ONE
HARRY MARKHAM and his crew arrived on the iob at
exactly seven o clock that Friday morning， Harry and his
foreman Jim Irvine sitting inside the pickup cabin and
Harry s three men in the open back of the truck， perched
wherever they could find a level space for their behinds.
The house they were renovating lay on Sydney s North
Shore in the suburb of Artarmon， just behind the spread-
ing desolation o[ the brick pits. It was not a big job， even
for a small-time builder like Harry; merely covering the
red brick bungalow with stucco and adding a sleepout to
the back veranda， the kind of iob Harry welcomed from
time to time because it filled in the gaps between larger
contracts.
The weekend promised heat and endless sun， if Friday
morning was any indication; the men piled out of the
nickup grumbling among themselves， plunged into the
~oomy tree-shielded aisle of the sloe passage and shed
their clothes without a twinge of sel~.consciousness or
shame.
Changed into their work-shorts， they came round the
the house just as the Old Girl was shuffling
back comer of :~v .~.，ain bathrobe，
down the backyard in her taaet~ p~- e
circa 1950， carefuUy carrying a gaudily flowered china
|
内容加载中，请稍后...
商品评论（0条）