The Building

The dawn sun shone bright and cold on the building that stood sentinel in the square, highlighting the cream colored brick of one side and throwing the rest into cold, deep shadow.  The building reached for the hazy white and blue cotton of the skies and dominated the trees, who reached vainly for a mere touch with branches like the bony fingers of an ancient grandmother.  As was appropriate for a building that represented the people, it balanced the angular masculinity of its cube center with the curving femininity of the domes set on the top and wings.  The three-story doric columns of the front of the building clashed and melded with the large windows of the second floor and the tiny ones of the third floor.  The juxtapositions of the architecture gave the overall effect of secrets barely hidden behind the facade of gentility, of treasures for which men could search, perhaps in vain.  The building was inviting and imposing, public and private, demanding and docile.  As Matt and Sarah approached the front entrance, he wondered how their visit would reorient them, for the secrets of a building like this would no doubt point them in a different direction, and which way they would be facing when they left.


Copyright © 2010 Denise Duggan