at her, when their eyes meet, there’s nothing dainty about her. She’s strong. She’s firm. That mind of hers is solid.
Laura stands up from the forest floor and stretches her back. She looks up at the sky, breathes in and, as if remembering the crew are there, she turns around and lifts the basket into the air.
‘What did you get?’ Bo asks, delighted Laura is ready for conversation.
‘Wild garlic, it’s good for flavouring soups. Also good for coughs and the chest. I use it for a wild garlic, onion and potato soup. I’ve got mushrooms …’ She runs her long fingers over the array of mushrooms.
‘How do you know these are safe?’
Laura laughs, her laugh is older than she appears. She makes a vomiting sound, one so real it plays with Rachel’s gag reflex, yet she doesn’t seem to notice her sound, it’s as if a memory for her has come alive through her own sound, as an image would flash in somebody else’s mind.
‘Trial and error for the first few years,’ Laura explains, then runs her hands over the food in the basket. ‘These are pig nuts, also known as fairy potatoes. They’re good roasted. Alexanders, they’re like celery. Nettles, gorse blossom for blossom jelly and garlic mustard. It’s a wild member of the cabbage family, good for marinating meat. I like this because you can eat all parts of the plant, roots, leaves, flowers and seeds. The root makes tasty garlic mustard root vinegar.’
‘Okay, great, thanks.’ Bo smiles happily.
Inside the cottage, she opens her cupboards to show them her collection of food that has been pickled, dried and canned. She preserves the fruits and vegetables that don’t grow in the winter, when her diet would otherwise grow monotonous. That’s when she really relies on what Tom gives her. Gave her. She pauses, checks herself, before continuing. She is confident, proud of her work on her food and she is happy to talk about it. Her sentences are short and limited, of course, but for her, to offer any information unprompted is a sign of her confidence, which grows throughout the filming day.
She makes her soup that she then offers to them to taste. Bo politely sips a spoonful. Solomon and Rachel finish their bowls.
It is late in the afternoon.
‘What would you do next?’ Bo asks, trying to move things along.
‘I would usually be still out foraging,’ Laura smiles politely, aware that time is of concern to Bo.
‘Don’t feel you have to rush everything on our account, I want to capture you as you’d normally be.’
‘I wouldn’t normally have served three people my soup,’ she smiles, and to Solomon, ‘That’s the first time I’ve done that in ten years.’
‘Four people,’ Rachel says. ‘Can I have seconds?’
Laura laughs. She likes Rachel, this is obvious. She is wary of Bo. With Solomon, everyone knows it’s a sure thing.
Laura suggests cleaning her clothes, something Bo isn’t interested in. She doesn’t scrunch up her nose but it’s a similar reaction.
‘How about we film you reading?’ Bo asks. ‘Books are an important part of your life, aren’t they?’
‘Of course, I read every day.’
‘They’re your connection to the world?’
‘I’d say they are the only things that aren’t my connection to the world,’ Laura replies. ‘They’re entertainment, escape.’
‘Yes,’ Bo says, though she’s too busy planning her next shot to process the answer. ‘Where do you usually read?’
‘In lots of places. In here. Outside.’
‘Let’s go outside, show us where you’d go.’
‘It depends on the time of year, on the day, on the time of day, on the light,’ she says. ‘I walk around until I find somewhere that feels right.’
‘Let’s do that then,’ Bo says, smiling and when Laura isn’t looking, she steals a look at her watch. It’s not that Bo isn’t interested – she is, she can’t have enough information – it’s that time has never been her friend. There is too much to do, and not enough time to do it in. The aim is to do everything, quickly, so that she doesn’t miss a thing, and of course in doing things so quickly all the time, she is missing things, as Solomon constantly warns her.
Solomon accompanies Laura to her bookshelf, which is overflowing. Books are piled up on the floor all around.
‘Do you have a favourite one?’ he asks.
She picks up one, an erotic romance A Rock and a Hard Place, and shows it to him. She then makes the sound she heard from the previous night, Bo’s sounds of pleasure. She is quiet enough so that Bo doesn’t hear her. Solomon laughs and shakes his head.
‘You’re in love with her?’ Laura asks.
He’s so taken aback by the question he’s not sure how to answer. He should know how to answer, but he can’t bring himself to address it.
She mimics his awkward throat-clear.
‘I’m surprised Bridget brought you that book,’ he changes the subject.
‘I’ve never met her but I was surprised too,’ she laughs. ‘There was a whole box of them. Second-hand, church sale. A virgin named Betty Rock and naughty Nathan the window cleaner. They get a lot of suds in a lot of places.’
They both laugh.
‘No. This is my favourite. I’ve read it over fifty times.’ She hands him a picture book.
‘There’s no words,’ he flicks through it.
‘Words are often over-rated,’ she says.
‘What’s it about?’
‘A tree that turns into a woman.’
‘Just like Bo said,’ Solomon says sarcastically, studying it. ‘Your connection to the world.’
She laughs.
He looks at the cover. Rooted. ‘What’s it about?’
‘There’s a tree in a park. A busy city park. It’s hundreds of years old and it watches people every day. Children playing with a ball, mothers walking their babies in prams, people jogging, couples arguing. Life. As time goes by, the more she absorbs the life around her, the more human the tree becomes. Her bark turns into skin, her leaves to hair, her branches to arms. She shrinks. Until one day she is no longer a tree, she’s a beautiful young woman. She uproots her feet from the soil and she walks out of the park.’
‘Interesting,’ Solomon says, flicking through the pages.
‘You can read it, if you like,’ she offers it to him.
‘Does she walk out of the park naked?’ he asks. ‘Nudity is a must in a book with pictures.’
‘That’s
