Jed Wolf

Bermuda Shoals Way, Heron Hyde and Tarpon Trace along with thousands of other soon-to-be streets in St. John’s County don’t show up on GPS yet, so some new homeowners who want fiberglass pools in brand new developments give me coordinates. Today 30.0847° N, 81.4820° W and “beige with white trim” got me to “Beachwalk.”

Twenty one miles from an actual ocean, Beachwalk, a sprawling three thousand acre “inland dream community” boasts a twenty acre swimming pool, complete with motion detecting drones programmed to chase birds away. So why would my client want her own pool?

I search for Hona Circle weaving my truck among flip-flopped community members slogging from their newly finishes homes with blow up toys, rafts and kids to the retina-scorching cyan lake surrounded by equally blinding sand but after photographing it, I can’t stop sweating and can no longer distinguish beige.

Upon entering my client’s house, all I see is a horizontal magenta blotch. “ How is it?” I ask, “I mean the, the…” “Lagoon,”she says as she hands me a water. “Wonderful, but not at all private and too far to walk.”

There are a few homes in the distance but hers is mostly surrounded by charmingly vacant lots. One black vulture swirls on the soon-to-not-be horizon.

She wants a “Milan”, without a screen. “No bugs here,” she says.