Pasi Jääskeläinen - Secret Passages in a Hillside Town

Leo, Anne and Riku think they know where the entrance is. They each go in different directions.

“It’s over here, between these rocks,” Leo says.

“No, it’s over there under that juniper tree!” Riku announces. “I’m sure that’s where it is.”

“I think it’s somewhere over here,” Anne mumbles, peeping between some trees.

Karri goes his own way. Olli doesn’t even try to find the entrance. Karri’s the only one who can.

So Olli follows him, over roots, rocks and hollows, in the shadows of the trees, careful not to disturb or annoy him, and Karri doesn’t seem to mind. They look at each other and Karri even nods and gives him a friendly smile. At first Olli is puzzled and then happy—if there is something between them, it’s been put aside at least for a little while.

Maybe everything will work out after all.

As he relaxes, the memory of the first time the Five found a secret passageway begins to grow clear in his mind.

THE FIRST SUMMER OF THE FIVE they were just getting to know each other.

They spent their days playing board games, hide and seek, and spin the bottle, or reading Enid Blyton books aloud—which was a lot of fun, though rather tame compared to their later adventures.

They went into the secret passages the second summer.

They had spent the first two days of holiday lazing about, playing old maid, sprawled on the lawn, until Aunt Anna had had enough. She came out of the house with a picnic basket.

“Kids,” she said emphatically, “it’s summer. You’re on holiday. You’re children. This is no way to spend your childhood. It’s a waste. You would think you were as old as I am. Take this basket. Go on a picnic. Find a nice spot and stop hanging around here. There’s a great big city waiting out there for you. Enjoy it. You can play cards when you’re in the old folks’ home. Don’t come back here for the rest of the day.”

They looked at her in surprise. She looked exasperated. “Go on!” she yelled, frightening them. “Have adventures! Go get lost somewhere. But find your way home before dark…”

Timi had been hiding for hours. Now he smelt the food and appeared again, sniffing the basket.

The kids sniffed at the contents of the basket, too. They were amazed at the abundance of food, and thanked Aunt Anna. She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. Olli could smell perfume behind her ear. It smelt good. His mother never wore perfume.

After half an hour of consultation they decided to go to the burnt-out house. Olli had seen it from the car when his parents brought him to his grandparents’ house. His description of the blackened boards, the belongings that had been dumped in the yard and the broken windows piqued everyone’s interest.

Timi came with them. Olli’s mother had made him swear to keep the dog on a leash, but he decided to trust the dog and let him go loose. He wanted to please Anne, who said that they were all on holiday, which meant they were free, so why shouldn’t Timi be free, too? Freedom!

They wandered for a couple of hours, until everyone’s feet ached and Olli admitted that he might not be quite sure where the burnt-out house was. Maybe it was in a totally different part of town.

Anne and Riku gave him murderous looks.

Karri didn’t say anything, he just looked off into the distance, thinking his own thoughts.

Leo said that these things happen, and led them in the direction that looked right to him.

They ended up climbing a wooded hill, and found a swimming area on the other side. Later they learnt that the hill was called Taulumäki.

While the others sat down to enjoy their lunch, Karri explored the area. He paced about and said there was something peculiar about the place and that in some spots the feeling was particularly strong. He wanted to show it to them, couldn’t even be bothered to eat something first. Timi sensed it, too, or perhaps he just sensed Karri’s excitement. In any case he was jumping up and down around Karri and whining and barking, although Olli tried to order him to heel.

“That leaves more goodies for us,” Riku said.

“Don’t worry, Karri,” Anne said. “I’ll make sure we leave you some of everything.”

Olli felt a twinge of jealousy. He had just got his leg positioned so that it touched Anne’s pale leg. It was a hot day. Their legs were sweaty. Their sweat was intermingling. Olli didn’t know why, but there was something exciting about it.

He glanced at Anne. She noticed him looking at her and gave him a crooked smile that told him she knew what he was thinking, but for some reason she was allowing him to do what he was doing.

Olli closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth and the touch and the fact that he was a member of the legendary Tourula Five, then he went back to eating his peanut butter sandwich with such concentration that he didn’t even hear when Karri yelled to them or notice when the others got up and left.

A moment later, he became aware of noises in the undergrowth. Karri was explaining something excitedly. Timi was barking. Olli hurried to where the others were.

There was a dark hole in the ground. The Blomrooses and Karri were gathered around it. It wasn’t easy to see the hole among the grass and roots. It just looked like a dark indentation in the dirt. But when you looked more closely you could see that it was a hole that reached deep into the ground.

“Some animal’s burrow,” Riku muttered. “Is this why you called us over here?”

Leo thought they should go back to the picnic basket before the animal who lived here found it. Olli, Anne and Riku thought so, too.

“No,” Karri said, so firmly that they were startled. He was lying on his belly on the ground with his face in the hole. “This isn’t an animal’s den. This is something completely different.”

“How about we leave it alone, though,” Leo said in his conciliating yet authoritative way. “Look at Timi. He’s barking and staying away from it. There’s something in there with sharp teeth. A badger or something. Maybe a fox. And if you keep spying on it it’s going to bite your face off.”

Anne said, “Come away from there, Karri…”

Karri sighed, looked at Timi, who seemed to have gone off his rocker, and withdrew from the hole.

“Maybe you’re right.”

He stood up and shrugged.

Them Timi sprinted past him.

Before anyone knew what was happening, the dog had crawled into the hole and disappeared.

They waited forever. Or for sixteen minutes, as Riku said later on when they talked over what had happened. “I know because I looked at my watch,” he said. “It was still working then…”

They all squatted around the hole staring into the darkness, unable to speak, hardly even able to breathe. The sounds of the beach were from some other, happier world. A world where children didn’t lose their dogs in a hole in the ground.

The day was growing brighter and hotter.

Timi stayed under the ground.

When you put your hand in the hole you could feel the unchanging coolness of the earth.

The horrified spell over them eased. They started to speak again. Their voices were shocked, solemn. They each peeped into the hole in turn. They shouted threats and promises and persuasions to the dog. Now and then they thought they might have heard a noise.

But there was only dark, impenetrable silence.

Olli was trembling. If Timi couldn’t get back out, he would come to a cruel end underground. They couldn’t do a thing to help him. The thought of it tore him up. But it would have been crazy even to think of going in after him. He might get stuck and suffocate and die. The burrow might collapse.

Olli wished he had kept the dog on a leash, regardless of what Anne said.