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Show 59 Smead's pride had been fired, and he held out his hand. "Should have seen it when we moved in: goddamnest mess you ever saw. T)ippical gook job." The house had been built, it seemed, without adequate supervision: the walls were thin, the floors uneven, the plumbing fractious. There had been a misunderstanding between the American contractor and the Japanese foreman that led to one extraordinary result: a wall had been erected in place of a door, and the bathroom was accessible only through a closet. "Didn't take long to change that, but it's still shoddy." "Splendid," said Louise. "Such lovely wood." Smead's eyes shone: "Good stuff, for sure. Don't see much of it." "Whare'd you get it?" asked Sid. Smead laughed. "Ways and means, ways and means." He pointed at the light fixtures. "QM didn't supply them either. If we have to liva in this dump I'll make it habitable." He paused, to let them admire, and their eyes went about the room. The tokonoma - - the alcove in which the Japanese placed a flower-arrangement or hung a across - - had been cleared out and a wooden counter was being installed. Louise's |