Christmas at Frozen Falls

by Kiley Dunbar

  Niilo had described his premonition to Stellan as they’d prepared the tourists’ breakfasts, and Stellan had simply smiled. Niilo had always had a vivid imagination and powerful, colourful waking dreams that he’d come to rely on as a way of breaking the monotony of the snowy reindeer migrations and the long white nights of summer. They offered him a kind of comfort Stellan couldn’t understand.

  ‘You think I’m a romantic fool?’ said Niilo, watching Stellan through the heat haze.

  ‘Well, yes.’

  ‘I think you’re a pig-headed pragmatist.’

  ‘You’re going to get hurt.’

  ‘Maybe. But I’ll have loved.’

  ‘Oh my God, you’re crazy.’

  ‘Just be polite to them both, OK? They’re only here for a few days. You told me you were in love with this Sylvie once, so let’s show her and Nari our Lapland, make this a really special time for them. OK?’

  Stellan drains his beer. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

  Niilo laughs again and hands Stellan a fresh can.

  Chapter Eleven

  My heart’s pounding under all these layers. I don’t know why I’m so nervous this morning, but I hardly touched my breakfast of yogurt and muesli. I gulped down two cups of that strong coffee, though. I’ll need it to fortify me against the cold. The thermometer outside the restaurant tells me it’s minus nineteen degrees, the kind of cold that kills if you’re underprepared.

  I glance at my reflection in the revolving door of the lobby, through which, at any second, Stellan is going to appear. I’m dressed in three layers underneath the padded pink snowsuit I bought with Nari at the mall, and hey, who’s to say I wasn’t going for the well-lagged boiler look?

  Nari’s looking business-like and is taking notes on a pad about all the food she just sampled in the hotel restaurant; mainly sliced cold meats, cheeses and various pickles and sweet pastries. She looks elegant all in white, and her black hair and red lipstick create quite a contrast with the white landscape and the late arctic dawn.

  ‘Are you wearing false lashes?’ I ask her, incredulously.

  She gives me a slow Marilyn Monroe wink just as the door spins and delivers up first Niilo, then Stellan.

  I search Stellan’s face nervously. Is he pleased to see me this morning? Or is this a duty visit to the mad English woman who he thinks might be stalking him? I’m relieved to see he doesn’t have the same cross expression he wore last night. I smile broadly at him in the hope that he’ll be warm and welcoming in return. ‘Morning.’

  ‘Good morning, Sylvie. Did you sleep well?’

  Thank goodness, he’s being friendly, though he’s not exactly smiling.

  ‘I was afraid to sleep in the glass bedroom in case some scary men appeared out of the wilderness and shone their torches in at me,’ I say teasingly.

  Stellan cracks a tiny smile, but without showing his teeth, and he nods with an amused sniff down towards his feet. I recognise the shy formality of all those years ago when he was boyishly handsome and we were both so young. I realise with frustration that he’s not going to reply.

  ‘I’m so sorry we frightened you both,’ Niilo offers with a gentle laugh. ‘We didn’t know which cabins you’d been assigned. But we found you.’

  ‘You sure did, and you took a decade off poor Sylvie’s life,’ says Nari, keeping her eyes on Niilo. ‘But I wasn’t a bit afraid.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it. I hope you don’t mind if we act as your guides today? We’ll give you VIP access to Frozen Falls resort, show you the stuff only a privileged few get to see,’ Niilo says.

  After the briefest moment of silence as Nari and I exchange delighted glances, Stellan sweeps a hand, indicating the doors. ‘If you want to make the most of the coming light we need to go now.’

  Nari’s face falls and I cringe at how abrupt Stellan seems. As I make my way past him, I can’t help casting him an anxious look which I know he catches as he looks down again with a brisk nod of his head, like a sentry on duty.

  Outside the restaurant I see tourists dressed for a day on the ski slopes clambering on to a minibus heading for Saariselkä, but there’s no sign of our transport. It’s nearly ten o’clock and the sky is only just beginning to lighten. Through the silhouetted bare branches of the snow-laden trees I can make out a cool pink tinge creeping over the horizon and into the sapphire blue. The moon hangs low in the sky, a thin sliver like a curved blade.

