Saturday, August 26

 

 

Yesterday I had collected flowers from Kulosaari. This morning I woke up, went to the shed and checked them. They hadn’t died in the night.

I had breakfast, did the normal Saturday cleaning, played with Sunshine, and then drove to St Michael’s Church in Kontula, with the flowers on the passenger seat, for Joni’s funeral. He lived next door and so we had known him from the age of nine. Two weeks ago, for reasons nobody understands, he fell off his motorcycle, slid into oncoming traffic, and died.

I went with some trepidation, but I felt very glad that I did. Minna and Tommi have become more than neighbours in the ten years we have lived here, and I sat through the service thinking about them, and about Auo, and about Irma and me. I talked to Minna afterwards at the reception for quite a long time, and then felt I should leave.

I do not envy what they will have to go through at all.

As the afternoon passes I find myself in Itis on a self-imposed mission designed, I suspect, to stop me from sitting at home wondering things like whether or not I would like to go to Itis. I wander around and nothing much happens. I stand on the second floor looking down the length of this section of the mall at Stockmann. I cannot really see it from here but I know that I could if I moved.

In a few minutes I will move.

I will walk back to Prisma, where I have left my bike, and buy a few supplies like bread, lettuce and milk to make sure that we will have the necessary ingredients for brunch tomorrow, should brunch prove necessary.

Later I will cycle home and pick the remaining redcurrants in the gaps between the rain. More accurately I will pick as many as I can while remaining dry. Sunshine will wander in and out before deciding that in offers the better, or at least the drier, option.

I will read, make notes, find myself in possession of ideas; and then go to bed wondering whether I will wake up or not when Irma and Naa arrive home in the middle of the night.