Chapter 28: (Cont._3)

The first week in June went along without incident for a couple of days. Everyone was busy and the weather was still just bearable. Work had begun on converting downtown Little Rock into a “mall.” Nobody’s perfect, not even urban planners.

On Tuesday, I received a fine offer for a short, all-expense-paid trip to St. Louis, Missouri. Remember the project that Jack Castin was working on for a company there? He had prepared a nice rendering of the plan. They had it printed and mounted only to find that it was too large to be transported by airline. Oops.

The miscalculation proved to be my good luck, though. Tom called me in and asked how I would like to transport the drawing to Missouri in the back seat of one of the company cars, a Ford, “Crown Vic.”

“Sure,” I said, immediately thinking of being away from Brenda.

Tom must have read my mind, for he said, “That girlfriend of yours still out of school for the summer?”

“Yeah.”

“Take her with you,” if she wants to go,” he said. “You ever been to St. Louis?”

“Just to change planes at the airport.”

“Never seen the Arch?”

 “Nope.”

“There’s a Louis Sullivan Building downtown.”

“The Wainwright Building.”

“I think that’s it, he said. Near Busch Stadium. I seem to remember that he designed some famous tomb or other there too.”

“The Wainwright Tomb,” I said, “In the Bellfountaine Cemetery.” How could I remember that? I couldn’t even had recalled my name at that moment without thinking first.

“You do know your architecture,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“Jack will show you where to deliver the drawing. Christie has a check for your expenses.”

“Yes sir.”

He tossed me a set of car keys. “Have fun,” he said.

We did.

The Wainwright Tomb: St. Louis