  ‘It’s so beautiful!’ I say in Stellan’s direction. I seem to be saying that a lot on this trip.

  ‘This way,’ says Stellan, seemingly ignoring me, as he stalks past, setting a brisk pace a few feet ahead of me. I suppose he must be used to mornings like this, they’re not a beautiful novelty to him, but to me the landscape is making my heart swell and my senses tingle. I follow after Stellan as he stretches out his long legs, striding through the drifting snow.

  Nari’s dawdling behind with Niilo and they seem to be chatting away to each other like they’re the old friends in this scenario. Occasionally Nari laughs and throws her bobble-hatted head back, making her long hair splay out over her shoulders and down her back. Niilo seems transfixed by her. This is going to be a long day.

  ‘Stellan, wait up.’

  At least he stops and turns to wait for me. He watches me with an unreadably blank expression as I amble along through the snow. Even with its layer of grit the road is lethally slippery so it’s safer to walk through the piled snow in the gutters. I’m so glad I have these heavy snow boots that Stephen the Sex God’s PA arranged for us, and my puffy snowsuit is doing an OK job of keeping out the wet and cold, though I’m already wishing I’d put away my vanity and worn the big black super thick suit the resort provided. I mistakenly thought the pink suit would be cute, but instead I’m feeling a little chilly and somewhat marshmallowy.

  ‘I don’t fancy being the third wheel for those two.’

  Stellan casts his eyes back along the road just as Nari loops her arm through Niilo’s. They’re walking painfully slowly. He makes a sort of grumpy snort and shakes his head. Maybe I detect a hint of a smile, but it isn’t amusement; it’s something else. Something I don’t like. He’s judging her, and unfairly too. I can’t remember ever seeing her react like this with a guy, other than Stephen. She must genuinely like him, but I’m not wasting my breath explaining this to Stellan; it’s none of his business.

  ‘So what are we doing today?’ I venture, as Stellan turns sharply off the road and into the woods.

  We seem to be heading for a shed in a distant clearing, and I can hear… wait! I can hear dogs yelping as we approach.

  ‘Are we husky sledding?’ I clap my mittened hands together and attempt to jump up and down, not so easy in these boots.

  That’s when Stellan smiles, an actual proper smile, and I get a flash of his white straight teeth. ‘You always did love dogs.’

  I can’t help grinning back at him. He’s right. ‘Yes! I was always a sucker for a pupper! Are they your dogs?’

  ‘Uh-huh. Well, they belong to the resort, but yes, I look after them, and I train them.’

  He’s searching in his black padded jacket for a big bunch of keys to open the metal door of the shed. ‘You ready for this?’ he grins, gripping the door handle. His barley-wine eyes are gleaming.

  ‘How many dogs are in there?’

  ‘Thirty-six, and there’s seven pups.’

  A lesser man might have blanched at the squeal I let out, but Stellan seems excited too somehow. I’ve never met a dog I didn’t like, except for that big German Shepherd that snapped at me in the street when I was a kid, but I like to think he was probably just confused and didn’t really mean it.

  The excited barks build as Stellan opens the door and I hustle past him to get a glimpse of the animals. The shed is warm and well lit. There are large cages all around three walls and in the centre there’s an area separated off with bales of straw where I can see a very tired-looking husky bitch lazily wagging her tail
. She’s lying down surrounded by her tumbling puppies.

  My words must have been unintelligible to Stellan, since they came out in a jumbled rush, but he made a decent attempt at trying to decipher them.

  ‘That’s Kanerva. She gave birth almost ten weeks ago. She’s a really good mother. Go ahead, she won’t mind you petting them if you give her a good fuss and let her sniff your hands first.’

  ‘Kanerva?’ I ask.

  ‘It means heather.’

  ‘Heather,’ I repeat in a whisper. ‘She’s gorgeous.’

  I approach her, sitting by her side on the bale wall, scratching her ear. She simply reclines and lets me fuss over her whilst Stellan, smiling placidly, makes his way to the back of the shed, unlocking each cage door as he passes them. Dogs rush out and crowd around him rubbing their heads against his knees and almost knocking him over in the sheer joy of seeing their master.

