Caught in a flood

Mary and her parents were downstairs in the living room. Mary was looking through the windows at the endless rain outside. It had been raining non-stop for three days. She had never seen a storm this bad. It was making her nervous. The wind roared the rain beat on the roof and windows. Dad was listening to a weather report on the radio, while Mum was putting their important documents and disaster supplies into a bag.

“Mum, Dad,” said Mary suddenly, “I think we should leave here right away!”

“No” said Dad. “It’s too late! The radio says the city has already been flooded.”

“We can drive our car through the floodwater! Let’s just leave! I’m really scared!” cried Mary. “We can’t do that, honey,” explained Mum, “otherwise the moving water could wash the caraway!”

Mary walked to the door. She was curious to see how much water there was outside.

“Don’t open the door!” shouted Mum and Dad at the same time. “The water may flood in!”

Dad moved the dinner table against the door, in case the floodwater forced the door open. Mum waved to Mary to sit on the sofa. “Mary, don’t worry. Everything’s going to be OK,” she said softly, trying her best to comfort Mary. Her voice was calm, but Mary could tell she was worried too.

Without saying a single word, Dad walked to the sofa, sat down and hugged his wife and daughter. The sudden silence in the house seemed to make the wind and rain more frightening outside. What could they do?

Para 1: After a brief discussion, Mum and Dad made a decision.

Para 2: Finally, the rain stopped.

Adam was kind and considerate, and always deeply cherished his wife Zoe. He knew how much she liked to do up her long waterfall-like hair and trim her long and delicate fingernails. He knew she loved strawberries in supermarkets. Meanwhile, Zoe married him without complaint; after all, she loved his diligence, honesty, consideration and gentle quality. In order to improve their lives, the couple joined the ranks of migrant workers and moved into the city.

The New Year flavor of the city was still alive, with spring wind blowing and frequent cold wave appearing, which blocked the smell of spring flowers. The city of the new century was abundant in prosperity and vitality, but it did not belong to them. Adam set up a bed and a mini coal stove in a building under construction where he worked as their temporary home; in a plot of land rented in front of a supermarket, Zoe occupied herself steadily by running a barbecue on a cart (推车).

Every day, she would push her cart out from her humble home, standing in the chilly wind as the morning mist rose. After the supermarket closed, she dragged herself back home, exhausted from her daily routine, but in the faith of love, she lived through each day with hope.

Most days, Adam got off work earlier than her, so he would pick her up at the supermarket and give her a hand. The cart demonstrated their love at that time. The happy and intimate couple walked home pushing the cart, with the street lights shining on the road. It was a beautiful scene that no one appreciated.

One day, when Adam got off work later than usual, he found Zoe sleeping soundly. She was so tired that when she rolled over, she did not even feel her hands sticking out of bed. In grief, he gently took her cold, calloused (长满老茧的), swollen, and red hands full of frostbite (冻疮), tears running down his cheeks.

That night, Adam turned over repeatedly, unable to sleep.

The next day after work, Adam purposely ran to a nearby shopping mall.

My Grandmother is 87 years old. She loves gardening, and she has got a habit of not sitting still as she loves to do some work all the time. In June, while working in the garden outside our home, she slipped (滑倒) and one of her bones was broken.

My father and I took her to the hospital. After examining her, the doctor said that the bone was broken from the joint and that there was no chance that she would ever walk, even after an operation. That was very sad for all of us. I looked into my grandmother’s face. She was looking at me as if I could do something to treat her. We asked the doctor if she could sit, and the doctor said “Yes but only after an operation”.

She got operated on the next day. The operation was successful. The doctor didn’t believe that she would be able to walk on her own. For the next month, she did everything in bed only. All of us tried our best to take care of her. I remember those nights when she used to cry in great pain and we could only give her comfort. Once she said while crying, “I don’t want to live anymore, nothing is left now.” I got so sad listening to that but I told her one thing. I said, “Ma, maybe you have got a broken bone, but all the other parts of your body are working properly. It is OK if you can’t walk, but if you can sit, that would be excellent for us.”

I don’t know exactly what happened to her after she listened to my words.

After two and a half months, we went to the doctor who had operated my grandmother.