They called for more structure, then, so we brought in some big hairy four-by-fours from the back shed and hem into place with railroad spikes. This new city, they said, was going to be just jim-dandy, would make architects stutter, would make Chambers of erce burst into flame. We would have our own witch doctors, and strange gods aplenty, and site-specifis, and humuhumunukunukuapuaa in the public fish bowls. We workers listened with our mouths agape. We had never heard anything like it. But we trusted our instincts and our paychecks, so we pressed on, bringing in color-coated steel from the back shed and anodized aluminum from the shed behind that. Oh radiant city! we said to ourselves, hoant you to be built! Workplace democracy racticed on the job, and the clerk-of-the-works (who had knoi L?nn in Finland) wore a little cap with a little feather, very jaunty. There was never any question of hanging back (although we noticed that our ID cards were of a color different from their ID cards); the exercise of our skills, and the promise of the city, were enough. By the light of the moon we ted our chisels and told stories of other buildis we had been involved in: Babel, digarh, Brasilia, Taliesin.
At dawn each day, a-mile run, to dition ourselves for the implausible exploits ahead.
The enormous pumping station, clad in red Lego, at the point where the new river will be activated. . .
Areas of the city, they told us, had been desigo rot, fall into desuetude, return, in time, to open space. Perhaps, they said, fawns would one day romp there, on the crumbling brick. We were slightly skeptical about this part of the plan, but it was, after all, a plan, the ferocious iy of the detailing impressed us all, and standing by the pens taining the faould father the fawns who might some day romp on the crumbling brick, one could not help but noties chest bursting with anticipatory pride.
High in the air, w on a setback faced with alternating bands of gray and rose stone capped with grids lass, we moistened our brows with the tails of our shirts, which had been dipped into a pleasing brine, lit new cigars, and saw the new city spread out beh us, in the shape of the word FASTIGIUM. Not the name of the city, they told us, simply a set of letters selected for the elegance of the script. The little girl dead behind the rosebushes came back to life, and the passionate stru tinued.