It was in a dangerous neighborhood but the room was perfect, solidly built, spacious, not soundproof but close enough. His neighbors were night people and rowdy at all hours and would not notice whatever noise he made. They made enough of their own. The basement's windows were curtained so that no one could see in. Lee finished classes in the late afternoon, went home for a makeshift dinner and two hours of study, and when that chore was done walked to the basement room to work on marble. He bought two floodlights so that the stone could be seen in its smallest detail. Lee carved blocks of marble twenty inches high, ten wide, severe in their verticalness, heavy. He had an idea that the dimensions of the marble, and an unexpected irregularity, perhaps more than one, would give a hint as to its interior, what spirit resided within. One might almost say what the marble was thinking, except now it presented a blank face to the world. Lee worked deliberately with chisel and mallet and soon enough found himself in a kind of trance, fully focused until well into the early morning and beyond.
