Strange Fruit / November 22 2007
There is an eccentric old woman that Audrey and I sometimes see when we are walking in the village. She is always pushing a grubby baby-carrier around with her. It isn’t a human infant inside her grimy perambulator, however: it’s a doll.
She is an odd and lonely figure and to catch sight of her is vaguely disturbing. She is constantly chatting to her tiny plastic companion as if it was a real child and often stops to tuck it into its scruffy blankets or to adjust the pink bonnet on its head. ‘There, there, my little poppet,’ I heard her say to it one cold morning as she fussed with its little clothes, busily trying to protect it from the frosty air. She wiped its lobster-coloured cheeks with her handkerchief and gazed lovingly into its big, unblinking glass eyes.
The woman is dirty and untidy and wears an ill-fitting black wig. One cannot help but feel sorry for her. She wears a long grey coat that reaches the ground. The hem of this filthy over-sized garment is very soiled and frayed, probably due to all the tramping around she does.
She never appears to be going anywhere specific – I have never seen her stop to enter a shop, for example – she just wanders around. Her progress never appears to be aimless, though. She always seems to be rushing to get somewhere as if she is late for an appointment or has to catch a train.
We encountered her one day in the summer. Sharing the pushchair with her doll was a large bag of fruit that one of the stall-holders on the market had donated to her. A group of teenagers was teasing her without mercy. ‘Giz an apple, Granma!’ one of the youths shouted at her.
What happened next was astounding. Quick as a flash, she turned and kicked her young tormentor between the legs. ‘Ouch! Straight in the orchestra pit. You f***ing witch,’ he said as he staggered back to his cohorts.
‘What a sight!’ I said to Audrey. ‘There’s a lesson to be learned there, you know.’
Filed under Anti-Social Behaviour / Audrey / English Village Life / Loneliness
Comments
5 comments on “Strange Fruit”
Nelson Galaxy / November 23rd, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Maybe the small doll is possessed with the spirit of Bruce Lee. You never know….
Despina / November 23rd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Aww, poor old lady. Maybe she is so mad she thinks she’s happy? I hope so.
Napoleon Fantastic / November 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Nelson, Despina,
She’s just scary. Somebody said the doll is in fact a dead child but this is obviously nonsense. Right?
Jo Beaufoix / November 25th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
She’s obviously a bit mad isn’t she?
Poor lady.
Do flies mill around her child at all??
Napoleon Fantastic / November 26th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Jo,
I have no idea whether she has any children or not. I would venture so far as to say, though, that if she did, flies would indeed be using their little mills to make insect flour and the like all around the tiny heads of her filthy human babies. Or something.
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