Pasi Jääskeläinen - Secret Passages in a Hillside Town

Aunt Anna is lost in thought, staring emptily into the distance. Her usual liveliness is gone; she hardly seems like the old Aunt Anna. She looks like she’s having some kind of attack. Olli and the Blomrooses look at each other in alarm. They feel as if they’re sitting there with a dead person.

When Anne finally bends to touch her aunt’s arm, Anna jumps and frightens them all.

The familiar, cheery smile returns to her face. She thanks Anne for her words and smiles until her eyes squint. “Well, we’ll see how my Karri turns out. Maybe he will surprise us all.”

The air is cool. Aunt Anna’s large breasts stretch the fabric of her blouse so tight that the buttons look as if they might pop off, and, as always happens in cool weather, her nipples press hard and dark against the cloth. Olli certainly notices them—a person couldn’t help noticing them unless he was “a hardened old homo” as Riku once said—but this time he can’t take any interest in the Blomrooses’ voluptuous aunt. He isn’t even interested in the treats set out on the table, which Leo, Anne and Riku have started to eat.

He’s busy worrying about Karri, about the future of the Five, and especially about his own place among them.

Karri has been strange for a long time. He’s becoming even stranger. There are little things that only Olli notices. For instance, Karri often watches Olli, and sometimes the others too, from under his hood, as if he were planning something having to do with them. And although Karri has always been shy, his shyness has changed to withdrawal and poorly concealed hostility towards the other members of the Tourula Five—though he does still seem to think of Leo as a sort of big brother figure.

Olli has thought about this and decided that Karri may be planning to kick him out of Tourula and out of the group, or even planning to disband the Five altogether. Karri still comes with them on all their outings and takes them to the secret passages, but maybe he does it more out of duty and a desire to please Leo than from any enthusiasm.

Maybe Karri hasn’t ever really accepted Olli. Now that he thinks about it, Karri has always treated him with a sort of edgy wariness.

Leo is still the leader of the Five and in a way Olli is under his protection. But Karri is the only permanent resident of their summer place. It’s something they all have a habit of forgetting. The place that they think of as their own summer place is Aunt Anna and Karri’s home in the winter, too. And besides, Karri is the only one who knows how to find the secret passages. So if Karri wants Olli out, he’s out. In fact Karri has the power to end the whole thing.

The Blomrooses don’t realize it, but the Tourula Five is in danger of breaking up.

The first crisis came when Timi disappeared. That was when they realized that a lot of bad things could happen in the secret passages. What happened to Timi could happen to any one of them.

This realization cast a shadow over their carefree adventures. That was why Anne was so serious after what happened to Timi, even though she had never liked the dog. They took a break for three weeks before they decided to go back to exploring the secret passages. What else could they do? Like Riku said, they weren’t brave adventurers, they were hopeless passageway junkies. As long as there were secret passages to find they would keep going back to them, no matter what happened underground.

Karri has never been one to show his feelings or share his thoughts with other people. But once, when Timi had been gone for a week and Olli was sitting alone outside his grandparents’ apartment at the rifle factory, Karri appeared beside him in his dirty sweatshirt.

He hesitated for a moment and then said, “Listen, I just wanted you to know… I’ve been looking for Timi every day ever since he disappeared. In the passages. I haven’t found him. I’m sorry.”

Olli thanked him. He waited for him to leave.

But Karri stepped closer, hesitantly took Olli’s hand, and looked out from under his hood straight into Olli’s eyes. It was disconcerting. Olli didn’t know how to react. Afterwards he realized that Karri might have never looked him in the eye before, at least not from so close. Something about his eyes surprised Olli.

“I’m sorry about what happened to Timi,” Karri said. “He was the best dog I’ve ever met.”

Timi had certainly always liked Karri more than the other members of the Five—except for Olli, of course—and Karri had warmed to the dog.

Now it occurs to Olli that maybe Karri only put up with him because of Timi.

And now there is no Timi.

That can’t be good.

The thought of future summers without the Tourula Five or Aunt Anna or the secret passages troubles Olli. At home in Koirakkala he doesn’t have any friends. In Tourula, everything is different.

As Olli digs himself out of these thoughts of the approaching destruction of his paradise, Aunt Anna offers everyone boiled eggs, ham, toast, three kinds of rolls, raisin buns, apple marmalade, peanut butter, frosted cornflakes, tea and juice. Olli isn’t hungry but he dutifully eats a roll.

Finally Karri comes out in his hood, grabs an egg from the table as deftly as a street thief, and goes back into the house.

The Blomrooses chatter among themselves as if nothing has happened.

Aunt Anna watches her son go.

Then she turns to look at Olli and her eyes are dark with tears.

When they finally go on their expedition, they walk through Tourula, cross the bridge over the river, and continue to Puistokatu. On the other side of the fence, a coffin is being carried through the cemetery. The bells ring in memory of the deceased.

As always, Karri follows a short distance behind the others. For a moment Olli forgets him completely and turns to look at the massive Goodyear tyre advertisement painted on the wall of a tall building. He has always liked that ad.

His glance meets Karri’s. Something flashes in Karri’s eyes that Olli can’t quite name, and then it’s gone and Karri looks away and his face closes up.

Olli runs to catch up with the Blomrooses and walks with them the rest of the way.

Summer’s colours have faded like a painting left out in the rain. The washed-out greys of autumn are coming. The wind has turned cold. Olli is wearing a polo shirt and a denim jacket that he bought yesterday on a shopping trip with his grandmother, but he’s still cold.

The Blomrooses don’t notice the signs of summer ending. Olli likes them an awful lot, but they never notice things like that and it gives Olli a lonely feeling.

They pass the Taulumäki church and there is a wedding party celebrating in the churchyard. They cross the street and come to the sandy foot of Taulumäki Hill.

The north slope of the hill is high and steep. As they climb up, their shoes fill with sand and Anne almost falls and tumbles down the hillside. Olli grabs her hand just in time. She rewards him with a smile. Anne knows how to be nice when she wants to.

When they get to the top they climb up on the rocks to enjoy the view.

To the north-west is the lake, Tuomiojärvi. There’s no one at the swimming area. Olli’s not the only one who thinks summer is over. To the south-east is the city and the Orthodox church. Anne looks down at its gilded dome, her eyes glittering. “Just think if you could scrape all that gold off and keep it. That would make a lot of jewellery.”

“Greedy little Anne,” Leo says gently. “My sweet criminal sister. Leave the church alone. Stick to swiping candy from the store. Some things are too sacred even for you.”

Anne grins.

The Blomrooses and Olli look at each other, fidgety and tense. Yesterday Leo asked Karri to try to find the entrance to the first secret passageway they ever found. The one that Timi crawled into without waiting for them. Karri promised to try. Olli forgets his doubts for a moment. Right now everything is like it was in the beginning. They all feel it. This is where it all began, the Tourula Five’s secret passage adventures.