After three days of heavy rain, the Kim family discovered two inches of water in their basement. It was not a disaster, but it was a big mess that needed to be cleaned up.
Mom and Dad put on rubber boots and went down to assess the damage. Dad set up a pump to remove the water. It made a loud sucking noise that the kids could hear from upstairs.
Jake and his older sister Erin were told they could help by moving things up from the basement before anything else got wet.
Jake carried boxes of old books while Erin moved the holiday decorations to the upstairs hallway. They made a pile in the living room that nearly reached the ceiling.
Some things were damaged — a box of old photos had gotten soggy at the bottom, and a stack of board games had warped lids. Jake felt sad about the photos.
But Mom held one of the damp photos up to the light. Most of them are fine, she said. A little water cannot erase a memory. They spread the photos out to dry on towels.
By evening, the basement was empty and drying out. The family sat on the living room floor surrounded by piles of saved belongings and ate pizza because nobody had cooked dinner.
Jake thought about the photos drying on the towels. He decided that when everything was sorted, he would ask Mom to make a real photo album so the pictures would be safe forever.