There are very few things in this world quite so very satisfying to the overly stressed and extremely frustrated than an elongated opportunity to hit things with a hammer.
Each wooden plank, heavier than even the strongest man could lift, was soundly rammed into place personally.
Every single nail a thought.
Every wedge a memory.
Every angle, every measurement, every step on the plan.
A. Detail Marshall.
The A standing for Architect.
Another.
Again.
Anger.
Atonement.
Angst.
The slaves quickly adapted to their latest master, taking his strange obsessive compulsion to oversee every operation himself as just another crazy tic of just another crazy master. The stone base was laid quickly, and the beam framework went up within a few days, a small building in a simple Malathian style, and the careful construction of the walls continued, wooden slats filling in every gap, rough tiles interlocking over the roof. Every side, every angle, measured twice, cut once.
Within a fortnight the basic building was complete, and work on the inside began, in carving and stonework, furniture and fashion.
Not a beam went in without the architects final tap, not a slat was installed that he didn’t check the grain on.
For the ages, we build beauty. For the future, we build well. For those around us, we build strong, and we build things worth looking at.
For the ages, and the Builder.
With every nail, an element of the buzzing in his head is cleared. A fly, screaming of paths untaken, is swatted. A worm, burrowing though memories looking for things we should have seen, is crushed. A distraction is diverted. With every pew – Ah, Pew – installed, the burden gets lighter.
And less than three weeks since the bare plot of land lay under the sun, the building is completed, and the keys to the bolts handed over (“A gift, as far as you can accept it”), the architect walks away from his commission, his troubles worked out through the beams, and realises that if anyone were ever to know how focused he could be if necessary, he could be in real trouble.
The more obvious work of the Builder done for the time being, it was time to go make people think, if only for a moment.