392: The Bagnell-built house ...
Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 19 continues
The Bagnell-built house that Herb and Lorna chose was a significant one in the history of Punta Cachazuda. It was the first one built beyond the limit of the plan that Humboldt Bagnell himself had drawn on a roll of shelf paper and pinned to the wall of his garage. It was the first house in a new territory, a new beginning in a literal as well as a figurative sense, since the sons and daughters of Humboldt and Bitsy, unable to agree on a layout for the extension of the town, had resorted to tracing the original and taping it to the shelf paper at a point where they could effect an easy anastomosis of the streets, sidewalks, and canals of the old with the replica streets, sidewalks, and canals of the new.
Because it was the first house of a new era and the first house on a new street, the Bagnells made an event of Herb and Lorna’s purchase, throwing in a set of patio furniture with the house, and (since they were also having a difficult time agreeing on street names) offering Lorna the chance to name the street on which the house stood. She thought of dozens of possibilities, including Whatsit Way, Piper Pass, Lovers’ Lane, Animation Avenue, and Studebaker Street, but then she had an inspired thought. “Mr. Bagnell,” she asked Bobo, the oldest of the offspring of Humboldt and Bitsy, “will there ever be a bridge at the end of this street?”
“No,” said Bobo, with inherited authority. “Oh, no. Definitely not. We Bagnells have everything planned out. We have drawn the plans for the new section of Punta Cachazuda in the same spirit as our father drew the plans for the original section, and I guarantee you that we’re not going to change them, not a bit. There will be no bridge at the end of this street.”
“Well, then,” she said, “I have a name for it.”
And so, once again, Herb and Lorna were at home on No Bridge Road. Their house was like the others. In truth, since it was the first house in the replication of the original section of town, it was exactly like the house that Humboldt Bagnell had built for himself and Bitsy. From their patio, Herb and Lorna could see, for several days out of most months, through gaps between the other houses, the notable sunsets.
In Punta Cachazuda, Herb and Lorna wore shorts most of the time. All of their exposed skin browned. Lorna began a shell collection. Herb began buying tools again and built a folding workbench in the garage. They allowed themselves, gladly, to be drawn into the social life of Punta Cachazuda, and soon their calendar was full of potluck suppers, card parties, shuffleboard and croquet tournaments, surprise birthday celebrations, and galas for each of the traditional holidays of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and most of the European countries. They fit right in. You would scarcely have found a reason to distinguish them from the average Punta Cachazudan unless, some night, you had peeked through a gap between the curtains that hung inside the window of their garage, while the average Punta Cachazudan was watching the eleven o’clock news, and had seen them at work on animated erotic sculpture.
They never sold any of their work. They never even showed it to anyone. It was their secret hobby. Lorna found shell an intriguing and demanding medium, and she enjoyed combining bits of many types of shell to produce subtle shadings and textures. Herb found that, freed from the confinements of jewelry, his mechanical imagination was positively rejuvenated, and he whistled while he worked.
[to be continued on Wednesday, November 30, 2022]
In Topical Guide 392, Mark Dorset considers Schemes and Dreams: Florida Development; and Salesmanship from this episode.
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