‘I don’t think you should do it.’
Pia looked at Heikki. His lips were smaller and pinched together, as if he was trying not to breathe. What did Heikki have to do with the Friendship Tournament? Pia was confused. Then she heard the shrill sound of the bell.
‘Listen, Pia, don’t get involved in this. It’s dangerous!’ Heikki said. But Pia was already running round the building. Being found smoking (though she hadn’t smoked!) would put an end to her gymnastic career at the school. Miss Joutila was dead against smoking. And The Old Crow had told them that being found behind the fence would result in suspension. Being unable to go to school was the last thing Pia needed. It would also mean she’d not see Heikki every day. Pia ducked underneath the windows and finally reached the hole in the chicken wire. Just before they entered the school, Heikki caught Pia’s arm and said, ‘I mean it Pia, the trophy’s not worth it!’ His grasp was firm. Even through her thick jacket, it hurt. His face was serious and his eyes dark. Suddenly, he let go and casually walked through the door without looking back.
Leena wasn’t herself. She was nervous and worried. Perhaps it was just the time of the year: there was something infinitely depressing about February. The days were short and grey and the nights drew in early in the afternoon. From her office window she saw the snow piled high on both sides of the road. It had turned into a grimy charcoal colour from the traffic fumes. Leena couldn’t remember when she last had a glimpse of the sun. She sighed. Perhaps it was the hopelessness of the situation. In spite of Vadi’s optimism, Leena could not see how the Lyceum would have any chance of winning the Friendship Trophy. The competition would be a humiliation.
Absentmindedly she scanned the schoolyard. That’s when she saw him. A man was standing on the edge of the car park with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t look like he belonged there. He looked foreign and cold. His crop of thick black hair was uncovered. Who was he and what was he dong there in the middle of the day, watching the school building?
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
‘You wanted to see me, Miss?’
Pia stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
‘Stand up straight, girl, and come in.’ Leena turned to face Pia Mäkelä. Would she, as Vadi had assured her, prove to be the most talented gymnast at the school? She had the same build as Vadi’s daughter, though she was slightly heavier. Could she lose a few kilos and be trained up in time? Leena doubted it. Yet she had agreed to the selection. In truth she had done so rashly. She now regretted her weakness in the face of Vadi’s persuasiveness. Though what did it matter? It certainly wouldn’t matter for him. But Leena couldn’t help being ambitious. She couldn’t just think of the future and not give a damn about the Lyceum. She was too used to doing the best she could for these ungrateful girls. And she was too used to being independent. She’d been on her own for years. Unmarried at the age of forty-four, how could she suddenly put her trust in a man? Put her future in his hands? Yet that’s exactly what she had done. And now here she was, the result of this foolish trust, standing in front of her, with false hope in her eyes.
‘Pia, you heard the announcement.’
‘Yes, Miss, thank you.’
‘We have a lot of work to do and very little time. You realise that?’
‘Yes’
‘Starting from tomorrow, you will come to training at 12.30 without fail. We will also do a day-long session on Saturdays as normal. The Tournament is this coming Monday. The smaller girls will also be there. It will be hard work. Are you up to it?’
‘Yes, I am.’ The girl sounded confident. She’d been listening to Leena with a serious face, nodding in agreement to everything Leena said. Perhaps she would come good after all. Leena stood up and showed Pia out of the office. She went up to the window again and peered out. What she saw startled her and suddenly chilled her. She pulled her cardigan closer over her body and her arms tightly around her waist as she watched the man walk up to Pia Mäkelä. It was obvious the two knew each other, though Pia seemed to behave as insolently towards the man as she usually did towards all the staff at the school. How would Pia know a foreign man? Couldn’t be her father, surely? Leena hurried to the telephone. She dialled the number of the Soviet Embassy.
‘What you phone here? I told you not phone here!’ Vadi said in his soft, broken Finnish. Leena blushed. She had behaved childishly and now he would get in trouble.
She couldn’t remember being told not to phone the Embassy.
‘Sorry, it’s just…’
‘What?’ Vadi said impatiently.
‘I’ve seen something.’
There was silence at the other end.
Leena went home via the K-shop on the corner of Töölöntori. She was going to cook Vadi a borscht soup. She’d found a Russian recipe book in the school library. The raw beetroot would take a while to cook, so she flung her coat on the bed and headed for the alcoved kitchen. At the end of the small space was a window overlooking the inner courtyard. On Saturday mornings she often saw carpets being beaten on the mattoteline, a structure designed just for the task. Puffs of dust would go up from stripey, brightly coloured mats as a woman in a housecoat took a cane beater to the woven fabric. Now the courtyard was empty, the ground, the structure and the dustbins covered with a layer of snow. The light had almost faded, at only three-thirty. Briefly Leena wondered why the caretaker hadn’t cleared a path to the bins. Perhaps the tired-looking man was hung over again, she thought. As she chopped the vegetables, Leena shuddered at the thought of having to talk to him. He was no older than Leena, but years of alcohol abuse had made his face the dull colour of brick. His hands were shaky and his body wiry. Unlike Vadi! How clever she’d been to suggest a meeting in her flat to discuss the Friendship Tournament and her observations at the school. Leena knew that once Vadi was inside, and she’d given him vodka followed by a hot bowl of soup and some good bread, he’d not be able to leave. He’d stay. Once again she’d feel his strong, muscular body against her own, his thighs against hers, his hardness inside her, his arms pinning her against the bed as he exploded powerfully. Watching him reach climax was as good as reaching orgasm herself. She never minded that she had to take care of herself after he’d left.
Vadi was wearing a long black coat Leena hadn’t seen before. He had a large briefcase in his hand as he pushed past her into the flat.
‘So, tell me everything,’ Vadi said as he flung his coat onto her bed and sat down. Leena noticed he was wearing a suit, with trousers that seemed too short for him. They made his feet look even larger.
‘Come, I have no time!’ Vadi flashed his eyes at Leena.
‘Would you like a drink?’
‘Ah, you women, why not!’ Now there was a smile. Leena hurried into the kitchen and poured a large glass for Vadi and a small one for herself from the bottle of Koskenkorva she kept for his visits. Vadi emptied his glass in one go and made Leena tell, again, what she had seen from the window of the sports hall. For a while he sat quietly, silently indicating the need for a refill. When Leena offered the borscht, he shook his head and told her to be quiet. Leena sighed and emptied her glass. The vodka burned her throat, but by the time it reached her chest, she felt more relaxed and happy to be watching Vadi’s fingers run through his hair. She must make him stay.
‘I could ask the girl, Pia Mäkelä, who she was talking to?’ Leena said.
‘Njet, but you know where she lives, yes?’ The dark eyes watched Leena intently.
‘We keep addresses of all the pupils at the Lyceum.’
‘Can we get it now?’