Page 28 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 13
I wasn’t quite sure what Esteri had in mind for me after the ‘official’ orientation, but I noticed she kept catching my eye and winking at me at various times during the talk led by Daan.
For orientation, all the new seasonal employees gathered in the large living room of the staff cabin, after being told to help ourselves to drinks that had been laid out in the kitchen. Esteri sat next to me, her arm pressed against mine which felt both reassuring and territorial but also, I didn’t mind one bit because it was like I was new in school and had made friends with the coolest girl here.
I found myself looking around for Josh, just out of curiosity, and saw him chatting and laughing with a group at the other end of the room. He was in another flannel shirt again, and his hair was swept to the side, looking wet from the shower. Or the snow. Or whatever. He laughed loudly and jovially and I was reminded of my journey next to him onthe plane. Contemplating him, I decided that even though I now knew him a little better, he’d still be kind of annoying to sit with fortoolong.
‘The elves,’ Esteri murmured quietly next to me. I caught her eye and she motioned towards Josh and his group with her head. ‘Extremely confident, extremely fun to be around, but good luck having a conversation with them.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘After training is done and the guests begin to arrive, they’re to stay in characterat all times.’
‘Alltimes?’
‘As long as guests are around, they are living and breathing their elf-selves.’ She caught me staring over again. ‘It keeps the magic alive for the visitors. A big reason they come is to see Santa and his elves so how would you feel if you’d just been playing snowballs with lumberjack-shirt there,’ she pointed at Josh, ‘and the next minute he’s leaning against the wall behind the reindeer paddock playing on his phone.’
‘Gotcha,’ I said.Wow.
She moved her attention to a couple of guys on the next sofa over, mere metres away, and whispered, ‘Bet they’re on the husky team. Sexy mother—’
‘Hello, everyone.’ Daan clapped his hands together, appearing at the front of the room. ‘I know we have a lot of people from a lot of places around the world joining together as a family for the Christmas period, but just to check, are you all OK with me speaking English?’
A general chorus of yeses came up, before Daan added,‘And in case you aren’t, and that made no sense … ’ He then rattled off, in a string of languages, what I assume wasPlease let me know if you don’t understand English.
Daan proceeded to introduce us to the various members of the management team, including the adventure guide lead, Zoë, and the owners of the reindeer farm, Kirste and Johánná.
Kirste, who, like her sister, was Sámi, stepped forward. Her fingers were wrapped around a cup of steaming coffee and her grin was wide as she regarded us. ‘Hello, everyone. We’re looking forward to getting to know you all over the coming months, and for you to get to know our reindeer, and us.’ She proceeded to explain a little about both the traditional and modern indigenous culture in Finnish Lapland, and how the Sámi homeland, Sápmi, crosses areas of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
Zoë followed Kirste, the women exchanging warm smiles as they swapped places, so our adventure guide lead could give a few more details about my new job.
As Shay had described back when we first ‘discussed’ the job in her office, I was to be an adventure guide. This meant I’d be taking people out on snowmobile-, snowshoe- and reindeer trips, and I’d also be trained on – and sometimes run – husky sled trips, though there was a separate group of husky guides who would do that the majority of the time. The actual tour I gave would depend on the excursion the guests had booked, be that following trails through forests to our hidden Santa cabin, travelling over a frozen lake at night to look for the Northern Lights,climbing up to the top of a snowy hill to see the view, or simply hanging out in the minus temperatures and learning about Lapland.
It all sounded extremely outdoorsy.
In addition to the guides, and the husky team, the other job roles were filled by elves and guest reps. We were to work five days a week, where we’d be on our feet pretty much all day and working hours to suit the excursions we were leading. We’d be busy – we could guide anywhere between one long and a lot of short excursions in one day, and so Daan was really encouraging us to use our days off to explore Lapland and make the most of activities on offer.
I mean … this was kind of cool. I know there was a general air of festivity, but right now, among these happy faces and with the snow falling outside the window, I could just as easily be in the Alps, or the mountains in Canada. Really, I was just working in a winter resort. I could probably pretend it wasn’t even Christmassy …
‘OK, now, all together,’ Daan suddenly said, and, raising his arms in the air, he began singing ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ at the top of his voice. And the whole room joined in. Beside me I felt Esteri’s arms shake as she banged on the coffee table, the elves were up and dancing around each other, the two supposed husky men were singing heartily and I watched in gory fascination, having spoken too soon inside my mind. This was my actual nightmare. I hadn’t sung Christmas carols in … I don’t know … five years? A flash of my sister came into my head, saying,‘Don’tbugger this up!’which I’m not sure she actually said in as many words but was what she would be saying now, if she were here.
My mouth moved with the words, but no sound came out. Luckily, everybody else was making enough racket that my bad lip-syncing went unnoticed. I hoped.
Oh Myla, we’re definitely not going to be able to pretend our way out of this one …
As orientation concluded, following health and safety guidance and information about local amenities, we were dismissed. Most people stayed though, including Esteri and me, to tuck into the delicious buffet put on by the leaders of pies, cheeses, fish, all sorts of yum.
I’d barely finished my main course when Esteri said, ‘OK, let’s go.’
‘Where?’ I said, slurping down the rest of my Lapin Kulta, a Finnish beer.
She beckoned me to follow her, and led me down a corridor, then another, then to a side door that led out into the snow.
‘Wait,’ I said, ‘I need to go and get my snow boots,’ (I hadn’t confessed to owning the non-Ugg-Uggs yet). ‘And my coat. Where are we going?’
Esteri smiled and pulled two towels and some slide-on sandals from behind a counter. ‘Get ready to take all your clothes off, you stuffy little Brit.’
Um.
