Chapter 14 — Late Table Lady

Heavy rain poured down on the city on the day the group planned to paint the wall. Water poured from the roof into the backyard, carrying along leaves, plastic bottles and a slipper someone had forgotten. The bookshelf shook. An ran to hold the tarp, Khang blocked the shelf's leg with a brick.

“Books must be put in the hallway!” Khang shouted.

Huy held two boxes of comics, slid on the wet floor and sat down. “I sacrificed myself for literature.”

Mai pulled him up. “Stand up, literature is flooding.”

Ten minutes later, the entire class 11A4 showed up. Someone holds the bucket, someone pulls the rope, someone blocks the water with sandbags. An forgot that he used to be afraid of getting dirty; She knelt down and picked up each book from the puddle. Like standing on a chair, the commander moves things according to the color of the label. Teacher Hoang held an umbrella but in the end his sleeves were completely wet.

The temporary roof was blown away by the wind. A pallet slides toward the gate. Khang ran after him, pulled the rope, and the wooden edge cut his palm. An saw blood and panicked.

“You are injured.”

"Shallow."

“You're bleeding.”

“That's the definition of injured.”

An took a clean towel and pressed it into his hand. Khang tried to pull out, but she held tight.

“Don't be a hero when you don't need to.”

Khang looked at her and suddenly fell silent. He let her wrap the bandage. An's hands were shaking because of the cold rain, but the knot was quite strong.

After the rain, the backyard looks like it just went through a battle. The unused paint was diluted, the brick floor showed cracks, and a potted plant was broken in half. The group sat in the hallway, each holding a towel.

“Should we quit?” asked a friend in the group.

Like looking out into the yard. "Are not."

“But everything broke.”

Khang replied: "Not everything is broken. We know the roof can't withstand the wind, we know the shelves need higher legs, we know the books must have moisture-proof boxes."

An added: “And knowing that rain comes without warning.”

Huy raised his hand. “I know I shouldn't run on wet ground.”

Mai patted his shoulder. “That was the biggest discovery.”

Teacher Hoang gave the group a piece of paper. "There are ten days left at the festival. You can do it again, or make the incident part of your presentation."

“Turning a flooded yard into an idea?” An asked.

"It's not about making it look better than it is. Show the audience what they've learned."

The group decided to design a "rain garden": using a water trough, a simple filter barrel and a removable raised floor. Khang knows how to connect pipes, Mai designs signage, Huy makes a simulation video, Nhu contacts the environmental club. Material safety and risk list preparation.

When An wrote down too many warning lines, Khang touched the notebook. “Don't turn a rain garden into an insurance policy.”

“I just want everyone to be safe.”

“Safety needs to be clear, not scary.”

An deleted three lines and rewrote it in an easy-to-understand sentence: "Do not climb on shelves. Do not run when the floor is wet. If you see a leaking pipe, report it."

In the afternoon, Khang took An to the store to get old plastic pipes. His grandmother was cleaning the table. The wound on Khang's hand was dry, but he still moved slowly.

“Let me do it,” An said.

“Do you know how to connect pipes?”

“No. But I know how to keep it.”

Two people hold both ends of the pipe and try many times until the water flows in the right direction. An's sleeves were wet. Khang smiled and asked her if she regretted it.

“Regret not bringing a raincoat.”

“That's all?”

“I still regret thinking that rain is just the weather.”

Khang nodded. "Rain for people with a sturdy roof is just noise. For people with a leaky roof, it's a work schedule."

An looked at the shop's porch. A corrugated iron corner is being covered with bricks. She wanted to call someone to fix it right away. but stop.

“Do you want to fix your roof?”

Grandma heard it and replied: "I want to. But I have to save money to buy medicine."

An did not say more. That night, she opened her personal expense chart and looked at the small reserve. She can pay to fix the roof, but as Khang said, how to help needs to be asked first. She texted him: "If the shop needs it, I can help find a worker and share the cost. Do you want to hear?"

Khang replied after a few minutes: "Tomorrow."

An put down the phone. Just one text message, but she felt she had crossed a new boundary.

The next day, Khang agreed to listen. He did not accept the money right away, but allowed An to ask a familiar family worker. The worker quoted a lower price than expected because he could take advantage of old corrugated iron sheets. Khang contributed a part himself, his grandmother contributed a part, An did not pay for it but just connected and clearly recorded the cost.

“Do you find this less uncomfortable?” An asked.

