AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You want to see?’ Ilídio asks, tilting his head towards me.
‘Sure,’ I shrug, no clearer on what I’m agreeing to.
Ilídio and I follow the path up and across the road, coming to a large one-storey barn on the opposite side. He opens the worn, wooden door and shows me inside. As I peer into the gloom, my eyes growing accustomed to the dark, I see a room overflowing with woodwork equipment, machinery, and workbenches. There are tree trunks sliced into long planks hanging on every wall, lending the space the feel of a deconstructed forest.
‘Wow,’ I say. Gerry was right; I wouldn’t want to have missed seeing this.
‘This used to be Gerry’s workshop,’ Ilídio says. ‘He built the barn himself, took me on as an apprentice eleven years ago. Now I have an apprentice of my own.’
‘And this is all wood you’re going to use to make furniture?’ I ask, pointing at the huge slices of tree along every wall.
‘Eventually. They can take decades to dry out. Gerry makes things the old-fashioned way, timeless pieces, built to last for generations. Not many people do it like this now – it’s too expensive, too time-consuming,’ Ilídio explains. ‘Easier to make it cheap, even if it doesn’t last.’
I walk around the room, admiring the craftsmanship of a bench that sits at the far end. Narrow cylinders of wood bend and curve in the most intriguing way, as though the bench might have grown itself.
‘Did the wood come like this?’ I ask, stroking the curved panels.
‘No.’ Ilídio shakes his head. ‘You have to steam-bend it. It’s a skilled job to bend wood this thick – Gerry designed his own steamer to do it.’
I notice at the far end of the workshop a bench with a soldering iron, just like the one Mum used to use for jewellery making.
‘Does Gerry still come in here?’ I ask.
‘He does. He still has lots of opinions, ideas for how to solve problems. He knows from smelling the wood how long it’s been there.’ He shakes his head. ‘It’s such a waste; all that knowledge in his head, that can’t get out through his hands.’
Wandering around the workshop, I find myself reaching out to touch things, feeling the potential of what they might become. Then I’m struck by an idea.
‘Ilídio, can I commission you to make something, a present for Ted?’
‘Of course, what is it you want?’
‘Do you have any paper? I’ll need to draw it.’
Ilídio finds some graph paper, and I sketch out my idea.
‘Can you make it?’ I ask, when I’ve finished drawing.
Ilídio taps a pencil on the paper.
‘Easy.’ Then he looks up at me. ‘He’ll like this, Laura. I’ll start it now, so you can have it before you leave.’
We agree a price. I know Ilídio is undercharging me, but he is firm on what he’s willing to accept. I walk around the workshop as he starts picking out pieces of wood for the project. I want to stay and watch him work, but checking my watch, I realise I need to go and get ready for my date with Jasper.
As I walk back across the garden, I glance up to the kitchen window of Sans Ennui, half hoping I might see Ted, but there’s no sign of him. In any case, I need to get dressed, get organised. My chat with Gerry and the tour of the workshop has inspired me. I should stop overthinking things I can’t change, focus instead on the potential of the day ahead.
Back at the cottage, I have a shower, then look fondly down at my suitcase on the floor. I have so many options, clothes that actually fit me. I pick out my slim-fit dark capri pants and the fitted blue blouse with the white scalloped cuff and collar. Then I tie a thin blue silk headscarf around my head as a hairband. Glancing in the bathroom mirror, I smile, seeing myself again, rather than a ragamuffin.
Picking up my phone, I make the mistake of checking my email and my buoyant mood bursts like a balloon. There are over fifty new messages in my inbox, on a Saturday morning. At least half of them look to be from Suki and have subjects like: ‘Feature ideas – Teen property developers – how young is too young to start your portfolio?’ I skim through, looking for any emails addressed specifically to me.
I find several, sent throughout the night and the early hours of the morning.
Laura,
Disappointed in your social media performance today. Unpolished content and off brand messaging.
S
Laura,