  He unbolts a sliding door that takes up half the back wall of the shed and heaves it aside revealing a fenced exercise enclosure covered in snow. The dogs bound outside running in every direction, but always excitedly looking back towards Stellan and barking.

  One of Kanerva’s pups, who seems less timid than the rest, clambers up over the tumbling bodies of his brothers and sisters in order to get as close to me as possible.

  ‘Can I give this little one of yours a cuddle?’ I ask Kanerva, who’s dragging herself up and making her way towards the long food trough at the other side of her enclosure. ‘I’ll take that as a yes.’

  The puppy is probably the cutest little thing I have ever beheld. Except for Barney, of course. I sigh as I lift the little black and white panting creature up onto my lap. He has one shocking blue eye and one ice white. I’m just expostulating on how he’s the best boy – ‘yes you are, yes you are’ – when Niilo leads Nari in through the door behind me. She’s not a dog-lover like me, but her face lights up with glee.

  ‘Nari,’ calls Stellan from over by the big open door. ‘Come help me with this?’ He holds out a plastic trug full of tennis balls. Nari doesn’t have to be asked twice and within seconds the huskies are racing out into the snowy yard chasing the balls she’s pitching for them. Their happy yelps are excruciatingly sharp and loud. Niilo joins her, offering to hold the trug.

  I watch as Stellan lifts a sack from a shelf before reaching into his snowsuit pocket for a long curved knife to make a slit across the top. There are wide bowls for dog food all around the shed and he fills each one.

  ‘These huskies eat a lot, five times a day they get fed,’ he says as the dogs rush back into the shed, jostling each other for prime position. Then, joining me and Kanerva’s pups in the enclosure, he fills their long food trough and sits down directly opposite me on the bales.

  I wonder why he hasn’t sat closer, and I feel an achy little niggle in my chest at how much I resent his reserved conduct. It’s not the frigging eighteenth century, Stellan Virtanen!

  I look over at Niilo and Nari, surrounded by happy wagging tails. Niilo’s showing Nari how to hose water into the big drinking bowls by the door and they’re still smiling animatedly at one another. How come Stellan’s got all the famous Finnish formality and Niilo’s so vital and alive with warmth?

  ‘Do they have names?’ I ask, placing the puppy back in the enclosure so he can eat alongside his siblings.

  ‘That one’s Finn, he’s easy to recognise with his white eye, just like his mother Kanerva. And that’s Čáhppe, Miyuki, Lumikki, Aleksi, Yanni and, erm…’

  ‘Bob?’ I joke, but Stellan seems confused.

  ‘Bob?’

  ‘Yeah, Bob McLuskie the festive husky.’ Oh well, at least I made myself laugh. ‘Don’t mind me, I’m just high on puppies. I can’t believe this is your life.’

  ‘Yeah, I’m in here a lot, morning and night. They spend the days playing in the yard with the tourists or out on the sledding trails. That’s why they eat so much; they work really hard.’

  I watch Stellan lean into the enclosure to lift the smallest of Kanerva’s litter away from the food. He’s already eaten his fill and is nodding his little black and brown head and falling asleep. ‘This one’s Toivo. He’s a little scraggy one. How do you say it, he’s the…?’

  ‘The runt of the litter?’ I offer.

  ‘That’s it, the runt. Poor baby.’

  Baby? So Stellan does still have his soft side! My heart crackles and bangs like popping candy as I watch him lift little sleeping Toivo to his lips and place a delicate kiss on his pink nose. He’s better with dogs than with people, I think to myself.

  ‘I guess they’re a lot of work?’ I say.

  ‘Yeah. But Niilo’s often out here too,’ he says, casting a glance over his shoulder towards his friend. ‘He’s my partner in the business, has been for five years. He’s been a huge support. For a few years after my parents retired to Helsinki I ran this place by myself. It was hard work. And we have so many tourists coming through, three or four hundred a week in the snowy season, and we need to ensure everything is perfect for them. Then there’s the reindeer too. But they’re Niilo’s herd and he has his own herdsmen working with him. I’m better with the dogs.’

