Sunday, January 02, 2022
Also available from publishers Adelaide Books, New York, USA
The following chapter (in part) is the construction of the cafe.
Chapter 12
☼
After a few days
the beery smell of the fermenting orange trees began to disappear. It took
several truck loads to cart away the old house, taking with it the shed, the
old laundry, bushes and two large palms.
Vincenzo visited the site every day. The concrete slab gradually turned into
walls, and the walls grew upwards, and steel rods that were stressed into the
first floor became the second story, then a third. By degrees, the café spread
its tentacles of light and dark. And once where there had been an open blue
sky, the space filled with windows and doors, the inside walls becoming a
stark, white interior.
There were days when the generator broke
down, the men shouting at one another, joking around while waiting for renewed
power. A constant noise fractured the Esplanade with screaming machines
dispersing sounds of sawing, drilling, and banging. Added to this, Pomadina barked
when a subcontractor’s dog yapped incessantly from the back of a ute.
Silence only existed out where the bay
glowed, and when the rotating flash from the lighthouse descended on the walls
and low rooms, a luminous moonlight painted a backdrop over everything that
became solid by grace and spirit, by song and sovereignty. For house and home.
For a café where there was none.
Rennie advised Vincenzo that one wall had to
come down. It had something to do with the lay of the land and compaction, but it
was better to get it right. His account of the problem did not disturb Vincenzo.
He was more than happy to observe the café taking shape, his spiral staircase,
the strength of the building in rendered brick, the curved corridors of the
upstairs bedrooms taking on an interesting chamber appearance. The structure
became his space through the temporal vagaries of winter to spring, from spring
to late spring, then early summer. A concert of colors went through his head as
he began to design the main eating lounge in the café. Red. Red would be the color
of table tops and benches, bringing warmth down into the area from the café’s
one and only high ceiling.
Vincenzo ordered light fittings, counter
tops, four-seated cubicles with studded bench seats, a leather lounge suite and
wall lamps. His main vice was the purchase of the best cooking equipment he
could find in Sydney. He treated himself to Wiltshire knives, two fridges,
Condor plates, cups and bowls, stainless steel pots and pans. He ordered a top-class
espresso coffee machine made in Italy and purchased a twin oven from a local
supplier. Closer to the building’s completion, he chose an off-white paint for
the exterior of the building and a cream vanilla for the interior.
