Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Two: The Second Coastal Visit

Colin telephoned in July.

He had sent Colin the coastal drawings in late June — the full set, the section and the plans and the elevations and the specifications. Colin had taken ten days and then telephoned on a Tuesday morning. He said: I have read the drawings. When can we meet at the site?

They drove to the coastal village on a Thursday. Colin drove his own vehicle — the site manager's vehicle, the van with the tools and the measuring tape and the waterproofs. He drove behind Colin on the hundred and forty kilometre road and arrived at the school at nine.

Colin was already at the east wall when he arrived. He had parked at the lane and walked to the building and was standing at the east wall looking at the existing window before Daniel had closed the car door. This was the builder's way — the builder going directly to the wall, the hands-first attending, the body reading the building before the mind assembled the questions.

He walked to the east wall and stood beside Colin.

Colin looked at the existing window. He looked at the sill height — the too-high sill, the sea below it, the sky above it. He put his hand on the sill and measured the height from the floor with his hand flat. He said: how much are you taking it down?

To forty centimetres, Daniel said.

Colin looked at the wall below the sill. He looked at it the way the builder looks at the wall to be opened — for the structure, the loading, the consequence of the opening. He said: there is a lintel above the existing window. We will need a new lintel for the wider opening. The hundred and forty centimetres will need steel.

He thought about the steel lintel. He thought about the steel as the material the drawing had not shown — the structural consequence of the wider opening, the honest section requiring the honest steel to make it possible. He thought about the section drawing the east window at a hundred and forty centimetres and the steel making that width possible in the material.

He thought: the honest section requires the honest material at every level.

Colin walked the perimeter of the classroom block. He walked it the way Daniel had walked the village hall perimeter — slowly, with the attention, the body reading the building. Colin's reading was different from the attending reading: Colin read for the material condition, the mortar joints and the roof flashings and the window reveals and the junction between the classroom block and the covered walkway. He read the building for its physical truth — the honest assessment of the material that the section could not provide.

He followed Colin around the perimeter and said nothing. He had learned over the years of working with Colin that the builder's perimeter walk required the silence — the attending builder needed the same silence that the attending teacher and the attending person before the honest section needed. The correct position was the witness. He walked behind Colin and was the witness.

Colin stopped at the north wall of the corner. He put his hand on the north wall where the corner window would go. He said: this is a solid wall. There is no opening here at present.

No opening, Daniel said. The window is new.

Colin looked at the wall. He looked at the position of the proposed window — the four-hundred-millimetre opening, the forty centimetre sill, the constant north light. He said: it is a modest window.

Yes, Daniel said. The constant north light requires only a modest opening. The window is not for the view. The window is for the quality of the light.

Colin was quiet. He was looking at the blank north wall and thinking about the opening in it — the builder's thinking, the sequence of the work, the cutting of the masonry and the lintel and the reveal and the frame and the glazing. He said: the modest window is more work than a larger window in some respects. The reveal wants careful making.

He thought about the reveal wanting careful making. He thought about the corner window's reveal — the thickness of the masonry wall at the reveal, the depth of the opening, the way the north light would enter the corner and travel across the reveal before reaching the room. He thought about the careful reveal as the material version of the attending — the builder attending to the four-hundred-millimetre opening with the same care that the section had given to its width and height.

He thought: an honest building requires a careful builder.

He thought: Colin is a careful builder.

They went inside. Colin walked the classroom — the existing classroom in its July condition, the summer term just ended, the room in its emptied holiday state. The sea children's chairs and the corner children's chairs and the moving children's chairs all pushed to the walls, the tables stacked, the room between its conditions. Colin walked to the east wall and looked at the existing window from the inside. He crouched to forty centimetres — the same crouching Daniel had done in March — and looked through the lower portion of the glass.

Colin stayed crouching for a long time.

He thought about Colin crouching at the wrong window and seeing the right view. He thought about the builder attending to the inside view — the body at forty centimetres, the sea at the correct level, the everywhere-at-once coastal light at the height of the attending face. He thought about all the people who had crouched at this window: himself in March, and now Colin in July. He thought about the crouching as the attending act — the body lowering itself to the correct position to find the correct view.

He thought: the crouching is the section made physical.

Colin stood. He said: I understand the window now.

He thought about the builder understanding the window from the crouching. He thought about understanding the window as the prerequisite for building it correctly — the builder who understood what the window was for building it with the attention the understanding required. He thought about Colin at the reveal of the corner window with the careful making and Colin at the east window with the new steel lintel and the dropped sill, both informed by the crouching understanding.

He said: the east window gives the sea to every seat. The corner window gives the constant north light to the attending child. The south bench gives the lit threshold to the child who moves between the two.

Colin looked at the south wall where the bench would go. He walked to the south wall and stood at the bench position. He said: the bench is built-in?

Built-in, Daniel said. Timber, the same as the shelf in the corner. Thirty-five centimetres from the floor.

Colin crouched again — to the bench height, to thirty-five centimetres. He looked at the room from the bench position. He looked at the east window and then the corner and then the east window again. He said: from here you can see both.

Yes, Daniel said. The threshold position gives both the east window and the corner in the peripheral. The moving child on the bench is between the two attending conditions and can see both.

Colin stood. He looked at the section drawing that Daniel had brought and unrolled on the teacher's desk — the full ink section, the east window and the corner and the south bench. He looked at it for a long time. He said: this is a well-made drawing.

He thought about the well-made drawing. He thought about the drawing made from the girl's vocabulary and Joseph's attendings and the corner children's forty years and the moving children's south wall crossing and the November concentrating gleam and the April light in pieces. He thought about all of this in the ink drawing on the teacher's desk in the July classroom.

He said: the drawing is made from the children.

Colin looked at him. He said: then we had better build it correctly.

He thought about building it correctly as the builder's form of the correspondence — the careful reveal and the honest steel and the built-in bench at thirty-five centimetres and the dropped sill and the modest north window all made correctly because the drawing was made from the children and the children deserved the correct material answer to what they had given.

He wrote in the pocket notebook that evening: first site visit with Colin. Colin crouching at the east window — the crouching is the section made physical. The steel lintel for the wide opening. The careful reveal for the modest corner window. The bench position: from thirty-five centimetres you can see both the east window and the corner. Colin: This is a well-made drawing. Daniel: The drawing is made from the children. Colin: Then we had better build it correctly. The correspondence becomes the build.

He was glad.

End of Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Two