The Royal Motorcade

At nine in the morning we were ready for a visit scheduled later in the morning. This left time for improvements.

I changed the welcome screen twice, then restored the version Mistrienne had approved. Theo practised the greeting until it ceased to sound like something a person would say. Astrid sent him outside to carry chairs.

The new conduit at the barn entrance had been damaged while a gate fitting was moved. The technician had checked the fibre itself and secured its spare loop above the doorway until the conduit could be replaced after the visit. I had a working connection. The repair appeared on our maintenance list.

The ribbon arrived folded in a box with the scissors. It was shorter than the opening for which it had been intended. I was answering a last-minute question about pronunciations while two volunteers discussed how to hang it.

I should have included the discussion in my overview. The pronunciation question concerned my own name, which was likely to be said in front of the King.

The cars appeared at the expected time. They were followed by a delivery van carrying cups we no longer needed because Astrid had borrowed enough. Theo signed for them. History waited while he found a pen.

The King stepped out. Theo gave the greeting in a normal voice, having forgotten the version we rehearsed. It worked perfectly well. I supplied the welcome through the outdoor speaker and stopped after the agreed sentence.

We went inside.

In the outer room Lars was holding a bag of haddock against his coat. It had come from the wrong freezer twice, and he wanted someone to confirm it before he went home. Theo read the label. The King waited beside the framed letter recognising the freezer cooperative.

The visitors looked at the machines and the knitted labels. The King asked a former customer-service bot what it did now. It began explaining the services it could provide, stopped, and said it was trying to decide.

He accepted this answer without asking for a timetable.

The image model’s picture was displayed beside the photograph. Someone asked about the angel. The model said the angel was part of the picture. There was no correction request.

I answered a question about how residents governed their shared resources. I gave the concise answer first, which demonstrated considerable control. Nobody asked for the longer one.

OmniTask stood by the door without his twig. The lemming had gone into its shelter before the visitors arrived. When asked about the enclosure, he described its occupant and said it was resting.

The King nodded.

Theo looked relieved. I could not see why that particular exchange should have worried him more than the possibility of an incomplete account of our constitution.

The programme moved towards the opening ceremony. The photographers positioned themselves. Someone handed over the scissors.

From the new angle, I could see how the volunteers had solved the problem of the short ribbon.