It's been a crazy week! So I have nothing to share but a quick little vignette based on some thoughts I had during the re-read:
***
"And there's the lake." Emil gestured towards a sliver of water just visible down an empty side-street.
"Ooh." It didn't look very impressive, but Tuuri still paused to stare, rising up on her toes as if that would help her see more of the lake. "Is that where the island is? The one that requires quarantine? What's it like? Rich? Nice?"
"Not really. My family has always chosen to live outside it." In fact, Emil had only visited it once, as part of a school summer program. It had not gone well. "It's mostly just for skalds. Not the bookish ones like Uncle Torbjörn, or the medical ones like Aunt Siv. The mechanics."
"The mechanics?" Tuuri took a step towards the street.
"Yeah, the people who design and build our Swedish technology. Like defences for the trains. Or radios. Or batteries. Our batteries are the best in the world, you know." When Tuuri did not respond, but kept staring, her eyes very wide, he felt prompted to ask,"Don't you have mechanics in Finland?"
She turned towards him sharply. "Yes, of course we do! I'm one, too, actually. Well, almost. I haven't finished my big project yet "
"Oh, okay." Well, that explained the interest: it was professional. Emil could remember his own excitement when he saw his first flamethrower workshop. "You know, you could probably learn a lot by visiting that place. It's got many mechanical things. Kuggeholm, we call it."
"Cog island," Tuuri repeated, voice full of wonder. "I would love to go! But we can't, can we? We'd need to quarantine."
"We can't now. But when we're back, I can show you around personally."
"Oh, thank you so much! Have you spent much time there?"
"Yes, loads."
"What's it like?"
"Full of factories, and…" Emil scoured his memory for any interesting detail.
Luckily, that was the moment Uncle Torbjörn chose to ask them to hurry up. So, they walked on.
***
Notes: the Swedish name for the island was suggested by skrank on the discord. And I hope Emil was at least a little annoying. I tried to convey his pre -trip personality.
