—Paul-Eerik RummoMay 30, 1950 Free Estonia! Liide quit her job—the one where she went around tormenting people with fees and quotas. She wouldn’t tell me why. Maybe what I said sank in. When I said a job like that was nothing but working for monsters. Or maybe somebody gave her a drubbing. I know somebody once let the air out of her bike tires. She brought the bike into the barn and asked me to replace them, but I refused to do it. I told her to let some tool do her dirty work for her, somebody who was already a slave to this government. So Martin fixed them that evening. When Liide told me she’d quit her job, her eyes were shining, like she expected me to thank her. I thought about spitting on her, but I just gave Pelmi a scratch. I know her tricks. Then all of a sudden she wanted to know if I had met anyone I knew when I was in the woods. I didn’t answer her. She also wanted to know what it was like in the woods. And what it was like in Finland, and why I went there. I didn’t answer.
