Page 27 of A Winter in Wonderland
My eyebrows shot up. I didn’t think Lapland would even allow the world’s worst people to enter. ‘Why?’ I asked, and then, ‘You were here last year?’
‘This is my fourth year,’ Esteri said with pride, holding up four fingers. ‘But last year, my room-mate quit her job after two weeks and then she just hung around, getting in the way, trying to get the company to hire her again but not in a customer-facing role, and in the end I had to drag her outside by the hair.’
Bloody hell. ‘Really?’
‘Well no, not really, but I did lock her in the sauna.’
‘Really?’
‘No,’ Esteri laughed and booped me on the nose. ‘What do you think of me?’
‘I – I don’t know,’ I replied.
She continued. ‘The truth is, eventually she left, but she was such a downer because all of us are here for fun, you know? And work, but the work is fun and the guests want fun, and she was just not a good fit. Plus, her socks smelled.’
‘Wow, that sounds awful,’ I laughed, and kept laughing all the way out the door and to the bathroom to sit on the loo for a minute and make sure my hands weren’t shaking. A million voices in my head were cackling about how I wasn’t a good fit either, and how I possibly should avoid trying out the sauna with Esteri in tow. Plus, those eyes, those grey eyes, they looked right into my soul, you know? It felt like she could smell a faker from a mile off.
Back in the room, Esteri had stuck washi tape down the centre of the desk and piled her belongings on one side. ‘This just avoids arguments, but by all means if you need to sit at the desk and write a postcard or whatever I don’t mind you using the whole desk.’
‘Thank you,’ I replied, and went back to my unpacking while Esteri stretched out on her bunk. ‘So tell me about you, where are you from?’
‘I’m from Helsinki,’ Esteri declared, and then added, ‘No I’m not, I’m from Turku, but I usually just say Helsinki to people from other countries as it’s easier. Have you been to Turku? Or Helsinki?’
I shook my head. ‘I’ve never been to Finland before.’
‘That’s nice, welcome to Finland,tervetuloa! That means welcome. Turku is a couple of hours from Helsinki and it’s on a river. I grew up there, and my immediate family were all from there, but my parents have both passed away now as has my brother. So now my only family, apparently, is actually up here in Lapland.’
Whoa, that was a lot of information. ‘I’m so sorry about your parents, and brother,’ I said.
‘Thank you,’ Esteri smiled. ‘But it’s OK.’
‘Do you know the family you have up here?’
‘No, they’re distant family. But I am going to visit them this year. You can come with me.’
‘Oh, OK,’ I agreed, not quite sure what I was agreeing to, but I was all for seeing more of any parts of Lapland that didn’t directly involve the C-word.
(Christmas. I mean Christmas.)
‘What else about me … ’ Esteri mused, moving the conversation on and staring up at the top bunk. ‘I like reading, I like quiet time, I like being outdoors and of course, I love Christmaaaaaas,’ she sang.
‘Me toooooo!’ I joined in the song for good measure.
She stopped abruptly and sat up. ‘All right, we have orientation in twenty minutes, and then, I will show you a real orientation.’
