Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – July 10 -12
Soderala, Sweden
The sun was high, the lake waters lapped gently at the sandy shore. Victor had taken his rightful place as DJ for the day out to the lake, blasting classics on our corner of the small yet nice beach. I was lounging on the sand, bootycheeks up, determined to work on my tan. The farmer’s tan was in full sway from the gardening, and my vain ass was not about it.
It was a fine day with fine people. We took turns in the kayak with Roberto as our unofficially official water captain. Living in Singapore, he explained, water safety and familiarity was a way of life. The water was pretty (but chilllly) so that’s why I was tanning in the sand. Roberto and Victor were down and out for the count, full-on napping. Francisco activated the da Vinci in him and made a sand sculpture, which was quite artful and quite good. Ellie was finishing up the book “Lay the Favorite” I had lent her, and I was dying to discuss the ending with her.
At some point Maria and Marina were playing cards. They had specialty cards I’d never seen before, with decks unique to their home towns in both Spanish and Catalan. I had seen them playing before, duking it out yelling “Chimichurri!” in that good-natured way of theirs, sometimes throwing in the occasional “cabrona” with a giggle.
Marina was showing us a magic trick. We took turns showing each other some tricks, while Ellie was frustrated to no end trying to figure out how we were doing it. When Maria mentioned a card game, they introduced a game they called Cuadrado, pairing us up in teams of two. The aim is to get four of a kind while signaling to your partner to yell Cuadrado before the other team can do so. A simple premise, but so much fun to do in speedy terms, and especially with fun people. Ellie and I walked home, enjoying the sunshine and taking our time along the small-town roads of Soderala. Soon, she asked if I wanted to stop by and see Lopez.
I nodded, wracking my brain. See, I didn’t know who Lopez was. I’d heard of the famous Jasper, the full-time farm worker with Ake and Maria. Maybe he was another farmhand.
Ellie must have read my semi-panicked expression.
“Have you not seen loppis since you’ve been out here?”
“Uhh,” came my intelligent response.
She explained “loppis” to me: people will leave what they don’t want in a garage or their property, and if you want something, you leave the money in a bin.
“So it’s like a yard or garage sale,” she summed up.
I recalled days growing up when I was posted on yard sale duty. Basically, I stayed out watching the stuff on the lawn and making sure people paid their 50 cents for the old stack of books or bag of baby clothes.
Highlights:
-The immortal introduction of Cuadrado into our lives.
-Passed by Soderala’s one and only pizza place, which also served the obligatory doner. I was both interested and afraid of what kinds of monstrosities the pizzas inside would hold.
-Lopez aka Loppis.
-Had a chance to get to know Ellie more on our walk home. For one in her early twenties, she has her crap together, waaayyy more than I do in my thirties. I know we’re all like, making this up as we go along, but damn. Some are making it up more effectively and just better than others. I am so impressed with this generation of people you not only go for what they want, but are savvy and self-aware enough to know what it is they want in order to go for it.
-Saw an advertisement for an beat up old metal 1980’s trailer. Finding places to rent was something I’d had to put on pause when I left for Sweden, and I’ve been looking at listings in my spare time. The trailer listing crossed my path on Facebook marketplace. Paying rent and being locked into one place that seems like such a cage to my winged soul. What if. . .I mused into my blanket, pulling it closer for comfort. What if I found an old trailer and flipped it. Made it a livable space. Cut down on what I needed to live with and lived unfettered to bigger material things. (I say that from still enjoying the convenience of hot showers, indoor plumbing, and readily available food, things I am loathe to do without, if ever. . .) The trailer, who was I kidding. What a faraway dream. Me and the open road? Camping in the woods? With no experience, and even less money? I had been trying not to think of finances, but rent and car insurance with funds I didn’t have was daunting to think of. What kind of a life could I make from that with not a dollar to my name. How impossible, how silly, how stupid. I deleted the listing photo.
Five minutes later, I pulled it up again. At least I could dream of this, and solutions to my financial problems at least in dreamland were possible.