Chapter 5

When Maija came home, she sensed wonderful smells of food. It was warm and cosy. The warmth was coming back slowly to her cold fingers and nose. Vlad was an excellent cook even when Alexandra was still alive, and since her death cooking for two became a necessity. The girl found her father at the kitchen, doing wonders with some flour, eggs and sugar.
   "Ah, you came back, Mai," - he said cheerfully, - "I hope you had a nice walk. The weather is lovely - well at least better than it usually is in this time of the year."
   "It"s pretty around here, papa," - she replied, - "I was in the old park. One can watch the whole neighborhood from up there. It was a little bit chilly. And then I saw that time was coming closer to noon so I thought it would be just the time to come back home."
   "Yes, you came home exactly at the right hour," - agreed Vlad, mixing something gingerly in a huge aluminium pot and adding some pepper, so that the kitchen soon became covered with a cloud of thin red dust, - "I was even surprised by that. You don"t have a watch with you, do you?"
   "I - I asked for the time." - she said, blushing.
   Soon they sat down at the table to eat. It was nice and cosy, eating like that, just the two of them. Vlad was eating with great enthusiasm and sipping beer from a big mug, obviously to help the process. Maija ate slowly and carefully, and drank hot tea from a mug just like her father"s. It was getting darker and darker with every minute, even though it was still early. When she turned her sight to the window, she noticed that the sky was covered in endless dark clouds again.
   "You know what, dear," - said Vlad, after swallowing a big chunk of meat - "I think it would be better for you not to go out today anymore, it"s obviously going to rain. I"m going to close myself in the office and try to get some more work done. And you try not to get too bored, alright, Mai? Watch some TV, or try to find something readable among the books in my bedroom."
   "Don"t worry, papa," - she smiled - "you know that I"m never bored."
   "Oh, and one more thing," - he added, - "I forgot to ask you - when would you be ready to start with school? I signed you up in a local school already and even bought for you all the books that you might need, so you can start even tomorrow. But you can also start in a couple of days, or even next week - however you like. Although I don"t think there"s much for you to do at home. If it was summer, we could go to my summer cottage - I think you would like swimming in the lake and all. But with this horrible rainy weather, you"re going to get bored pretty quickly."
   "Of course I don"t mind starting school tomorrow, papa," - she nodded, - "doing something useful is better than just wandering around."
After lunch, Vlad sat down at the desk in his office again, with two more cups of coffee. Maija was sitting in the living room, with her feet on the sofa and her arms around her knees, just like on the cold stone at the park. An open book that she took from the bookshelf at her father"s bedroom was lying open on the coffee table in front of her, but she wasn"t reading. She turned on the TV and tried to flip around the channels for a while. There was nothing but serials or news, and she decided a long time ago not to watch either one of those. So she turned off the TV and was sitting alone in the quiet dark room. The rain was getting stronger and stronger. Once in a couple of minutes, the room was lit by a flash of lightning and then hit by a tremendous roar of thunder. Maija pulled away the curtain. Drops of rain were drumming constantly on the window. Through them she could see the wet empty street. She was sitting there and watching one lonely tall man rushing down the street, trying to potect himself from the furious rain with a little umbrella. Then she looked at the house across the street. It was quiet and still for a while, and then somebody pulled the curtain away so that a little bit of the living room could be seen. For a second, Maija"s heart jumped. Then she saw a dark-haired, short, neat woman looking outside the window. That was probably Kai"s mother, thought Maija. Then, not knowing why, she imagined Kai sitting on the wet cold stone in the park. "That is silly," - she thought to herself - "everyone are already at home, except for that silly man with his tiny umbrella." The curtain at Martin"s living room was covering the window again now.
   Then something caught Maija"s sight - a tall, clumsy, sandy-haired boy in his teens was riding a motorbike down the street. A box, at least half the size of the motorbike was tied to its back. The box, the motorbike and the boy were all at the mercy of the pouring rain. To the girl"s surprise, he seemed to be heading straight to her door. After a couple of seconds, she heard knocks on the door.
