Pull down the sleeves of your jersey because the wasps on Beckasin road stings…
The Beckasin road is a road between real life and everything else that is not said to be normal. It begins at the corner of a park and ends at the establishment of a retirement home. The houses on Beckasin road are simple and made of red brick. It looks a bit like if children have put them together. Squared gardens, juniper berries and boxwood hedges.
One of the houses has bubbly windows and from the street you can see straight into the kitchen. The front door has a small glass where someone carefully has hung neat little curtains. If you walk around the house you will be astonished. On the other side of this simple construction of a living you step into a lovely garden. A garden that is so well taken care of that even the paths of the ants are raked and swept.
This is Elfvie’s house. Elfvie is a gardener and will soon be very old. She is also a banker and hides her life savings in various pots and jars in the pantry. Sitting in front of the television she makes troll bodies by putting assorted stones together with glue. The trolls get hair from horses and eyes that rolls and sways. With brush and paint she gives them some fine clothing. It happens that trolls disappear. Then Elfvie just sits down and makes another one.
The door handle to Elfvies house is heavy and tough. A crocheted curtain separates the anteroom and the hall. If you’d like you can put your fingers in the handmade loops while waiting for a “welcome”. It smells like old cloth and curly dog. The first time I stood there waiting with my fingers captured in the net I did not know how I was related to this person. A person whose wardrobe is bursting of flowery long-sleeved dresses and whose memories are collected in a wooden frame on the wall.
The hallway is dark. The walls are papered with some fuzzy fabric in forest green. In front of the frame with the memories hang a mirror with two crystal lamps on either side. Beneath the mirror stands a small table and a stool with curvy legs. Do not be frightened when you come out from the bathroom. It is just your own reflection made by the mirror you’ll see. From the hallway you can reach all parts of the house. The kitchen is to the right, the bedroom to the left and the living room with an indoor porch is straight ahead. From the porch you should be able to see every corner of Elfvie´s garden.
First time you enter this room you will not pay notice of the garden outside. Instead you will sweep your eyes over all the flowerpots flocking the windowsill. Old perennials and other wintering plants stand on line for another chance to life. Later on you will learn all their names. I do not mean their plant names, but their first names. We will get back to this room next time a troll disappears. Once you have been let in to number 20 Beckasin road the porch door is the only way out.
