64. LITTLE GRAPEFRUIT AND THE CAPITALS – PART 2

Little Grapefruit is high up in Tallinn, spinning round the upper decks of the tower, enjoying a perfectly clear morning. A large part of her enjoys being little, but she worries about her deceptively soft rind being stepped on and pierced by a stiletto heel. She shakes off her concerns by bouncing along the old streets of Tallinn, before heading south along trunk roads out of town. She breathes a sigh of relief when at dusk she reaches the peace and quiet of tracks that carry the scent of wolves. She navigates successfully by celestial bodies until she reaches the next village.

That night she ruminates on height. Everybody seems very tall in Estonia. She thinks back to her days in Bowlingham: the arguments with her siblings, and the comforting words of her mother. There should be no stigma, no labelling of grapefruit by size or colour. She sleeps in a barn by the border with Latvia.

Little Grapefruit wakes to the sounds of bells. She drops down onto the soft hay, nodding to the hens who offer her breakfast, crosses the border, and hitches a lift to Riga with a pig farmer who is off to visit the bank. In the Latvian capital she enjoys a concert by a local children’s choir. She persuades a passing rollerblader to untie a yellow pedalo that is wintering against a pier. They cross the Daugava River, stopping off to explore the islands on the way. It is all a bit of a blur.

She follows a similar schedule as she travels through Lithuania and Poland, stopping off to do the tourist trail, talk to the locals, and search out family members in the supermarkets. Her penultimate stop is Bratislava. She travels there by train, taking the advice of the helpful ticket collectors along the way, sometimes struggling to make herself understood as she asks about the best routes. She has a good ear and is a quick learner, but she has to make a number of adjustments along the way from Estonian, to Latvian and Lithuanian, then Polish and Slovak. She will check with her teachers back in Scotland if they are on the school curriculum. Arriving at Bratislava Castle a couple of hours before closing time she catches her first glimpse of the Danube and her little heart leaps. She rolls down to the water humming a tune by Johann Strauss. 

LITTLE GRAPEFRUIT – EMAILED TO GANTOB FROM AN IoT ENABLED FRIDGE IN A SUPERMARKET IN BRATISLAVA

26 November 2023

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