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I so wanted to be involved with the actual hands-on personal side of things. But I realized my job was to wait until I was asked to participate.
“Hello, darling. It’s come up a bad cloud out there hasn’t it?” Nana had entered the kitchen and gazed out the window above the sink. She was wearing her pink raincoat and polka-dot rubber boots.
“Aren’t you cuter than a speckled puppy under a red wagon in the rain.” She really was.
“Well, I don’t see any reason to get drenched in the weather. And I won’t let it keep me from getting my business done either.” She was practical like that.
“I’ll be here when you get back. Too wet and stormy for me. Be careful out there.” I was sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop and iPad. Both were needed, along with my own yellow legal pad for jotting down random thoughts and notes as they hit my brain.
“Looks like you’re neck deep in it.” Nana waved a hand toward me.
“Yes, we’ve got a long list of things to do before the practice is fully functional.”
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” I wasn’t sure what Nana thought she could do to help with Tanner’s practice, but nothing would surprise me. Nana was a woman with many skills.
“Unless you can design a killer website, I think I’m on my own for today.” Nana pulled out her big umbrella. “Where are you headed?”
“There’s a small leak in the attic and I’ve got to get a bigger bucket at the hardware store until I can get somebody out here to fix it.”
The very idea of Nana up in the attic attending to a leaky roof made me cringe. “I wish you’d told me about it. Let me go up and deal with that, okay?”
Nana sighed. “Those stairsarepretty steep, so when I get back, you can replace the small bucket I’ve got catching the drip with the bigger one.”
I knew she hated deferring anything to her age, but she wasn’t a stupid woman either. “Should I call Daddy and have him take a look?” Daddy was a pretty good fix-it guy.
“No, it’s going to take a roof professional. Fortunately, the rain is supposed to stop by morning. I’ll get someone out in the next day or so.”
The thunder shook the house and I cringed. “Are you sure you want to get out in this weather?”
Nana gave me a stern look. “I agreed to let you help with the attic, but I’ll not be kept home by the rain like a doddering old woman. Let me do my business, granddaughter. Plus, there are groceries to get. Got to put my chili on.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Okay. No offense.”
“None taken.” She smiled and winked at me, showing that she still had a deep dimple on her left cheek.
Beau the calico cat jumped on my lap for a snuggle and maybe for security from the storm. He purred and settled, making pretend biscuits by kneading his soft paws against my leg. So long as his claws didn’t come out, we were good.
Now, back to websites. Not the most exciting part of my current job, but necessary. I believed I’d finally found a couple of website designers that would work for Tanner’s practice. They had great reviews and appeared to be very flexible. I sent a query to both sites and would wait to hear back. Since it was the beginning of the weekend, I realized that might not be until Monday.
The leak in the attic was distracting me. Now that I had one of the biggies checked off my list for the day, I decided to go up and have a look at how bad things were up there.
I was dressed in leggings and a lightweight Tulane Law sweatshirt with my hair in a ponytail. Perfect for climbing up in the dusty, and now leaky, attic. I slipped my sneakers on without socks and went upstairs where the pull-down for the attic was located.
The pull-down took a little muscle to handle. The small rope cord hung barely low enough to get hold of and lower the rectangular-shaped trapdoor from the ceiling. A set of wooden stairs unfolded all the way to the floor as the spring-hinged contraption worked its creaky magic.
I hated the idea of Nana climbing up there without anyone knowing it. Now that Leah and I both lived in town, we were available to help her do more of the heavy lifting. Plus, Jake was there if the lifting was heavy.
I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been up here. The thunder rumbled again as I fumbled for the light switch once I’d cleared the opening at the top of the stairs. There was a window, but it had blinds that matched those on the rest of the house, and they were closed, so the space was dark. I flipped the switch and a single bulb illuminated the room.
It was as magical as I’d remembered. Old furniture, trunks, racks of vintage clothing that Leah and I had played dress-up in as kids, and the ancient record player still sat in the corner. I heard thedrip,drip,dripsound then and made my way through the cluttered area to check and see how full the bucket was. It was a single drip coming down from where the roof was steeply pitched.
About two inches of water had been captured by the bucket so far. Plenty of time until Nana returned with a new, bigger bucket. I looked around quickly to check for any other possible leaks.
Once I felt confident there was only the one, I allowed myself the indulgence of reminiscing in this dusty attic from my childhood. There were so many books. Leather, hardbound ones on old bookshelves of various heights and finishes shoved against the edges of the room, forming a perimeter. I spotted some children’s books I remembered from when I was a kid.
The rain continued as I saw this place through my grown-up’s eyes instead of a child’s view. There were unopened trunks and drawers that hadn’t interested me during my younger years. Leah and I had loved reading stories up here when we were able to sneak away.
I’d developed a love of history during law school. In all my reading of case files for school, so much of learning Napoleonic Code involved historical documents that established our current legal system, which Louisiana still abided by today, though much amended.
