The next morning she sat the boys down in front of two bowls of Kix, and spent the day drawing at her desk. For once, Tyler and Kyle ate without fighting or spilling. Nora plugged in a video for them. The boys, sensing something different in their mother, watched for an entire hour. Then a pillow flew, and Kyle's supplications to make Tyler stop! began. Nora sat them both down in the kitchen with drawing pencils. They enjoyed experimenting with her good drawing pencils, which had colors like "magenta" and "periwinkle," just like the crayons in the "big-box."

    All day long the boys were distracted with their favorite activities. They had macaroni and cheese for lunch, with boxed juices usually saved for long trips in the car. They built a big tent with blankets in the living room, while their mom continued drawing at the kitchen table. Nora didn't yell, and she let them leave their messes. She even said "yes" on their first try, when they asked for an extra fruit roll-up at snack time.

    By the time their father came through the door, the living room was covered with blankets, the sink was stacked with unwashed dishes and the table was strewn with papers which Nora hastily gathered up. And for dinner, they ate another of their favorites: hot dogs.

    Jeff looked at the hot dogs on his plate. Then he looked at his wife. Usually, she couldn't let dishes stay in the sink. Usually meals were balanced and well-planned. Hot dogs were for when she was ill, very busy . . . or very upset. "How was your day?" he tentatively queried.

    "I've been busy," she replied.

    "Oh? Busy with what?"

    "Just a project I've been working on."

    Usually Jeff didn't have to work this hard to find out what Nora was thinking. For the last several weeks, he had known exactly what she was thinking. "This rain," she would state, with just a hint of confusion in her voice. "Does it always rain like this in Seattle?" These statements gradually became more forceful. "I'm so sick of this rain!" And "being stuck with these boys all day long in this house is going to drive me out of my mind!" had greeted him at the door last night.

    Nora loved her boys, but she was starting to believe that if the three of them had to spend one more day cooped up in this small house, she would go out of her mind. She had to find some way to get them out from underfoot, or she would crack.

    The past four weeks of continuous rain had prevented the boys from being able to play in their new big back yard. Jeff had offered taking the bus to work, so that she could have the car to take the boys out. But there was really nowhere to go. McDonald's Playland was full of other mothers with strange, dazed looks on their faces, and dozens of toddlers climbing on the toys and running up to their mothers for another french fry. And it was very noisy.

    "Texas was not like this," Nora thought. Oh, she remembered the heat, and even occasional violent thunderstorms, but not weeks of constant drizzle. Nora glanced again at the blue and gold Bible she had left on the coffee table, the page that had given her hope and purpose, marked with a Teletubbies bookmark.

    The next day, Nora wanted to use the car. Concerned about her quiet and distracted mood yesterday, Jeff readily agreed. "What are you going to do?"

    "Oh, just save the world," Nora replied with a smile. "Or at least save our family from the floods of destruction," Jeff heard her mutter as he slowly opened the door. He turned back with a questioning look on his face, but then ran to catch his bus.

    He came home to hot dogs. But Nora was smiling pleasantly, and even though the house was not clean and the boys looked as though they hadn't had a bath for a few days, he was glad to see his wife happy. He knew the weather wasn't this bad all year long, but for a woman used to Texas, the exceptionally rainy Washington winter made for a difficult adjustment. She had left friends and family in Texas. And sunshine, he added, as he looked up at the bleak, gray downpour substituting for sky. She'll soon see how the rain pays off in the green of the landscape. She'll make friends at church and in the neighborhood. "She'll be fine," he mused. He pushed his worry for her out of his head.

    By Friday, Jeff was tired of hot dogs.

    Saturday morning, he awoke to the sound of pounding outside. He silently cursed the neighbor who would begin hammering so early on a Saturday morning. He glanced over the books crowding the night stand at the alarm clock: 9 a.m. He looked beside him for his wife and realized she was already up with the boys. It was great of her to let him sleep.

    He padded out to the living room to find Tyler and Kyle in front of the television with an open cereal box between them, taking turns shoveling their small hands in and shoveling their breakfasts out.

    "Where's Mom?" he asked, as they alternated gazes between him and the television. Nora wasn't one to let them spend their Saturday morning watching cartoons.

    "Out pounding," Tyler answered.

    "Pounding, pounding, pounding!" Kyle shouted and pounded Tyler with a pillow, knocking over the cereal box and spilling Cheerios all over the floor. Jeff glanced at the carpet and quickly noted that this sort of thing must have happened several times over the past week. And Nora hadn't vacuumed. This really wasn't like her. "Where did you all go with the car on Tuesday?" he asked, beginning to gather up Cheerios.

