When a woman brings home large quantities of cassava, the neighbors get worried.
And start talking to each other.
Not to get involved, one of them says. But what do you actually do with cassava? What goes on in a cassava?
Cassava, cassava, it certainly has an unfamiliar shape, says another.
That overweight grocery bag. It's such a disturbing sight, especially with that pointed rounding of the fruit and everything.
You really must understand that it's only to get attention, an old aunt gossips.
Perhaps she kisses them as if they were men, another neighbor suggests, men with big faces like cassava.
In fact, it's as if she carries large cannonballs that she caresses while the victims lie congealed in their own blood, they write in a letter to the landlord.
After reading the reply letter together, they shake their heads and look at each other worriedly.
Can anyone understand? What goes on with the cassava?
In a shop, a customer read the list of contents on a blood sausage for several hours.
He had already been there the week before. Same blood sausage, same man.
Sometimes it all starts out with such a small thing. A vague repetition. When suddenly it causes anxiety among customers, confusion.
After a while another customer stuck his head out.
What's that? he said.
Does it have to do something with the contents of the blood sausage? another one asked, stopping in the middle of the action. The thought that gets contagious so quickly.
Or was it something with the amount of sugar, the connective tissue. All that fine print that rarely gets any attention.
Soon more and more customers had gathered, walking in circles around the man.
They all talked loudly about the list of contents on blood sausage.
Someone said connective tissue. The word repeated a few times. They talked about the blood, the fat, the ingredients.
We're close to the truth now, one of them murmured. Soon we are really close.
Per Olvmyr is a writer of absurdist fiction, prose and poetry. He lives in Malmö, Sweden, and has been published by literary magazines in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and in the US.