Mandala elephant design

The lift in Carrick House has been out since Tuesday, so I have been taking the stairs with the shopping like a girl again. Mrs Adeyemi on the fourth floor says the council will fix it when the moon is in the right place, and I told her that is how the council fixes everything. You will laugh, but I have started drawing again. Not the flowers you used to tease me about. An elephant, the way Mama drew them on the kitchen wall in Lahore before we came here, its trunk lifted as if it is calling someone across a field.

I did it on the back of the lost property notice pinned by the bins, because nobody reads that and the paper is thick. Black biro first, then I went over the lines with the fine nib Mr Okafor left behind when he moved out. Every petal and little curl, I counted under my breath. The big round medallion on its side I made the way Mama made hers, starting from the centre dot and working outwards until the circles stopped arguing with each other.

Yesterday a boy from the ninth floor stood beside me and asked why the elephant had a flower for a body. I said because elephants carry everything, and someone should decorate what they carry. He thought about this, then asked if I could draw a bus. I said I would try.

Write when you can. Tell me if the sea is as grey there as the photographs suggest, and whether you still keep your boots by the door.

Love, Ammi