Pasi Jääskeläinen - Secret Passages in a Hillside Town

Olli grabs Karri’s hand and looks hard at him. “Antidote?”

Karri avoids looking him in the eye and pulls his hand away. “Yes. The shots you’ve been giving her are real compounds that weaken the nervous system and slow the functions of internal organs, until they eventually nearly cease.” He adds, almost in passing, “When the antidote has revived her system, Greta will be gone and I’ll carry on from there.”

Olli stares at him.

Karri draws himself up and continues brightly, “I’m sure you and I will see each other again, in two weeks’ time, at Greta Kara’s funeral in the old Jyväskylä cemetery. We can think of it as a sort of epilogue. I’ll look different then. I was thinking I would cut my hair and dye it black.”

“But I love Greta,” Olli murmurs.

“And Greta loves you,” Karri says, his eyes glowing. “That’s what she was created for. She loves you with more passion than you could possibly imagine. And over these past few weeks, with the shadow of separation looming, you have loved her so strongly that it was enough to make her happy. But in a year, or two at most, your feelings would inevitably start to fade, while her love would burn just as strongly as before… It would kill her spirit.”

The resolute, passionate note in Karri’s voice reminds Olli of the final scene in Casablanca , when Humphrey Bogart convinces Ingrid Bergman to give up their love and get on the plane with her husband.

Karri is silent for a moment, then says, “You must understand now why everything has to happen according to the script.”

Olli tries to think.

They look at each other. Karri is waiting for his approval.

Olli stubs out his cigarette and shakes his head.

Karri looks confused.

Olli has had enough of this unwelcome presence. He gets up, takes a breath, grabs the golden-haired creature and drags him to the piano. Karri resists, but Olli is stronger. “Play,” he growls, his hands pressed on slender shoulders.

Karri looks up at him angrily from under yellow curls. “Don’t be a fool, Olli. We still have things to talk about. I haven’t told you everything. We should let Greta sleep while we prepare for her last, great scene.”

Olli wraps his fingers around the slender neck, presses his thumbs against the vertebrae and squeezes. “Play Chopin for me,” he whispers. “Or else this whole thing will be over right now, and there won’t be anybody getting up when the credits roll.”

Karri starts striking the keys with a mocking grin, making no attempt at music.

Olli tightens his grip.

The lovely face reddens, the breath wheezing. Karri tries harder now.

With tears in his eyes, Olli squeezes still tighter.

“Play.”

Gradually the tinkling begins to sound like music. At first there are just a few notes that sound right. Then a few stuttering passages of notes.

When the room finally fills with one of Greta’s favourite nocturnes, Olli loosens his hold and lets his hands rest on her shoulders.

“How did I get here?” Greta says, hoarse and sputtering—but continuing to play.

“The main thing is that you are here,” Olli says, kissing her neck and picking up the telephone. “Please keep playing. More than anything right now, I want to hear Chopin. I’m going to call Dr Oksanen. He has to come over right away. Darling, I think he may be able to cure you after all.”

THE WINDOWS BRIGHTEN. They wake at the same time, lightly make love and lie for a long time under the covers, holding each other.

Olli’s hand is on Greta’s left breast. His index finger is laid across her nipple, his thumb gently pressing the side of her breast. He feels a scar stretching under his hand and thinks that it’s there because of him. The thought floods him with an overwhelming tenderness.

His face is pressed against Greta’s neck. He breathes through her golden hair and seems to smell the scent of a warm hillside. It fills the room and carries him back to a meadow where they had a picnic a few days after they lay together in Wivi Lönn’s house for the first time. Autumn was postponed for a day and summer blazed up one last time before the coming winter.

They sat in the tall grass to eat, and ended up having sex. It was more ritual than unbridled passion. Without a word, Greta put her half-eaten tomato sandwich back in the basket, unzipped Olli’s trousers, took her panties off under her dress and sat on his lap.

As they merged, the M-particles sang to them from deep in the earth, and for one moment Olli sensed all the secret passages in Jyväskylä, their locations, their routes, as if he were viewing a map drawn on his soul.

Naturally, their meadow is mentioned in the Magical City Guide . Olli wonders if a lot of people will go there now that the book is available and the first printing is virtually sold out. Maiju at the office has told him that next summer the Jyväskylä tourist office is planning to sell guided tours to all the magical places where his love for Greta Kara was reborn.

The thought of it makes Olli sad, although it is good news for the business.

Greta sits up in bed, stretches, glows for him, wraps her arms around his neck and gives him a kiss. Then she turns on her computer and updates her Facebook status.

Greta Kara is completely happy today!

Two days earlier, Greta experienced a miraculous recovery from the neurological disease that had been pronounced terminal.

When Olli called Dr Oksanen and told him that Greta was lying in bed, not breathing, the chemist hurried over to perform the deathbed scene and help Karri rise from the dead.

The moment he walked in the door, the doctor discovered that there had been a last-minute rewrite.

Olli forced him to inject Greta with the antidote and declare that the patient would have a complete recovery. “My dear Mr Suominen, I don’t know what to say,” he mumbled as Olli shoved him out through the Apple Gate onto the rainy street.

Olli had no intention of telling Greta about Karri’s plans. If Karri came back to haunt Greta’s body, Olli was ready to do whatever the situation demanded.

Now that Greta was well again, Olli could consider what to do about his wife and son.

He felt that he had completed the task that Anne Blomroos had given him, and before the first snow, too. Karri could say what he liked, but Greta had said—on her Facebook status, no less—that she was completely happy. It was official.

That night Olli tiptoed downstairs to the computer and opened Aino’s Facebook profile. The status was a relief. But it also meant that he had a lot of explaining to do to his family.

Aino Suominen and son are on their way home.

The Blomrooses’ Facebook profiles had disappeared from Olli’s friends list. He pondered this for a while and decided that it meant he had seen the matter to its conclusion, and there was no need to continue their connection.

He also checked to make sure there were no new posts on Karri’s profile.

When he went back to the bedroom, he noticed light peeping out from Greta’s laptop. It had been left open a crack.

Greta was asleep, so he pushed the computer closed and crawled into bed.

It’s Sunday, so although Olli has to stop in at Book Tower to take care of some marketing plans for the Magical City Guide, he and Greta have the rest of the day to themselves. Greta’s legs are still a little stiff, and the weather is cold. But she announces that she wants to go out and walk hand in hand through the city.

Olli is glad.

They eat breakfast. Afterwards Olli smokes a cigarette and stares out the bay window. Greta plays Chopin. Waltz no. 7.

She gets up, comes to stand behind him, and wraps her arms around him.