The events described here happened in the future. This is Erika, likely not her name as we not yet have met, nevertheless, I think of them as Erika. I saw her in the Fresh'n'Cheap at Makelweiss and Rouge while buying ingredients for my Thursday Mulligatawny, ... she was hard not to notice, so I noticed: very tall, very slim, with sunken cheeks and a straight thin nose that would've served her well in the silent-movie era. She wore a hoody under jeans-jacket and thick grey wool leggings with black sneakers (here is a sketch from memory):
As I gather up my Celery and Apples, Erika is in front of me at the check-out putting three sweet potatoes and three oranges on the belt. When the belt moved, the oranges rolled a little and I saw that one had a gash running meridionally showing the pale-yellow flesh inside. "Excuse me," said I ... no reaction ... "Excuse me" a little louder. Erika turned but looked somehow above and through me. I pointed: "One Orange is cracked". "That's alright" she turned to the cashier and said "Debit", grabbed her stuff, and was gone. I froze into a statue of utter embarrassment and asked the cashier "Did you see that?" she said: "She's a weirdo". As this hasn't yet happened but it certainly may, I made a policy decision not to point out flaws in other people's citric (or any other) fruit in the future (or ever).
Erica bought three sweet potatoes and three oranges for her potato and orange salad. She'd
ReplyDeletepeel the potatoes and the oranges, anyway, boil then slice the potatoes, add the orange bits, cover them all with her secret savoury sauce to make that crack disappear. It's magic!
Citrus fruit cracking is a complex pre harvest physiological disorder, caused not only by genetic factors but also by environmental ones, same causes that cracked Erika . Strange subject for a palm story , very well written.
ReplyDeleteI can’t explain why I like it, but I do like it very much!
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