Installment 5

STARTING WITH WHITE

The first thing I did to the interior of the house was paint the inside of the round-arched windows on the verandah. It was a territorial act of claiming possession. Jim’s wife Janet had scrupulously painted every surface within her reach white. Thank God she was short and couldn’t reach the shiny brick cornices that defined most of the outside doors. But a flat matte finish obscured the original color of the balusters and wide sills of the verandah balustrade. Decorative terracotta relief that framed windows and entries had received similar treatment. All the detailed ornamentation had been painted over, now distinguishable from the surrounding white walls only by the dust that had collected on them.
I directed handyman Chano with his paintbrush and ladder: cerulean blue for the arches, deep Indian red for the balusters, the sills, and the tiny tile eyebrows that echoed the form of the arches.

No da color. No pinta. “Doesn’t have color,” “doesn’t paint” are Mexican expressions meaning the inability to define oneself or to take needed action. So in painting the arches, I began putting a new face on our house. Little did I know it was the start of re-defining who I was, as well. Blue arches and dozens of potted geraniums—purple, hot pink, coral and deep red—it was a good place to begin.

© 2010 by Susan J. Cobb. All rights reserved.

Editors Note: We plan to publish an instalment of Virgin Territory periodically for the next year and a half. If you cannot wait that long you can always buy the book from the publisher’s web site here. For even more information visit Susan’s web site.