Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Even more, I liked the way he presented himself when he stopped by the house a couple
of weeks later to discuss the project in person. He was cordial and businesslike and cut
quite a dashing figure—short, slim and debonair, with an expression of intense concentra-
tion. Michael observed that he was a Puerto Rican version of Ben Kingsley.
And he totally got our fence concept.
“Is nice,” he said. “You draw good.”
“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling like Margaret Bourke-White must have felt when
Gandhi gave her props for her snapshots.
“We have to sink these posts in deep,” he said with dramatic emphasis. “Very deep.”
I imagined us drilling through to Shanghai, but it turned out he only meant four feet,
though sunk in concrete.
Concrete? The price just went up. A lot.
“You like the lattice work I designed?” I asked, unashamedly fishing for compliments.
“Is charming.”
He named a price, we shook hands, and I went inside to break the bad news to Michael.
“Bad” because the amount was about three times what we had expected. Why didn't this
surprise me?
Frankly, what did surprise me was that Geraldo was on-site early the next morning with
a small crew, measuring, digging and pouring concrete. He tacked my drawing to the trunk
of our mango tree and consulted it often.
Aw shucks
, I thought, secretly enjoying every minute of the process.
☼ ☼ ☼
It was hard to believe that the whole fence-building project took less than two days.
First Geraldo and his crew arrived with a truckload of supplies, including a neat stack
of four by four posts and a bag of concrete. Then they dug six very deep postholes, mixed
up the concrete, poured it into the holes, and eased in the posts. While waiting for the posts
to set, they embarked on a massive session of measuring and note-taking, and after many
calculations installed brackets on the insides of the posts.
That was day one.
On day two they hauled in big sheets of lattice and sawed it into precisely-shaped pan-
els. With crisp efficiency, they installed them on the brackets between the posts.
For Act Three they brandished a gallon of white paint and whitewashed the whole
thing.
It looked pretty wonderful.
☼ ☼ ☼
As you've learned by now, there's usually a footnote (or two) to these little stories.
Here's footnote one.
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