“Yes. Because I know what I'm agreeing to.”

At school, the rain garden begins to take shape. Students passing by stopped to look, and someone named the filter box "Mr. Filter". Huy posted a sign: "Mr. Filter cannot speak, but knows how to hold water."

Quynh Nhu smiled, then seriously filmed the instructional video. A 10th grade boy asked An why she didn't buy a nicer one.

“Because this type can be repaired when it breaks,” An replied. “Beautiful things are not always the best.”

The boy nodded, then ran to find a plastic bottle to make a plant pot.

At the end of the day, Khang gave An an old umbrella. “Grandma told you to bring it home.”

“I have an umbrella.”

“Yours has the hotel logo printed on it.”

An looked at the plain blue umbrella. “You know?”

"Grandma knew from the day you ate potatoes but didn't know how to peel them with your hands."

An burst out laughing. Her secret no longer seems to be a wall, but a room that everyone knows has a door but doesn't open it. She held the umbrella and looked at the dirty backyard.

The rain had exposed all the holes. Thanks to that, the team knows where they need to fix.

After the rain, the group made a list of "things not to hide". They noted leaky roofs, loose electrical wires, slippery walkways, dead trees and moldy books. Huy added, "People often say they're fine but actually they're tired", then Mai asked them to rewrite it because it wasn't a technical item.

Khang took An to see the old drainage ditch covered with soil. He said if they want to keep the yard for a long time, the group must organize regular cleaning days. An sets up a schedule every month, but Mr. Hoang reminds students not to do professional maintenance work instead. They clearly distinguish which things students do and which things must be reported to the school.

A bricklayer in the neighborhood came to show me how to install a leaf screen. He did not take money, just asked the group not to throw excess materials down the drain. An wrote my name in the thank you book, but he said there was no need. Finally, the group wrote "a worker in the neighborhood".

Mai took a photo of her hand tying the rope and asked before saving. He agreed, then told him not to make his hands too beautiful. Mai replied: "I just keep the wrinkles."

The next day, a light rain tested the rain garden. The water flows slowly, but does not overflow. The group was happy, then discovered the filter box was full of leaves. Khang said it was an easy error to fix. An scheduled an inspection after each rain.

“You're turning the weather into an inspector,” Huy said.

“Weather doesn't get paid.”

“So it's exploitation.”

Huy was assigned to clean up leaves.

While working, An asked Khang about not wanting to receive money to repair the roof. Khang said he is not afraid of being grateful, he is afraid that others will use their help to make decisions your life.

“If someone gives you a tool, you can choose to use it or not,” An said.

“Yes. But the giver must also accept when I return it.”

An nodded. “I will remember.”

At the end of the day, she returned Khang's grandmother's green umbrella because it had been washed. She said to keep it, but An asked again. She said: "If you need it, keep it. If not, give it to someone else."

An kept the umbrella, not because it was special, but because she needed something to protect against the rain. She recorded the borrowed items in the book, with a promise to return them when the season ended. She laughed and said she already knew how to make paperwork for an umbrella.

An replied: "The umbrella has an owner. I have to ask."

The next day, Khang's grandmother returned An's umbrella with a bag of potato cakes. She said: "I let you borrow it, but the cake is a thank you for asking." An received the cake and asked if it needed to be recorded in the book. She said no, because this was a gift, not project materials.

An finds that the line between work and love is sometimes soft, but can still be clearly stated in one sentence. She recorded the cake in her personal diary and did not include it in her income and expenditure sheet. Khang read it and said she finally knew how to classify things that cannot be measured in money.

During work, a friend lost the group's scissors. Huy formed a search team, Mai held a map, Nhu asked each class. Finally, the scissors are in the chalk box. No one remembers who put it in. Khang said this is the reason why it is important to return tools to the right place. An posted a picture of scissors on the board, then added the line "If you don't remember, ask before taking".

In the afternoon, the yard floor is dry. The smell of earth after rain makes people slow down. An placed a chair in a windy corner, did not post a sign, just let users find it themselves. She believes a good place doesn't need instructions for everything; sometimes it just needs to open up wide enough.

Khang looked at the chair and said that if it rained, he had to pull it under the roof. An added it to the calendar, then they both laughed because even a chair needed someone to remember.

An wrote down the date to check the chair on the calendar. She begins to believe that small things recorded at the right time can protect an entire place.

Khang nodded and closed the book. Rain is no longer a vague warning; it has become part of the care schedule.