   "Papa!" - she cried, - "someone is knocking at the door! I"m going to let him in."
   "I"m coming right away, dear", - she heard her father"s voice from his working room. Then she stepped towards the door and unlocked it, letting a shaking, soaking wet boy in. A puddle of water formed at his feet right away.
   "D-d-delivery," - he said, shivering with cold, - "for the P-p-professor. Express m-m-mail. The b-b-box got a bit wet on the w-w-way from the p-p-post office. V-v-very unf-f-fortunate."
   "Ah, dear," - Maija heard Vlad"s heavy steps and his voice behind her back, - "that is Tommy, he lives nearby and he"s going to the same school as you. At weekends he works as a mailman. Why don"t you come in, Tommy? You can stay with us to drink a cup of tea. It"s better than hanging outside with the wrong guys. And besides you"ll get sick if you go outside like this. Take off your clothes, I"ll give you some of mine while yours get dry. Oh, and aunt Johanna sent you some of your things, Mai. Where do I have to sign, Tommy? Here?"
   Tommy"s wet socks, jeans and sweatshirts were now hanging on a rope above the electrical oven, and he was wering Vlad"s clothes. Vlad was two heads taller than Tommy, and at least three times wider than him, and the boy was almost drowning in his clothes. But at least he stopped shaking and could talk normally.
   "Thank you, professor," - he said, smiling nervously, - "it"s raining cats and dogs outside. Not the best day for a mailman. I hope your delivery didn"t suffer."
   "Ah, of course not, sonny," - Vlad grinned, - "as much as I know my sister, she made sure that everything was wrapped in nylon bags. I leave you now, kids, still have lots of work to be done. Maija, you"ll make some tea for Tommy, won"t you, dear?"
   Vlad went upstairs to his working room. Maija boiled some water and prepared two cups of tea for herself and for the boy. She added two teaspoons of sugar and a slice of lemon to each cup and carried them on a tray to the living room.
   "Thanks," - said Tommy, sipping his tea loudly - "say, I didn"t know the professor had any children.
   "I used to live in the South," - she replied shortly, - "are you Tommy from the park?"
   "I hang there with my dudes," - said the boy, surprised. - "it"s fun in the old park. Nobody to tell you what to do and what not to do." -  He narrowed his eyes and looked at her, as if trying to remember something. - "We never met before, did we?"
   "No," - she shook her head, - "it"s that bench with the graffiti. I"ve been in the park this morning and saw it. I met Martin Costello there," - she added after a pause. - "he told me that he lives in the house right across the street. Do you know him?"
   "Ah, of course, the Costello guy," - Tommy nodded, - "I see him around sometimes. He was never tough enough to hang around with us, though. Quite a weak type. Witty boy, though. I never quite lost hope about him."
   "Does he go to your - to our school too?" - asked Maija.
   "Sure he does." - said Tommy - "A couple of grades below me. Say," - he paused for a second - "would you like to go to party with us tonight? My old man isn"t home, and my mum went with him. It will be fun. I have some drinks and music, and I"ll bring you back home on my motorbike."
   "No thanks, it"s freezing outside." - answered the girl coldly. - "And I need to prepare for tomorrow and unpack my stuff. So I"m going to get busy now."
   "Oh. Well - well see you tomorrow then," - said Tommy, disappointed. - "don"t mind me, I"ll put on my clothes when they"re dry and I"ll close the door behind me."
   In her room, she sat on her bed and started at the big box with the things from her old life. She stared at the box for a long time before starting unpacking. Then, she finally cut the wet carton with scissors. Aunt Johanna didn"t forget anything - she sent all of her warm clothes (wrapped in nylon bags), all of her favorite books and the picture that she used to have hanging on the walls of her old room. Maija looked around. Some nails were fixed into the walls. On one of them, she hanged her favorite picture - it was showing a frozen lake under a clear blue sky. "Soon, soon I"m going to see a winter day exactly like this" - she thought before falling asleep.