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51 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
51 lines
2.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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lastmod: "2021-09-12T22:47:44.0000000+01:00"
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author: patrick
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categories:
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- creative
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- fiction
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comments: true
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date: "2016-08-07T00:00:00Z"
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aliases:
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- /a-free-market/
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title: A Free Market
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summary: The story of Martin's search for a kaki fruit.
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---
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Martin was walking through the farmers' market.
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He had scored off nearly everything on his shopping list, but one item stubbornly remained:
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he needed some kaki fruit for a new sorbet recipe he wanted to try out.
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High and low he searched,
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weaving in and out of the stalls,
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but his mission proved… well, let us say that it was not successful.
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Finally, he thought to give up and place his problem into better hands than his own.
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He forged towards the market's finest attraction,
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the Personal Shopper ("Guaranteed to find your stuff!").
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Her name was Posy,
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and she had been a fixture here for the last twenty years:
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that was when she first noticed the curious way that no-one could ever find quite what they wanted at the weirdly inefficient market.
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Posy was uncannily good at navigating the cobbled rows between the stalls,
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and had an unerring eye for picking out exactly what the customer required.
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Martin poured out his problems.
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"Please! I need your help to find a kaki fruit. The recipe will be ruined without it."
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Posy smiled, assumed a look of determination, and forged off,
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leaving Martin to scurry behind her as she ducked first left,
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then left again, then (for some reason) a third and a fourth time.
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After what had to be the eighth or ninth left turn through the higgledy-piggledy stalls,
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with Martin hopelessly lost,
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she stopped in front of a little tent whose sign read
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"Children educated and tutored in etiquette: inquire within".
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She raised the entrance flap, and an elderly lady emerged.
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Angry, baffled and confused, Martin raised his voice,
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ignoring the proper-and-prim-looking lady from the tent.
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"Why haven't you found me a kaki fruit?
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I thought you knew this market like the back of your hand!"
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"Haven't you heard?" said Posy incredulously.
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"It's better to ask for a governess than seek persimmons."
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