Stories

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11


I moved the whole thing into the corner onto some concrete blocks with the help of Phy. The window swung open from the bottom and the door had a secret handle underneath the floor on the outside, as a secret lock and opener. It was really noisy out there as it overlooked the whole of the Mission District. So on the inside I had to do a lot of insulating with fibre and cardboard. The thing about a view is you get the noise. No view and it is probably quiet. The place on Powers Street was really quiet and only a half block from Mission Street.

The hut had a TV, radio, light, electric heater, a fan for ventilation which I hardly ever used, and a book shelf. It was good enough for me. Still I had to use the bathroom and kitchen in the house, but generally spent a lot of my home time in there, and slept in there as well, for probably about ten years. Eventually the whole box was covered in vines so it was not visible except for the window and door which I kept trimmed.

Slept with my head towards the cliff, and actually that end of the box was only about three feet from the cliff edge. I sometimes wondered what would happen if there was an earthquake or the cliff caved in. And it did, not too long after I moved out of Winfield, maybe six months later. The hut went down when the cliff caved in and I would have also if it was still there and at home. It survived the Loma Prieta earthquake just fine. In fact the only disturbance in the house was that a bag of to-be recycled newspapers fell over. I was up on the hill walking the dogs with Sophia and a political consultant friend, when the earthquake hit.

(8 of 11)             Next Page

hr