Читать книгу Canoeing with Jose онлайн

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I drove along River Road to downtown Saint Paul, and parked next to an unmarked loading dock behind an old brick warehouse. I climbed up a crumbling concrete lip and pounded on the garage door. Behind it I heard the proprietor of this underground repair shop bark impatiently, “Coming!”

Old Hal maintained no particular schedule, so I was thankful to find him at work. He opened the door and glared at me as if he were looking into the sun. The previous summer he had replaced the rotted gunwales on Hawk’s canoe, so I knew this was just his gruff way.

I wandered around the shop while Hal examined the canoe. There were three wood-strip canoes on the floor in various stages of completion. These were Hal’s projects, and they would eventually join the curvaceous masterpieces hanging on ropes from the ceiling. I couldn’t help but wonder if Hal was grouchy because his love of canoes and skill in building and repairing them had led to his imprisonment in a dusty warehouse just two blocks off the Mississippi River, which he rarely got to paddle.