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Rosa could not recall whether or not she had noticed the parking garage. On first glimpsing the gallery, she had been drawn into a fantasy combination of vertigo and crazies, and had not immediately looked straight down. She promptly forgot the staircases as she stared around in dumbfounded wonder, and desperately tried to assimilate her surroundings.
From her elevated position, she had a clear view of the pool centrally situated forty feet below where she stood. The base and sides were lined with large aqua green tiles which were intended to replicate the bottom of the ocean. Inset within the green border were thousands of tiny mosaics in a cocktail of different shades of blue, as well as silver, grey, white and black. Together, they formed an image of a life-sized blue whale. The hundreds of lights inside the pool perfectly illuminated the leviathan in all its gargantuan and awe-inspiring detail.
‘Why does it look as if it’s breaching out of the water?’ she managed to whisper hoarsely. Ryanna and Dorothy exchanged delighted grins.
‘It’s because the pool slopes,’ the designer answered. ‘The head is in the shallow end, which is only four feet deep. That lasts for about ten feet and then the water starts to get progressively deeper.’ She gestured at the pool as she spoke, and Rosa tried hard to focus on what she was saying.
‘By the time the water reaches the midway point, it has essentially become the deep end,’ Ryanna explained. ‘The tail fluke is in what we fondly refer to as the abyss. The reason it’s visible from up here is down to the hundreds of miniature fibre optic lights fitted below the water line.’
Rosa dragged her eyes away from the whale and turned her attention to the diving boards at the deep end. The one on the left hand side was an average, not-too-scary, one-metre high. The one on the right was standard at approximately three metres. It reminded her of the boards she had shown off on in the athletics centre of her carefully chosen and exclusive high school.
Without a doubt, both boards were dominated by the structure standing between them. Rosa elevated her arm and pointed a long finger at the monstrosity that took over the far end. As she did so, Ryanna cast an envious glance at her nails, which were long and painted a sexy shade of red. The designer surreptitiously glanced down at her own less than pristine digits and pulled a face.
Dorothy noticed the gesture and smiled at the other woman consolingly. ‘I’ll set up an appointment for you with my own beautician,’ she muttered in an undertone. ‘If it’s any consolation, I got you a Spa Day for Christmas. Pretend to be surprised when you open it.’
Ryanna grinned gratefully and turned her attention back to the American woman, who had lost her usual cool and was looking poleaxed. ‘It wasn’t a joke. That’s a diving platform with three levels,’ Rosa managed to croak out the words like a partially strangled toad.
Ryanna suppressed the urge to chortle and instead replied complacently, ‘Indeed it is. It took everything we had, but we got there in the end. The top platform is ten metres high, and the other two are seven and a half, and five metres respectively.
‘In her dream, the boss thought she saw a tower of some sort. Once Saul showed her photographs of what a diving platform looks like, she knew right away that was what she had seen. Of course, this one is a pretty simple design compared to the ones at competition level. Luckily for us we don’t have to worry about synchronised diving and suchlike.’
Here Ryanna paused, and allowed herself to enjoy a chuckle, while Rosa stared at her, clearly astounded. Dorothy giggled from somewhere behind them and then tried to turn it into a cough. The designer stopped contemplating competitive sports and carried on with her explanation.
‘It’s great to have the three levels because it’s so professional, although we had to make the ceiling very high to accommodate it. That’s why we had to dig so deeply into the hill. Most of the engineers said they had never seen anything close to it in a private house before, although they had all worked on similar projects in hotels and resorts.
‘Gosh,’ Rosa squeaked.
‘Ryanna nodded vigorously and her almond eyes glinted with enthusiasm behind her lush black lashes. ‘Oh yes. As a matter of fact, they kept trying to outdo each other with tales of their escapades creating the swimming pools of the world. No wonder we avoided them. Needless to say, they were delighted to get the work because it kept them going for months. Saul is thrilled with how it all turned out. It’s quite the showpiece for him you know. At least it would be, if anybody had any money these days to employ an architect.’
Rosa was still shaken, but when she heard the slightly pitiful tone in Ryanna’s voice, she pulled herself together and shot a glance at her boss. Dorothy obediently took the hint and said, ‘My aunt is giving me a house because she’s too elderly to maintain it. I’ll be needing Saul to check it out as soon as he’s finished here. My dad says it needs a lot of work.’
This disclosure had the desired effect and Ryanna immediately perked up. ‘Any questions, ladies?’ she enquired breezily, sounding just like a realtor in Rosa’s opinion.
‘Who helped to design the whale?’ was her next query.
‘Eight students and one teacher from the National College of Art and Design. They had a whale of a time, if you’ll pardon the pun. Needless to say, they were well paid for their services.’ Ryanna smiled at Dorothy, who shrugged.
‘They were great kids,’ she said. ‘Besides, student life can be tough. All that lying around smoking dope and drinking beer can really take it out of a young person. The teacher was quite sexy in an arty farty way and a really great guy as well. It’s a shame so many good men are gay.’
Rosa would have liked to enquire further into the sexiness levels of the gay teacher, but quickly became distracted by the pool again. No wonder Saul had been pissed with the boss over the whole thing. How much soil and earth had been removed in order to facilitate this space? Where had it all ended up? Was there a new mountain somewhere in Dublin comprised of millions of tonnes of earth excavated from the Howth landscape?
Why couldn’t the boss have built a normal pool house like a normal person? It would have meant spending a fraction of what she had done on this one, and would have only taken a couple of months to complete.
Was it any wonder Lauren had laughed at her when she queried some of the bills, and told her she would understand once she saw the finished article? She understood now all right. The boss was mad. Plain and simple. Rosa Barnett was working for a mad woman. Still, it was a little late to be worrying about it now since she would be taking up residence any day. While Ryanna and Dorothy pretended not to notice, Rosa took her phone from her bag. Taking a few pics of the diving platform, she sent them straight to Felicity.
