Page "adventure" Paragraph 246

I felt strongly attached to the hall, however, and hardly a day passed when I did not go to look at it from a distance.

I lived in a state of suspense because of it.

I could not cling to my past nor did I wish to.

I had signed it off on the forms.

My future lay solely with the hall, yet what did I know about the hall at this point??

Although I had been inside it I had not yet seen it functioning.

I wished to prepare myself but did not even know what sort of clothes I ought to be wearing.

I did not despair, however ; ;

far from it!!

I was constantly searching for clues around the neighborhood of the hall.

Though only a relatively short walk separated it from my own part of town, its character was wholly foreign to me.

Large warehouses flanked the street on which the hall fronted.

The river was only a few blocks away but an unbroken line of piers prevented me from seeing it.

Sometimes I noticed the tops of ships' masts and funnels reaching above the pier roofs.

The sounds issuing from beyond -- winches whirring, men shouting -- indicated great activity and excited me.

The hall, on the other hand, appeared lifeless and deserted on these long waterfront afternoons.

It resembled nothing I'd ever seen before.

Its front was windowless, but irregularities in the masonry might be an indication that windows, now blinded, had once looked out upon the street.

I kept circling the block hoping to see, from the street behind it, the rear of the hall.

But it was not a tall structure and other buildings concealed it.

For weeks I wandered about this neighborhood of warehouses and garages, truck terminals and taxi repair shops, gasoline pumps and longshoremen's lunch counters, yet never did I cease to feel myself a stranger there.