After the Storm: Make the Case

The Bowl Beneath the Ceiling

1Before the storm, I thought the most memorable part of Saturday would be getting my first decent photograph of lightning. My name is Yasmin, and I had spent the afternoon trying camera settings from a class handout. When the wind rose, I put the camera away and stayed inside with my grandfather. Across our apartment courtyard, balcony chairs trembled against their railings. Then rain blurred the opposite building until its windows looked painted on.

2The first drop landed on Grandfather’s crossword. He looked up, then moved his chair. Soon water tapped the floor beneath a stain near the ceiling. We set a mixing bowl under it and called the building manager. The bowl made each drop sound enormous. I began counting the seconds between drops, as if counting could give me something useful to do.

3The building manager arrived carrying towels. A neighbor held the door open while he brought them inside. He asked me to move our family photographs away from the wet wall. Grandfather could not lift the heavy album box, so I carried it to the dry end of the room. Someone knocked again; the neighbor had brought an empty bucket. Nobody made a speech about helping. They kept noticing the next small thing that needed doing.

4Later, the manager checked the hallway and explained that he would arrange a roof inspection after the weather cleared. I asked whether ours was the only apartment with a leak. He said he had not checked every floor yet. I wrote that answer in my notebook instead of guessing. Beside it, I drew the bowl and marked where we had moved the photographs. My handwriting tilted because I was writing on my knee.

5By evening, the rain had softened. Grandfather opened the album box to check its corners, and we spread the dry photographs across the table. I had no lightning picture to show my class on Monday. Instead, I had a page of crooked notes and a drawing of an ordinary bowl. When I read the notes back, I could hear the drops and remember exactly where everyone had stood.