by G.R. Senn
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FANGS OF HELSINKI STORY #1
I Know Where You Live
She couldn’t believe she was doing this. After taking a few steps forward she used the light from her phone to read the name on the door: Mika Mustonen. Second floor number 9. This was the place alright. She tossed her hair back with both hands wondering why she even bothered. Habits died hard, she knew that; besides, she was way beyond that dimension whereby some grease on a tiny grey button could possibly create any concern at all.
The corridor was dark. There was a tiny window at the end of it which wasn’t much of a help. She tried the damn switch again. Nope.
“Focus Petra, focus” she said to herself; took a deep breath and, finally, rang the bell.
x x x x x x x x x x
Petra Korhonen hid behind the fridge door; making sure no one was watching first, she spat into the sandwich and mixed her genuine yet suspiciously bubbly fluid with high quality fat-free mayonnaise.
“You want a cheese sandwich without tomatoes? Like I don’t already have a zillion things to do. There you go, you piece of shit!” she mumbled to herself.
Then she faced the customer who happened to be an intense looking old woman whose eyes seemed to have completely run out of that ordinary humanly sparkle.
“There you go. Anything else?”
“Are you sure this cheese is fresh?”
“Yes”
”It doesn’t seem so, though”
“I’ve just opened the package”
“Yeah but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s fresh. May I see the expiry date?”
“Certainly”
She gave the customer the embarrassingly cheap looking package.
“You see? The expiry date is tomorrow”
“So?”
“So there is a good chance that it’s already gone bad; as I suspected”
“Look madam, I assure you…”
“I want another one”
“But I don’t have any more cheese in the fridge. This is the last package”
“How convenient”
“What do you mean?”
“Forget the whole thing. I don’t think I’ll ever come here again. If preparing a lousy fresh cheese sandwich is such a challenge for you people, there are many other cafés around. I can go to any one of them. No problem. Good day”
“Good day”
“Excuse me? What did you say?”
“What?”
“What did you say to me?”
“I said ‘good day’”
“How dare you?!”
“But…”
“What’s your name?”
“Petra”
“I’m not done with you… You’ll see”
Petra was sick and tired of this place. The staff and the manager were okay but she couldn’t stand the customers, not to mention the very idea of being stuck in a place like this while she could be doing so many other things with her precious time. She remembered how different things were only a few weeks ago.
She was studying to be a physician. This was her third year at the school. Her grates were quiet alright. She had a boyfriend, Lauri, who was a bellboy at a very fancy hotel. A lot of world famous people stayed there and the tips were incredible. They had no money problems whatsoever. Besides, they were young they didn’t really need much of it anyway. Everything ‘essential’ was already taken care of: a TV; a game console; two computers; a double bed; a fridge for cold beverages; an oven for frozen pizzas; a guitar that no one had touched for a year; curtains, pillows and some extra sheets, just in case.
Petra didn’t work. Her mother had sold her second flat in the city near the Hakaniemi market place after she broke up with her forth fiancé and sent her a few hundred euros every now and then. They had had a falling out though and it had been five months since she had last seen her or any hundreds in her bank account. Petra stayed at home and spent most of her time focusing on her studies. They lived in a three room flat which was more than enough for them.
Then one day one of Lauri’s old friends, Suvi, had a miscarriage. She had been living alone for some time now. Her boyfriend had left her as soon as he had heard about the pregnancy. Petra and Lauri thought it would be a better idea if she stayed with them for a few weeks; until she gathered herself together emotionally. But weeks turned into months and Suvi had become a part of their life somehow. Lauri didn’t seem to mind it but Petra wasn’t happy about it. She was a friend but that didn’t mean that she wanted to see her everyday; especially not after she realized what a messy ‘pig’ Suvi was.
One day on her way to school Petra realized that she had forgotten one of her books at home. She really needed it so she had no choice but to go back home and get it. When she got to the door she noticed that it was open. She thought to herself
“Oh shit! Did I leave it open?”
Actually she remembered giving the door her famous ‘good old shoulder slam’ treatment; just to make sure. There was nobody home when she left earlier. Lauri was supposed to be at work and Suvi was meeting her sister for coffee. Was there a burglary going on? Was it safe to be even standing there? She had two choices: Stay away and make some calls or just walk in there to see what was happening.
x x x x x x x x x x
Petra opened her eyes. She saw a frame and her face in it. Who had taken this photo? She looked awful; hair messy, eyes blank, nose bleeding.
“Nose bleeding? What the hell?!”
