white walls, hat[10]

[…part of a series of Hat stories presented and constructed in no particular order…]’The face, at least the concrete face, begins to take shape on the white wall. It vaguely begins as the two black holes I drill into the white wall. I screw a rack of coat hooks into the wall so that we can hang hats and coats, its a shame really as the white wall is disrupted by the hanging coats. ( She hangs her hat on a peg, will she take it from there when she leaves, or will she grimace because she left her hat on the peg? she can always get another one, unless she can’t get another one. He wasn’t in the corridor, No child of hers was in the corridor. Did I leave a book in the corridor? Did i leave a pen there ? did i lose my pencil there ? Was there music playing or was it just the sounds of the wind over concrete roof ? A notebook with notes on a flight of steps, laughter, the last board meetings ) All the other white walls are empty, white plains, plateaus. Do we really need a telephone and which will have a wireless router attached to it? This flat on the top of the office, is a penthouse. We decided to use it occasionally when she has to work late, and we can bring the children and others to stay here. The long delivery times for furniture have been disconcerting. For now there is little here, white walls, wooden flooring and beds. Gradually other things will be delivered over the coming weeks. Only a few days ago we were saying things like, I’m at the flat. Whereas now we are thinking of it as a home. There are cardboard boxes, plastic crates, chairs being unwrapped in the living room kitchen appliances being plugged in and tested for safety… The flat is tentatively becoming another line into their (now static) lives. We have ordered additional things that we think of as essential, white bookshelves, additional sofas and chairs, storage for the children’s toys, cleaning equipment, a tv and two music systems. Network cables run up through ducting from the offices below. A go board appears on the table. Before the week is out crayons, and sheets of paper appear. The white walls have drawings stuck on them, she repaints the childrens bedrooms in bright primary colours…’As he drills (brrrrrrhhhhh) more holes in the wall to hang other things on the vast expanse of white wall he wonders how people like them can look so ordinary…