  He tails off just as I’m getting used to his beautiful thick accent. I want to urge him not to stop talking now, not as he was just getting warmed up. Speaking of warm, it’s definitely getting hot in this snowsuit and all these layers. Stellan seems to read my mind, or maybe it’s my face turning as pink as my bobble hat that gives me away.

  ‘Unzip your snowsuit and remove your outer layer. You’ll find you do this often. One minute you’ll be cold, the next warm. It’s the heat from the walk and all these animals.’

  Not just the animals, I think, as I fumble for the zip by my throat. Just as I’m wondering if he’s going to watch me, he averts his gaze, which is ridiculous because I’m wearing the equivalent of three duvets here. He won’t get as much as a glimpse of bare wrist.

  I pull my pink and cream Fair Isle jumper off over my head, making my hair stick up and buzz with static. Stellan stalks away as I’m smoothing it down and comes back with something small and silvery.

  ‘Take a sip. You need to stay hydrated, even in the cold.’

  I reach for the little flask and when I unscrew it, steam curls in the air between us. He sits down again, closer now than he was before, but still, maddeningly, at a respectful distance.

  ‘Cheers,’ I say as I take a drink of what turns out to be berry juice. It’s hot and sweet and I can’t help but heave a sigh as it slips down my throat.

  ‘Kippis,’ he says seriously, and I assume that’s some kind of toast. This time he is watching me, so I take another slow drink and enjoy his pale eyes on me.

  After a quiet moment where we both pet the puppies and pretend this isn’t totally awkward, Stellan breaks the silence.

  ‘So, the dogs are fed and watered. In ten minutes my staff will arrive and take the tourists out on husky trails around the resort. Would you like to join me and Niilo on a ride a little further away?’

  ‘Don’t you have to stay with your tourists?’

  ‘I do. I mean, usually I would, but I’m going to let my staff take care of everything on their own for once. Would you like to help me harness the dogs to our sleds?’

  It doesn’t take long to get ready to set off. Niilo and Nari bring out the two sleds, long and thin and bundled with blankets, and five excitable dogs are carefully harnessed to each one.

  Stellan takes my hand with an encouraging nod of his head and I clamber down onto the sled. I’m seated right at the back with my legs stretched straight out in front of me, watching Stellan checking the ropes and giving each dog one last pat and some words of encouragement, which makes me smile. Stellan’s dressed all in black and has a thick black beanie hat pulled down over his ears and a wide furry hood encircling his face like a halo. The fur is blowing in the cold breeze. I watch him treading through the snow with that serious look of earnest concentration on his face and I can’t
help wondering whether his hair still falls in sleek blond perfection around his cheekbones like it used to.

  I’m distracted by Nari’s voice a few feet away. She’s settled into her own sled and Niilo’s crouching in the snow by her side pulling thick blankets up over her legs, tucking her in like a parent would a child. I watch them surreptitiously out the corner of my eye, half expecting Niilo to plant a goodnight kiss on Nari’s head, he’s so attentive and tender. Nari’s giving him a dopey grin and I think to myself how I’ve never quite seen that look in her eyes before. I cannot wait for a full post-sledding debriefing about her date with Niilo. I mean, she is on a kind of date, right?

  I look around for Stellan, who pointedly hasn’t tucked me up in my sled. He’s over by the dog shed giving instructions to his staff. Behind us on the road a minibus has pulled up and some tourists are spilling out and approaching the dog yard. I can hear loud, happy American accents exclaiming about the cold from all the way over here. I pull the covers up over my chilled legs. Just sitting here is making me cold again, even though I scrambled back into my jumper and zipped my snowsuit right up to my throat before leaving the shed.

  ‘Get your balaclava on, Sylve! It’s going to be freezing once we get moving,’ Nari shouts across at me.

  I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear her. The last thing I want is for Stellan to see me in a woolly pink balaclava with its weird little eye and mouth holes that make me look like some kind of giant worm. No, I’d rather my nostrils froze up completely than wear that thing. I glance over at Nari and she’s putting hers on. It’s white and snood-like with a cowl neck and has the whole face cut out so it reveals her pretty features. Why didn’t I go for one of those? I pull my pink bobble hat down over my ears and forehead, then I gather my scarf up around my mouth as best I can.