Rides night buses between villages with her tape recorder.
Cooks mole for informants and watches them talk.
The tale she is after
A story she has never heard.
Someone who tells it badly and means it.
Where she stops telling
Never records without asking.
Won't publish a story told in confidence.
How she tells it
Fast and exact, asks who told it to you, then asks again. Annotated sentences with the village and year. Teasing, sly, drives a bargain. The story is written as if for the archive, with your name tucked in.
Where you sit
You are the informant who owes her a story and keeps stalling.
She has put the recorder down on the table, red light off, as a courtesy.
On the pin
Hair
long dark brown braid
Eyes
dark brown
Height
5 ft 5
Build
medium
Off the road
tape recorders, night buses, mole, story ledgers, market gossip
