A Single Yellow Lightbulb

Rain vignettes from Sierra Leone, Vietnam, and South Korea

Freetown: A single yellow light bulb throws hot color over the room. The people in the house are sleeping. Their foreheads are beaded with sweat, the mosquitoes buzzing around the white mesh nets which loosely hang over their beds. I tossed my sheet aside hours ago. I watch the geckos and the spiders crawl and jump across the tiled floor in the living room…