She thought of her mother, two floors above the Willow Court parking lot, probably asleep beneath a quilt she had made from old shirts.

Lena called again.

This time Loretta answered, annoyed.

“Somebody better be sick.”

“Mama, put on shoes and your raincoat. You need to leave the building.”

“I see somebody woke up feeling official.”

“I’m serious. There’s an evacuation order coming.”

“The river isn’t even at the wall. I can see it from the kitchen.”

“You can see the part of it in front of you. Please. Take the folder with your medications, your keys, and the little red bag I made you keep by the door.”

A sound of rustling cloth came through the phone.

“Lena?”

“Yes.”

“Is it bad?”

Lena wanted to say no. She wanted to say it was a precaution, a small inconvenience, something that would become a funny story by dinner.

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “That’s why I’m asking you to leave.”

Her mother listened. Then Loretta spoke in a different voice.

“Mrs. Jenkins downstairs has a walker. She won’t get down the stairs by herself.”

“Help her to the lobby if you can do it safely. Do not stay behind if the route isn’t safe. Firefighters are coming.”

“And Mr. Harris doesn’t hear the phone when it’s ringing.”

“Mama.”

“I know. You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“I’ve told you about a thousand times.”

“That’s because you learned your stubbornness from somewhere.”

The call ended.

Lena stared at the dark glass of the station window. For years, she had described Willow Court as a vulnerability on maps. In briefing rooms, she had said *population with mobility challenges* and *insufficient warning redundancy* and *limited ingress and egress.*

At home she called them Miss Jenkins, Mr. Harris, Mama, and the people who still mailed birthday cards to Nia.

Now those two ways of understanding the world had finally met.

Chapter Four: Willow Court

When Aaron Vale reached Willow Court, the first thing he saw was a woman carrying an empty birdcage.

She wore pink slippers and a yellow rain poncho. Her hair was hidden beneath a shower cap, and she was arguing with a firefighter over whether the bus allowed pets.