    "To the store," answered Tyler.

    Jeff threw his handful of Cheerios into the kitchen garbage, and looked in an open cupboard. "What store?" he asked, since the grocery store was apparently not the store in question.

    "The wood store."

    "The what store?"

    "The wood store. You know, they have wood and nails and bathrooms set up right in the middle of the store, but the toilets don't really flush."

    "Oh, the hardware store," Jeff said. He tried to push the picture of two active boys and a distracted mother wandering around bathroom displays out of his mind. What did Nora need at the hardware store? "What did you buy at the hardware store?"

    "Ark supplies," answered Tyler, and went back to watching the television.

    "What supplies?" Nora enjoyed drawing and had taken art and drafting in college, but he didn't think Tyler had said "art supplies."

    "Ark supplies," Tyler repeated with a roll of his eyes.

    "What are ark supplies for?" Jeff tried to remember he was conversing with a 4-year-old.

    "For building an ARK!" Tyler's eyes rolled again.

    "Just a minute, Tyler." The commercial had ended (the boys' favorite part of watching television), so Jeff took the opportunity to switch it off and sit cross-legged on the floor with his boys. "I've really missed you two. I've been so busy this week."

    "We missed you, too, Daddy," Tyler replied, and Kyle climbed in Jeff's lap.

    Jeff spent some time tickling and tousling hair and then said, "I'm pretty curious about what you and Mom have been up to all week."

    "Mom's building an ark."

    "And I'm tired of hot dogs."

    "And macaroni and cheese."

    "And TV."

    It took a moment for Jeff to take in these last three miraculous statements and get back to the first one.

    "Mom's building a WHAT?"

    "An ARK!" The eyes rolled with exasperation. "That's what she needed the ark supplies for!"

    Jeff looked at the back door and heard the muffled sounds of hammering. He walked into the bedroom and saw Nora's Bible lying on the bedside table. He turned it to the place where the bookmark was. "I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made," he read. He looked again to the back of the house. He walked to the living room.

    "Boys, sit down." He sat in the middle of the couch, pulling a sock from between the cushions, and patted both hands beside him. His boys clambered to his sides. "Mom's building an ark?"

    "Yes," Tyler answered. "Every day she gives us some cereal, tells us to watch television, turns on the baby monitor so she can hear us and goes into the garage to build an ark. Most times we go into the garage with her. She's hammering it in the back yard now."

    Just then a wet and dripping Nora appeared, hammer in one hand, sawdust sprinkled through her hair and down the front of her sweatshirt. Her eyes were glowing brightly, and her smile nearly split her face in two.

    Although it was good to see his wife so happy, Jeff was concerned. "Hi, Nora. Uhmm . . . the boy tell me you've been building an ark."

    "And behold, I, Myself, am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die." Nora's smile became even wider.

    Jeff stood up. The boys looked up at their father. "I know," he began, "that the move has been hard for you, Nora."

    "And the Lord said it would rain for forty days and forty nights," Nora quoted with a laugh.

    "And staying home cooped up with two rambunctious preschool boys would tax any mother." Jeff slowly moved toward his wife.

    "And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered." Nora gestured heavenward with her hammer.

    "I'm worried, Nora," Jeff gently took the hammer from Nora's hand. "You know I don't expect the house to be spotless, or to have a gourmet meal every night. And it is nice to see you so happy, but . . . I'm worried," he finished lamely.

    Nora continued smiling, and picked up Kyle in her arms and twirled him around. "And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights."

    Jeff's concern became more serious. He lifted Kyle from her arms, and Kyle made no complaint. "Nora," he placed his hands on her shoulders, and looked her squarely in the eyes. "What is going on?"

    Nora looked back at her husband. "I built an ark in the back yard," she said simply.

    This did not alleviate Jeff's worry. Nora looked at her husband's face, and her smile softened. "Oh, Jeff, you were really worried." She turned to grab his hand and smiled down at Tyler and Kyle, "Come on, boys, it's time to take a boat ride."

    The rain had slowed to drizzle, and in the middle of the yard stood a playhouse, built in the shape of an ark. It was painted bright red and yellow and green, had bars and portals, a climbing rope and a big steering wheel, and was protected from the rain by a bright blue plastic tarpaulin. The boys yelled, "cool!" and ran off to explore this new nautical playland.

    "I built the boys a playhouse."

    "Oh, Nora, I was afraid . . . " Jeff laughed and hugged his wife in his arms.

    "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me." Nora laughed. She raised her head through the drizzle just as the morning clouds parted to let a shaft of sunlight through. She smiled at the rainbow in the sky.