‘I’m beginning to see why Saul was so pissed over this pool house,’ Rosa made an effort to pull herself together. ‘You must have had to excavate millions of tonnes of earth. This is the craziest building I’ve ever seen. How the fuck did the council even allow you the water? You must have emptied a reservoir.’
‘They were reluctant at first,’ Ryanna chuckled. ‘But once they realised the boss didn’t expect the water for nothing, they soon shut up bitching and let us have what we wanted. We have water meters installed in all the prime locations. As a matter of fact, we’re one of the first houses in the area to be metered.
‘Lord a mercy,’ Rosa muttered.
‘Shall we take the lift downstairs and check out the sauna?’ Ryanna suggested brightly. Rosa obediently dragged herself away from the perch and followed the others to the lift.
‘It doesn’t feel weird or claustrophobic,’ she admitted once they had emerged at the pool level and were standing by the jacuzzi. ‘I half expected it to be dark and dingy.’
‘It’s a combination of the glass doors and the lights,’ Ryanna smiled, ‘but mainly the lights. They’re not only in the suspended ceiling and the pool, they’re dotted throughout the length and breadth of the building, although they blend in so that you almost don’t notice them. You’d certainly notice if there was a power cut! What’s American for that?’
‘Power outage,’ Dorothy told her, while Rosa remained silent and dutifully admired the sauna, steam room and hot tub. She walked up and down by the poolside so she could examine the whale at close quarters. The rubberised flooring surrounding the water was a rather plain grey hue, which was just as well in her opinion. There was quite enough going on without adding ornate flooring to the mix.
She was pleased to see tiled seats had been built in ascending rows on either side of the water. These would provide a comfortable perch for spectators, as they enjoyed the aspect of crazy folks hurtling off the 10-metre diving platform and pretending to be taking part in the Olympic Games.
Her parents had loved to take her swimming when she was a child, and she wondered what they would make of this setup. For a moment she felt lonely for them, as she imagined her dad’s face when he heard how much the leisure complex had ultimately cost. She was glad Ryanna diverted her by asking if she wanted to see the plant room, and obligingly walked back to the shallow end, taking care not to slip in her heels.
‘Holy shit,’ Rosa exclaimed as the designer threw open the door to the room. ‘I was expecting to see a bunch of ferns and bamboos.’
‘I know,’ Dorothy exhaled gustily. ‘The amount of equipment in here is scary. We need to give this setup some serious thought. We’ll talk about it when we get home.’
Saul caught up with them shortly afterwards, and was pleased Rosa was so impressed. ‘You have to remember you can’t leave the doors open at ground floor level,’ he told them severely. ‘I don’t mind telling you I’m worried about the twins and their pals running amok in here. The air conditioning won’t work properly if you start messing around, and you could end up in deep shit very quickly. You have to monitor the temperature very carefully in a place like this because of the humidity and moisture levels. Did you see the plant room?’
‘We certainly did,’ Dorothy hastened to reassure him. ‘We saw all of the controls. Ryanna explained to us we can’t expect the pool to take care of itself. I intend to hire a caretaker just as soon as I get around to it.’
‘Does Saul not trust you to take care of the house?’ Rosa asked Dorothy as soon as they were back on the forecourt with the architect safely out of earshot.
‘I think he’s worried because I don’t have a man around,’ her employer sighed. ‘He wants to make sure I understand what a responsibility a house of this size will be. It was annoying when I first met him, but I’m used to it now. I tend to switch off when he starts nagging.’
‘Should I start looking for a caretaker? I could advertise.’ Rosa watched the other woman’s face expectantly.
‘Not yet,’ Dorothy shook her head. ‘I might ask around and see if there’s a local chap who would be interested in the job. It would be better to employ somebody from Howth. If anything went wrong late at night, at least he wouldn’t be a million miles away.’
Agreeing this was a good plan, Rosa said she would defer the task of placing an advertisement for a caretaker/gardener until they had a chance to make enquiries of the Howth community.
Ryanna came to collect Rosa for a full tour of the house, and Dorothy spent an hour with Saul discussing some last minute modifications and queries. An hour later, she was getting a tad fed up with the architect and his overbearing ways. She was on the point of suggesting Rosa should be summoned from the main house, when her assistant emerged through the boot room door looking dazed.
Dorothy grinned at the other woman and suggested now would be an opportune moment to head home since they had taken up quite enough of the Newmans’ time for one day. Rosa nodded in agreement but seemed to be struggling to enunciate her words.
Once again, Dorothy congratulated the couple on a first-rate job, then escorted her flabbergasted assistant to the Mercedes, and tenderly ushered her into the passenger seat. She took her place behind the wheel and, after a final wave at the Newmans, pulled away and navigated the newly finished driveway.
She stopped the car on the bend so the house was still visible. She stepped out and viewed her prospective home from a distance. She remained immobile for five minutes until a sharp breeze reminded her it was the dead of winter. When she reclaimed her seat behind the wheel, Rosa was regarding her steadily.
‘I’m sure you’ll be happy here, Boss, once you get used to it,’ she said quietly.
‘I hope you’re right, Rose,’ Dorothy replied in a subdued tone. ‘I never intended to build anything like this mansion. I saw myself in a nice, family sized home with a conservatory. Then I went to a health spa and the rest, as they say, is history.’
Rosa remained silent, although for a split second her black eyes glinted with an emotion she did not voice. After one final glance over her left shoulder, Dorothy put the car in gear and drove them back to Falcon. Apart from the sound of the stereo, there was silence in the vehicle all the way home.