It wasn’t a photo of her; it was her reflection on the glass. She was lying face down on some old carpet. It wasn’t hers. She didn’t own one because in her opinion they were nothing but dust gatherers. It smelled really bad; almost like her grandmothers closet. The reason for that was the dead mouse that was stuck between the closet door and the edge of the wall which nobody had noticed for years and years. What was this one’s excuse? As far as she could tell from where she was lying, there were no mice around. She could see the legs of a huge old fashion bed and the open bottom drawer of a nightstand behind it.
“Where the hell am I?” she wondered.
She tried to get up; her arms failed at her first attempt. They were trembling uncontrollably. She was feeling really weird. She finally managed to get up only to realize that the bed was right in front of the door; leaned against it. It wasn’t quite placed in a way an interior designer would be proud of. From the bloody finger prints on the side of it she figured it was her who pushed the bed there. Why would she have done that; to block the door? She just didn’t know. She was calm at first but her heartbeat was gaining speed every passing second now and her nose hurt like hell. It was still bleeding; she tilted her head back to stop it. Now all she could see was the empty ceiling. That made her feel weird and extremely defenseless. She didn’t understand; what was she scared of exactly?
“Well I’m in a strange place for starters” she answered her own question.
“…or am I?” she continued.
“Did I say that out loud?”
“Maybe I did” she thought to herself
“What’s going on? I’m shaking. What happened to me?”
She desperately wanted to remember but the panic she was feeling seemed to be blocking her memory. Her head still tilted back. She closed her eyes and listened to the silence. It was quiet; very quiet. Suddenly
she opened her eyes.
“Oh shit!”
She remembered everything; but she wished she hadn’t.
x x x x x x x x x x
She rang the doorbell again.
“Come on, come on. What’s taking so long? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea”
The longer she waited the less prepared she felt. Not only that, she desperately needed to go to the bathroom. The excitement of any given situation similar to this one always seemed to hit her below the belt. Her mother was just the same.
“F.ck this. I’m going home”
As Petra turned around in the dark, ready to leave, she heard foot steps. They stopped as the ‘perfectly visible in the dark’ light beam coming through the peephole disappeared. Was that Mika Mustonen? Whoever it was, he or she was still standing behind that door watching her. Petra didn’t know what to do next. She waited for someone to open the door. It had been at least a minute since the peephole was blocked and still nothing was happening.
“Maybe he thinks I’m one of those ‘find Jesus’ types or a stalker even. Well then again… Oh hell with it”
She rang the doorbell one last time. No sound. No footsteps. But suddenly light through the peephole was visible again. She was scared and the adrenaline was making her take steps she wouldn’t even believe was possible. She made a fist with her tiny hand and knocked on the door.
“Hello?”
She was going to try it again but the door opened.
“Excuse me. Are you Mika Mustonen?”
“Yes. Why don’t you come in?”
It was a tall blonde man in a dirty yellow apron. He wasn’t very young but no older than 35 either.
“I’ve just made some tea. You like Assam?”
“Yeah but…”
“Come in”
If he had opened the door as soon as she rang the bell for the first time she wouldn’t have minded walking in. But now something just didn’t feel right.
“I thought you weren’t home”
“Sorry. I was in the kitchen. As soon as I heard the doorbell I came running”
He was lying. She knew that he had been standing there for at least 2-3 minutes. Not only that, it was almost as if he knew that she knew it too. Petra stepped in anyway and followed him to the living room for reasons that were still unclear to her. Each step felt like an out of body experience. She was too scared and confused to even question what she was doing; or so she thought.
“You know who I am?”
“I think so. You’re the girl from the library, right?
“No”
“Then you must be the one from that café. What was its name again?”
“Natalia’s Pullahuone”
“Right; that one. I was there this afternoon”
“I know. Actually the reason I’m here is…”
She stopped. Petra got startled by what she saw. There was a table in the middle of the room set for two and a black rose in the center.
“Oh I’m sorry. You were waiting for someone”
“No. What makes you say that?”
She didn’t speak; she just pointed at the table.
“That’s only for you dear”
“But how did you…I mean when…?”
“Want some carrot cake with your tea?”
As he stood there near the table waiting for an answer Petra tried to keep her distance and sat down on the couch that was right in the middle of the room.
“You wanna sit there? That’s fine”
He brought her tea and a slice of cake and put them on the coffee table that was in front of the couch. Then he sat next to her.
“Comfortable isn’t it? You could never guess how much it cost”
What was his game?
