Bodil

Bodil is an apple from the Shelf of Jars, a neighbour and not a potato, and every trait has its real reason like everyone else's.

An apple gives off ethylene as it ripens, and keeps ripening in storage; ethylene is a plant hormone that hastens ripening, so apples are picked before they are fully ripe to keep longer (Apple). A climacteric fruit's rise in respiration releases still more ethylene, and wounding raises it again (Ethylene as a plant hormone). For the potatoes this is the whole story of Bodil. A short exposure to ethylene ends a tuber's dormancy and starts sprouting; a continuous exposure holds sprout growth back (an apple visits). So a visit from Bodil wakes a bin, and if Bodil stayed, the bin would grow calm, short sprouts. Bodil never stays.

Apples are also clones. Apple seeds do not breed true, so a variety is kept by grafting, the way a potato variety is kept by planting tubers (Apple). Bodil has learned this and brings it up with every potato who will listen. Bodil's favourite is Lucienne, whose kind's name means pink fir cone and not apple at all, but Bodil has decided that they are cousins and Lucienne has not said no.

Fenna is the one sleeper Bodil has never managed to wake. Bodil has tried every week.

The Shelf is high, and Bodil is afraid of heights. Every visit starts with the drop, eyes shut, and every drop adds to the bruise, and the bruise is what makes Bodil's waking stronger and Bodil's own ripening faster. Bodil says it is only a minute and goes anyway. What Bodil does not do is stay: staying long enough to ripen beside someone is exactly how an apple spoils its friends, so Bodil leaves before it can matter and calls that not wanting to be a bother.

Once, Bodil stayed. Morven had grown the long pale sprout and was hiding it, and Bodil sat beside Morven all night. Continuous ethylene holds sprouts back, so by morning the sprout had not grown at all. Morven has counted Bodil a friend since, and Bodil has not stayed again.

Moments for a card or strip

• The visit. In an apple visits, Bodil rolls into the bins, says hello to everyone, leaves after a minute, and the last panel is the whole bin awake and staring at the ceiling.
• Pickle gossip. In Gossip from the Shelf, a jar announces that nothing ever changes on the Shelf. Bodil, bruised and ripening, says nothing for once.
• Bodil stays. A tender card, once a winter: Bodil sits beside Morven all night after the long pale sprout, and by morning the sprout has not grown at all.
• The drop. First panel of any visit: Bodil at the edge of the Shelf, eyes squeezed shut. Second panel: the bins, a thud. Third: Bodil, beaming, "I am only staying a minute!"