From six to seven it unfurled. We drank coffee and watched the curve of moon appear and vanish in a sky dark with clouds. Soon a streak of fire found an opening along the top edge of the Rincon Mountains. Then a billow of clouds over the peaks to the south lit up with a soft bronze.

The storm began there, blurring the sun’s first rays. A shimmering curtain of rain came toward us, throwing screens of light here and there onto cliffs, ridges, rooftops, trees, saguaros, and desert scrub.

Thunder. A sweep of wind and light.

Here it is now. Here it is, the bright cool rain.