’m temporary, so I guess I doesn’t really count), and then a few women in marketing, sales and HR. The point is - you really don’t see a whole lot of women throughout the day. Even in the women’s bathroom.

There’s a sensor in each of the bathrooms that controls the lights, and I think they go off after 15 minutes or so. The main bathroom has two doors; each door leads to two different halves of the company. The sensor just happens to point to my door, so whenever I have to go to the bathroom, the light turns on as soon as I open the door. If you come in on the other side, it doesn’t pick you up right away.

Today, I walk in and the lights are off, so I move a little further in to set off the sensor. The light turns on and all of a sudden this poor women looks up at me, hands gripping the counter.

“Oh! Wow! You scared me!”

“It got SO dark in here…”

(pause)

“Are you ok?”

Suddenly laughing, “Oh yeah, the lights were on when I came in and they just turned off! I couldn’t remember what side the sensor was on…”

“Good thing I came in then!”

I have no idea how long she was standing there. I didn’t want to ask, because, well, you know. This was, by the way, the second time I saved someone from the darkness. That sort of makes me a “bringer of light,” if you will. They should really move that sensor.