The cock-up

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    It’s dark out, 3 a.m. My family hasn’t slept in a week. The neighbor’s roosters are crowing their roundelay. The peacocks are screaming and thumping across my roof. Although I know they have permits I’ll try one more time to shout them quiet. As I step out onto my new deck, I can’t see a thing. We received no permit for exterior lights. Oh, no! I’m falling off my deck! What’s that stench? Why’s it wet? Oh, just another septic failure, again. But thankfully I won’t drown because the Civic Center is now a floodplain/wetlands and my home (and Malibu) is safe.

    Tomorrow morning my sleepless children won’t complain too much, their soccer games have been canceled — no playing fields. But that’s OK, we can park at the headlands. I’ll tell them Walt, Carolyn, Jo and Gil would say, “Malibu is special. Enjoy it the way it was. Take a hike, kids.”

    P.S. Now that I’m awake, nightmares behind me, I thank The Malibu Times and Ms. Kraft for the front page coverage of Juan Cabrillo Elementary’s ’99 Stanford 9 scores. Congratulations, vindication, Cabrillo!

    Candy Sindell