“It cost 35 euros. Can you believe that? It’s nothing! Touch the surface. It’s not imitation, either. It’s real leather; as real as it gets”
He smelled nice but he was sitting a bit closer than she would have liked. He seemed excited and vibrant in a surprisingly calming way. He was drinking coffee and it seemed like it wasn’t his first cup today. He looked like he was ready to run a marathon and yet his eyes were blood-shot as if they hadn’t been closed for centuries.
x x x x x x x x x x x
“Julia wants to talk to you”
“What? Now?”
“Yeah. I can cover for you. Take my lunch break time too if you want. I’m not hungry anyway”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, go ahead”
“Thanks Sara. Do you know what it’s about? Wait… I can guess. It must be the ‘prune queen’ that gave me hell today”
“The one whose sandwich you spat into?”
“You saw that?”
“Of course. But the important thing is SHE didn’t see it; and if you ask me she deserved it too”
“I don’t know what came over me. No one ‘deserves’ that. But there are times I just wanna…you know”
“Only too well. Don’t worry my lips are sealed. Now go and talk to Julia”
“Okay”
Julia seemed calm. She was in her office taking photocopies and placing them into folders.
“Good morning Petra. Come in; sit down. Give me a second. I’ll be with you soon”
Petra sat down.
“Oh can you close the door too please?”
“Sure”
She got up and closed the door. As she did that she noticed her name on a paper on top of a file box near the door. She looked at Julia to make sure that she wasn’t looking and quickly read the paper. It was a complaint e-mail from someone named Mika Mustonen; his address and telephone number was there too. She didn’t know why but she had a sudden urge to memorize it. Numbers were never her thing so she didn’t even try but the address was quite an easy one: Hakaniemi 55 A.
“So Petra. Do you know why I wanted to talk to you?”
“Listen. I didn’t do anything. She didn’t like the cheese although there was nothing wrong with it. I couldn’t replace it because I didn’t have another package. She got mad. Then as if all that wasn’t enough, she thought I was being sarcastic when I told her to have a good day. You know what they’re like”
“Actually… I didn’t know about that; although… something tells me that I will soon. That aside I’ve received yet another complaint about you today through an e-mail. It’s the fifth one this week. Petra I know you’re a good worker and customers may be ungrateful bitches sometimes but clearly something’s wrong here. Nobody else seems to get complaints at the rate you do. I think it’s your current attitude that triggers that”
“My CURRENT attitude?”
“Yes. Something’s been different about you; especially in the last couple of weeks. Is everything alright?”
“Yeah”
Julia knew she was lying. She had heard the news from Sara but didn’t want to embarrass Petra either.
“Are you sure? Could something have happened recently…here…or at home maybe?”
Petra stared at Julia in the eye without answering for a few seconds.
“Nope. Nothing’s happened. Nothing significant anyway”
Something significant HAD happened. Petra was trying with all her might to not go there; at least not this moment when she had two more hours of work before she could get out and breathe again. It was too late though.
x x x x x x x x x x
She could hear noises coming from inside and that made her relax a little; because if whoever was in there didn’t mind being that loud and easily heard, it meant there was nothing to be afraid of. One of them was Lauri she could tell from that annoyingly absurd laughter of his. She didn’t hear anybody else’s voice but there was somebody else in the room. She could sense the energy. Petra opened the door and walked in.
“Guys…?”
The noises stopped instantly and got replaced by a rapid whisper attack from behind the wall.
“Lauri; is that you?” Petra shouted.
He walked out fr
om the bedroom.
“Hi… Darling… What are you doing here?”
They stared at each other for a few seconds.
Petra could feel the shivers down her spine as a sensation that she had never felt in her life before filled every cell in her body. She exploded
“Are you kidding me?!”
“What?”
“I can’t believe you did this!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Drop it! For f.ck’s sake, drop it!”
“Look it’s just…”
“Who is it? Suvi?”
“No”
“I wanna see her. Hey! Whoever is behind that door, I can see your shadow. Come out. Come out now!”
A tall girl appeared.
“Can I take her? I think I can. She’s tall but quite skinny “Petra thought to herself then asked
“Who are you?”
“Anne”
“I didn’t mean your name. How the hell did you get here?”
Anne didn’t answer. She was scared. She looked at Lauri for help.
“She’s a friend of Suvi’s okay? She didn’t even know you existed; leave her alone”
“It’s true. I swear Suvi didn’t tell me anything about a girlfriend or a wife? Are you married?”
“No we’re not. You think I’d marry this pathetic clown?” Suvi yelled.
“Darling. Take it easy”
“Do you hear what you’re saying?”
“This isn’t as serious as you think. Believe me”
