Works & Wonders

I have worked around enough service yards to know they seldom win prizes for appearances. Georges has found room for a good deal more than machinery in this one. Beyond the barrels and old rails are worktables, a little kitchen crowded with pots, and a sleeping corner tucked behind curtains. Flowers sit where another man might have left an empty tin. I call the place Works & Wonders, on account of the useful work below and the small comforts worked in everywhere else.

I imagine the old railroad building gave him something worth keeping, even with its battered walls and awkward corners. He could have stripped the place bare. Instead, he seems to have built around what remained, making shelves and steps fit the space and giving familiar household things a second address. I do not know who taught Georges to see a home in such a jumble, but I am glad he followed it here.