On on off off on

The stair light was off, done by the upstairs switch, not the downstairs. Main upstairs bathroom off but mirror light on at the dimmer of two settings. All the rest of the top floor was in darkness. Downstairs, there were the three kitchen lights on and the outside security light was set for motion activation but had not been triggered. Mike stood with his clipboard, looking down at the multimeter, which was illuminated by a small, battery powered lamp. He flicked the living room light on and and wrote down the voltage. No change. He flicked it off again. He marked a neat cross next to the line and looked at the next permutation on the list.  He decided to skip ahead one, so that  he didn't have to go back upstairs. He switched the stair light on by the downstairs switch, returned to the living room, flicked on the light, noted the voltage, no change, flicked it off, marked another cross. He tried again with the same set up except this time he had the stair one on by the upstairs switch not the down. A small change in voltage but not enough to be significant.

He heard his wife pulling into the drive so he unplugged the multimeter and stashed it back in the cupboard before sneaking upstairs to sit with his laptop, burning the battery down. Two minutes later, Stella came in to the bedroom and he looked up to see her holding the clipboard that he must have left in the living room. He smiled apologetically.

-You said you'd stopped

-I know

-It was just a random power surge or something, how many times do I have to say it

-Yeah but...

-...nothing else was affected, I know, you've said. It was just a god-damned TV, Michael. Who cares?

-I do. I want to know how it happened. I only do it when you're out anyway; why does it matter?

-Because...it's just weird.

-Well. Don't come crying to me when the microwave bursts into flames or the fridge spontaneously goes on fire

-It was a few sparks Michael and I'm sure it can be fixed if you just take it to a repair guy.

-I don't care about the TV, Stel, I care about our safety.

-It was a random surge! Philipa at number eleven said her stereo cut out at the same time, you know that. The whole street's connected and it affected everybody.

Stella stomped back downstairs, turning on all the switches that she passed. Mike didn't rise to the bait. Out of the window, he saw the Warburtons' bedroom light up before they pulled the curtains shut. Stella was right; the whole street was connected. Weren't the Warburtons going on holiday next week? That gave him an idea. He made some notes on the clipboard.