Page 44 of A Winter in Wonderland
‘Yep. Light doesn’t have to be “light” to make you happy.’
Hmm. I realised in that moment that the darker days weren’t actually bothering me any more. I’d struggled in that first week, craving bright blue skies and earlier dawns and later sunsets. But even though the days had got even shorter, I no longer minded. In fact, when the stars and the moon were out in all their bright glory, the reflection on the white-coated world I now lived in wasn’t all that dark after all. Dare I say … I was beginning to appreciate the natural hygge-lighting of Lapland. ‘Have you ever come in the summer? I read it’s nothing but “light” light then,’ I asked Esteri.
She glanced at me, her eyes twinkling like the sun was already behind them, and said enigmatically, ‘Not yet.’
‘Do you think you’d like to?’ I pressed.
‘For sure. I think I really would. How about you? What attracted you most to this job – Lapland or Christmas?’
‘Lapland,’ I answered, which was, actually, the truth. ‘I love Christmas, of course—’
‘Of course.’
‘—but Finland was somewhere I always wanted to visit, and when I looked at the brochure and saw a photo of, um,’ I hastily thought back to the month before when Shay had pressed the brochure in front of my face, ‘a sauna inside a gondola, I was like – now that’s the place for me.’
‘Oh yeah, the Sauna Gondola at Ylläs; that’s pretty nice.’
‘You’ve been?’
‘No – it’s pretty expensive, but I’ve heard about it. Maybe one day. So you like it then? Finland?’
‘I do. I feel … ’ Hmm. How do I describe this to Esteri without sounding like a knob? ‘I feel kind of safe here. Everyone here in Lapland is kind and friendly and it’s not that I expected anything else, but it’s just … My favourite thing is the people.’
Esteri reached over and booped my nose. ‘Ahh, you softie little Brit.’
A while later, after we’d travelled north enough that the bright gold of the sun on the horizon had disappeared, the scenery began to change, from snow-covered roadsides to crops of buildings.
‘Here we are,’ Esteri said, leaning forward in her seat. ‘This is Inari. Keep an eye out for signs for Siida, that’s the name of the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre where Kalle works.’
I did as I was told, and shrieked out, ‘There it is!’ when I spotted a road sign directing us towards a modern, low building encased in glass and red-slat panelling.
We parked, and Esteri sat for a moment.
‘You OK?’ I asked.
We were quiet for a moment longer, until Esteri turned her grey eyes to me, and searched mine. ‘This is a good idea, right?’
‘Of course.’ I squeezed her hand. ‘They will love you.’
‘Thanks for coming with me.’
‘Thanks for bringing me.’
She exhaled slowly, then undid her seat belt. ‘Right, come on, you silly Brit.’
With a smile, I hopped out of the car and stretched my legs, tightening the laces of my snowboots as a gust of chilly Arctic Circle wind said hello.
Esteri locked the car and strode ahead into the museum, seeming like she’d given herself a pep talk and was now marching towards her destiny. I tottered and skidded a little to keep up, and welcomed the blast of warm air when we entered the building.
As Esteri spoke in Finnish to the reception desk, I hung back to look at a museum display about traditional Sámi clothing, known asgákti, tailored to each family and region. I was admiring a risku, a circular silver brooch used to hold scarves in place and as part of wedding day traditions, decorated with small, tinkling silver disks which represented the sun, when a voice cut through the quiet.
‘Esteri?’ a woman said, tentatively, coming around the corner.
My friend turned, and the women looked at each other. A generation and a life apart, but they shared the same grey eyes, the same ashy-blonde hair. Esteri smiled and stepped forward, and I don’t know what they were saying, and Itried to not stare and instead read the information on the display, but by the way Esteri was smiling and gesturing at the woman I was guessing it was something like, ‘Bloody hell, you look like my mum.’
‘Kalle, this is my good friend, Myla. She’s from the UK,’ Esteri said, coming over to me. ‘Myla, this is my mother’s cousin.’
‘Hello,’ I said, giving a small wave. ‘Thank you for letting us stay with you tonight.’ I spoke carefully and clearly, not sure how much English Kalle spoke.
