Gunvor would like to sing all her compositions for Minna, vibrato.
Minna presses Bergman to her face.
Gunvor passes by somewhere to the rear.
Gunvor walks slowly, slowly.
Minna turns cautiously.
Gunvor has sat down two booths away, with her back to Minna.
It’s silly of course.
Gunvor’s merely a person.
Gunvor loves #544 in the tired Danish songbook.
Gunvor loves chain dancing.
Gunvor has a droopy bosom.
Minna was dragged in as an unwilling witness.
Minna tucks Bergman into her backpack.
Minna rediscovers her sunglasses.
The sunglasses slip down in front of her face.
Gunvor’s started on the candy catalog.
Gunvor’s found a ballpoint pen.
Gunvor sets checkmarks by candy.
The sunglasses shield Minna from Gunvor.
Minna passes Gunvor.
Minna’s set a course for the stern.
Minna catches sight of the sea.
The Baltic lies blue and piercing.
The Leonora Christine shoves its way forward, self-confidence in its hull.
The Leonora Christine heads down the coast.
Minna slouches in a seat.
Minna hugs her backpack.
Minna oozes adrenaline.
Swedish customs opens for candy and liquor purchasers.
Swedish customs is full of retirees.
Gunvor forages.
Minna leans back.
No one heeds her anymore.
Minna’s alone and can plan her escape.
Minna’s arrived in Rønne.
Elisabeth’s gotten ahold of her.
Mom’s making plans for the weekend, but
Minna isn’t home.
Elisabeth wants to know where she is, but
Minna’s just not home.
Bornholm waits in the sunshine.
Bus #5 swoops across the island.
Minna’s looking forward to seeing the landscape again.
Minna’s quickly disappointed.
Bornholm had more cliffs in her memory.
Bornholm was exotic, Swedish.
Bornholm seems abandoned now.
The bus stop spots are dusty.
The butcher’s closed.
The baker, the dairy, the school.
Bjarne’s tanning salon has set up shop in the supermarket.
Bjarne’s tanning salon browns the serfs.
Bjarne’s tanning salon turns little girls into reality stars.
Bjarne makes a mint on the villages’ decline.
The provinces assuage grief with porn.
The houses are cheap.
The houses have signs in their windows.
The houses are OPEN, OPEN, OPEN.
Most folks have fled.
Randiness remains.
Minna can see that a country’s about to disappear.
Minna can see that the tracks point over the cliff edge.
Minna feels like a slum tourist.
That wasn’t the idea behind my holiday, thinks Minna.
Minna regards a shelter in Østerlars.
The round church has decamped.
The round church has taken a room in Copenhagen.
Grief is latent in Minna.
Grief seizes its chance.
Minna gets moisture in her eyes.
Minna wipes the moisture away.
Minna wants to find a rock in the sea.
Minna wants to go out to the rock and sit.
Bergman will join her, and a thermos of coffee.
The cliffs begin someplace.
Minna googled Svaneke.
Minna saw the cliffs on the web.
The idyll will take over sooner or later.
Minna glances down in her backpack.
The cell phone sits down there.
Elisabeth’s name throbs like an irate artery.
Minna shuts the pack.
Minna can see a large field of grain.
Minna can see a steep slope.
Bus #5 drives through the grain.
The sea appears at the foot of the hill.
The Baltic doubles over, vast and wet.
Bus #5 is headed toward Listed, and now it happens.
Bornholm opens up.
Bornholm looks like itself in the pictures.
The smokehouse has a flame under the herring.
Troll figurines have appeared in the windows.
The cliffs fall crumbling into the water.
The sea is blue-black, with swans in it.
The bus winds through charming houses.
The bus holds for a school camp.
The bus holds for another school camp.
The bus holds for a flock of retirees.
The bus swings gently down the coast and into Svaneke.
Minna presses the STOP button.
The bus stops by the hard-candy store.
Minna struggles with her wheeled suitcase, and then she’s standing there.
Minna stands there and is reminded of the Old Town in Aarhus.
Minna’s reminded of the trips to Ballehage Beach.
Minna remembers her toes on the pier.
Minna with webbed feet.
Minna with piano fingers.
Minna with song in her throat.
Minna with a future before her, but
Elisabeth rings loudly in the pack.
Elisabeth’s on Minna’s trail.
Minna refuses to yield.
Minna fumbles in her pocket for the address.
Minna’s going to live in a room with a tea kitchen.
The room has a view over the harbor.
The landlady’s a friend of a friend.
Minna is not hoping that the landlady’s gregarious.
Minna wants to be alone in the Baltic.
Minna stands quietly on the square.
Minna sees people everywhere.
The people are speaking Copenhagen dialect.
The people are looking for a ceramist.
Minna stands in the people’s way.
Minna must make way.
Minna wheels her suitcase forward and back.
Minna’s in the midst of a transport tsunami.
The lodgings in this case are not lacking.
Half-timbering goes with everything.
The foundation is Bornholm granite.
The room has a table, sofa, and bed.
The room isn’t missing a thing, au contraire.
The room has latticed windows with geraniums.
Minna’s rubbed the scented leaves between her fingers.
Minna’s said hello to the landlady.
The landlady was in her midforties.
The landlady bore the mark of tourism.
Minna said that she had to quote work during her stay.
Minna’s used that trick before.
People with projects are left in peace.
Minna has one end of the house.
The door between Minna and the landlady is locked.
Nobody’ll come barging in, the landlady assured her.
That’s great, and yet it isn’t anyway.
The landlady’s got a dog.
The dog bays.
The dog’s bayed ever since the landlady left to do her shopping.
Minna sees the dog before her:
The dog’s muzzle pointed skyward.
The dog’s lower lip pushed forward.
The dog’s eyes squinting ceilingward.
The dog doesn’t want to be alone.
Minna’s just on the other side of the landlady’s locked door.
The dog can hear Minna.
The dog doesn’t understand that Minna can’t rescue it.
Minna’s hushed the dog through the keyhole.
Minna’s acted as if she’s gone to the grocery store.
The dog isn’t fooled by cheap tricks.
The dog has nothing to do but complain about the program.
Minna puts her earplugs into action.
Minna sits in a soundproof bubble.
Minna can hear her breathing in the bubble.
Minna’s lungs puff quietly.
Minna’s pulse vibrates.
Minna closes her eyes and listens.
The ocean buzzes in Minna’s veins.
The ocean calls from Minna’s interior.