A blueberry pie smelled wonderfully on the table. The first piece would have nearly vanished into my gut if it had not been for the heart-breaking exclamation from the kitchen: "We are out of maple syrup!" I did not quite understand why the pie is inedible without this sweet sticky fluid; however, I would have hated to talk back to my host. Therefore, we had no choice but to get in the car and go shopping.
Lynn, one of whose secret wishes it was to once again put on the pink dress that she wore at the ball twenty years ago, had decided to fight the phenomenon of obesity on her own. She started an organisation defending the rights of overweight people. Given that activities of this kind, as well as striking or participation in a protest meeting, are an unknown area for me so far, I was happy to learn along the way. The road ran along a beautiful forest. I did not manage to hide my strong desire for an excursion into the nature. Lynn, anticipating my mischievous intention, pushed the accelerator to the floor just to be sure and said something about the dangerous fauna. I had another sinful idea: "Why don’t we at least walk around the city a bit?" I was hoping that the French expression "se promener" would work (this was my fourth day in Quebec but the only walk I had taken by then was the trip from the refrigerator to bed and back). My efforts, however, had no effect. Unlike me, Lynn could quite well imagine the stroll even from the interior of the comfortably air conditioned car. She even succeeded at an escapade. We "pretended" not to notice the no traffic sign.
So, all diplomatic attempts to get our motor system to move failed. I suppressed my shyness to demand anything that has been instilled in me since my childhood. "I really need to take a walk, I mean on my own feet, something like hiking," I tried to explain. Lynn looked at me like a goldfish whom I am asking for my fourth wish and she called somewhere from the car. "Let's go to Jane!" she commanded. According to her mysterious smile, I figured that her friend would be at least a former aerobics instructor. My hopes were soon gone. The nice corpulent lady gave me her small garden for my energetic discharge. I stared in disbelief at the paddock of 150 square metres containing a pool, a gazebo, two apple trees and a bed of dahlias. I sat down in the first plastic garden chair that I came across heart-broken and I let them serve me blueberry pie. In my head, I was entertaining the idea of how to start an organisation to mentally support people affected by the need to move around on foot.
Fortunately, we got a bottle of maple syrup to take with us. The idea that we would still have to "go" to the store today scared me.
