Pasi Jääskeläinen - Secret Passages in a Hillside Town

The order to meet Greta Kara “by accident” on the Harju Steps came from the Blomroos siblings. The three of them got carried away and each one sent their own separate message.

Richard Blomroos wrote:

Hey there, Olli. How are you? Good, I hope, even if your family is away at the moment “on holiday”, if you don’t mind the expression. I’m sorry about that. But I’m even more sorry about what we did to Greta thirty years ago. Of course, we were just stupid kids, but that doesn’t absolve us of responsibility. We’ve thought a lot about what happened. We want to make it up to Greta, and to you. We took something important away from both of you.

Leo Blomroos’s message said:

Olli my friend, what happened to Greta late one summer is unforgivable. I wish I could blame Anne, who put us up to it. Or Richard, who never needed much encouragement to pull a prank, not even when he was older. (He’s been to jail a couple of times, thanks to his poor judgement.) But as the leader of the Tourula Five, I’m the one who’s ultimately responsible for everyone and everything, so I blame myself. I could have easily stopped them, but I didn’t. That makes me the guiltiest of all. I’ll be sorry for it for the rest of my days. I want to say that I’ll never do anything like that again, but unfortunately I don’t see any alternative right now, in spite of what my sense and my conscience tell me, but to go along with this thing, which I’m sure is causing you a great deal of stress. But it is an attempt of sorts to expiate our sins against that which we have broken. That means something, doesn’t it? I hope you understand, my friend, but I realize that you probably hate all of us right now.

The actual instructions, however, came from Anne, which didn’t surprise Olli:

Hi Olli, dear old friend (take my word for it, I think of you often with fondness and nostalgia, although I’m sure you prefer not to think about me)—I know of course that this is all probably rather tough for you, but I hope that you’re not too broken up to do what you have to do.

As you know, thirty years ago my brothers and I did a terrible thing. A criminal, traitorous, senseless thing for which there is no defence, not even the stupidity of youth or the jealousy that drove a young girl to desperate acts. Ever since then it has followed all of us, as it no doubt has our victim, Greta. There comes a time when such things must be settled, accounts balanced, sins atoned for. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it can’t be put off any longer.

Olli darling, I’m so awfully sorry but now I have to boss you around. Tomorrow afternoon you must go to the top of the Harju Steps. Start walking down the steps at exactly one o’clock. You will meet Greta on the steps, quite by accident. Your mission is to buy her an ice cream and make her look forward to your next meeting.

Do not say anything about this message or mention me or my brothers. She doesn’t want to hear anything about us. We did, after all, destroy her thirty years ago, in more ways than one. And don’t say anything about your family being gone—there’s no point in shocking her with such news. Make sure that she wants to see you again. You will receive further instructions later. And Olli, we will be aware of everything you do, so buddy, don’t do anything rash if you don’t want anybody to be hurt more than they already have been. That would break my heart.

You may be asking why Aino and your son have to be mixed up in this. We removed them specifically to protect them and to keep innocent bystanders out of this little opera of ours, which only pertains to those involved. For logistical reasons we first took the boy from your front yard, then invited your wife to where he was a little later on. You can rest assured that they will be treated well. You have my word on it. They are in fact quite comfy. I haven’t the slightest desire to add to the weight of my sins—quite the contrary, if you do your part in this atonement project of ours, the whole affair will come to seem a great, exciting adventure to your family, travelling to the world’s most pleasant and exotic locales! (Is it true, Olli, that your wife has never been any farther than Sweden? That situation has now been remedied!)

Of course, we also want to make it easier to do what needs to be done—if you don’t want to do this for yourself and for Greta, do it for your family. Think of it however you like. But forget about moral considerations—you simply have no choice but to follow the script we’ve written for you. You and Greta had a beautiful love story; we understand that now. It’s time your story had a beautiful ending.

THE BLOMROOSES’ LETTERS made Olli sick. After he read them the first time he went and threw up, then he had diarrhoea. When he came back to the computer he almost deleted them. But then he printed them all, in two copies. He might need them later as evidence.

Olli sits on the bench, mulling over the encounter he’s just had. His first mission.

It’s still just as confusing, but at least he knows now what it’s all about. And he’s started to do something about it. It beats being in the dark, unable to act.

It is some consolation that as long as he follows the Blomrooses’ “script”, nothing bad will happen to Aino and the boy. The script is a good thing, ultimately, so he ought to stick to it. Because it has the plot twist that once Olli fulfils his role and helps the Blomrooses atone for their deeds, he’ll get his family back and everything will go back to the way it was. The End .

Olli walks over to the steps and climbs back up to the top of the Ridge. The steps have been here for eighty years. At first he thinks about his feet, and then about everyone who has, like him, walked these steps, or will walk these steps in the decades to come. Or maybe centuries—where are stone steps like these going to go, even in a town that eats its own history?

The person he’s known as—Olli Suominen, publisher and member of the parish council—is just one of innumerable people who will at some point in their lives find themselves trudging up the Harju Steps. Every one of them will carry with them dreams, worries, problems, plans, memories and sins that they think unique, meaningful, enduring. Every one will cling to life and be scared to death of change, which nevertheless must come to everyone, as sure as death.

The city at the bottom of the steps is changing all the time. The days, the seasons, the generations in succession. Only the Ridge and the steps remain the same.

According to The Magical City Guide , a cinematic life is best achieved at places like the Harju Steps:

In such places, the temporary phenomenon known as human life is put into perspective by time and by large physical elements, just as it is by the ocean, or a mountain. Paradoxically, the transience and fundamental meaninglessness of human life when seen juxtaposed with phenomena that reflect eternity can be the necessary starting point for cinematic meaning fulness.

Olli is struck with a fit of fatalism that makes him calmly smile. It’s pointless to brood on it. Like everyone else who walks these steps, he has to accept his fate. No matter what happens, in the end no one will remember or care whether this strange episode had a sad or a happy ending. Until then, he’ll play his role as well as he knows how, and then he’ll either get his family back, or lose everything.

The thought feels cinematically liberating. He even feels a little spurt of joy as his body adjusts itself to better withstand the ordeal. When he gets home, he walks out to the recycling bin and tosses in Ageing with Dignity , with its warnings about endorphin and adrenalin addictions dangerous to the middle-aged: