White Hunger (Chance Encounter Series) by Aki Ollikainen

Author:Aki Ollikainen [Ollikainen, Aki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908670205
Publisher: Peirene Press
Published: 2015-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

The sky is the colour of a snake’s eye. The first star lights up and Marja feels the snake watching her and Juho. She looks back at the snake, eye to eye, but she cannot fool it.

At last, Hakmanni’s figure slowly comes into view on the snowy slope, bent and black. Marja hopes the man will banish the snake, but she realizes that Hakmanni is not up to it. The snake smiles.

Marja stands on the step. Hakmanni starts upon seeing her, wakes from his stupor and puts the key in the lock.

‘Is this where I left you, outside the door in the freezing cold? The vicar tells me to keep the door locked as a precaution. These days, there are all sorts of folk wandering about. I should have let you inside, where it’s warm. Although I don’t see what I’ve got that’s worth stealing. Bread, maybe, but then we must give to those in need, you can’t call it theft. You must be frozen stiff.’

Indoors, Marja sits down on the edge of the couch. Hakmanni shoves small pieces of wood into the stove. In the warmth, Juho falls asleep on his mother’s lap. Hakmanni wipes his hands on his coat-tails and disappears into another room. Marja lifts Juho on to the couch and goes to drink some water from a pot. Hakmanni returns with half a loaf and a crate not quite full of small potatoes, bitten black by frost.

‘I shouldn’t really give these to almshouse residents… Aren’t they small these days?’ Hakmanni lets out a mirthless laugh.

‘You can’t tell them apart from blueberries.’ Marja remembers the comparison.

‘They’re what I eat myself; there isn’t anything else, we’ve got to make do with what there is,’ Hakmanni mumbles apologetically.

‘That’s a lot – I can’t remember when I last saw a potato,’ Marja hastens to say.

Hakmanni sighs, as if with relief. He turns the crate this way and that, and watches the small, black marbles rolling from one side to the other.

‘They’re a little like these years. Black and modest… Though you can’t really call this time modest. It’s taking a heavy toll. Hardest hit are those who’ve already been given the least. The harvests are meagre; these are like the harvests these days, small and black…’

I’m glad he’s talking, at least, Marja thinks. Hakmanni’s words float in the small room like great snowflakes. They fall gently on Mataleena and Juhani, tenderly covering the memories of them, and Mataleena smiles under the veil of snow.

‘The child sleeps so blissfully. It’s a pity to wake him.’

The flakes vanish. Marja wakes up to the twilight of the room and looks at Hakmanni wonderingly. He has stopped moving the crate around and poured the potatoes into a small saucepan.

‘But he’s got be woken up to eat – I can’t let you take any food with you. Everyone is hungry in the outhouse, and hunger makes people desperate. I’ve seen bread taken from the mouth of a child,’ Hakmanni continues. He points at Juho, resting on the couch.

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