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Eighteen: Veli, Sisko and Arvo
Eighteen: Veli, Sisko and Arvo
…
Veli
Veli Vaara felt tired, hot and dirty as he walked home with his younger brother. The harvest bee [1] had been at the Keinänen farm today, and he had worked the whole day under the hot sun, first cutting wheat with a sickle, then operating the threshing machine with Jalo Keinänen, the farmer himself.
”Thank you again, Veli”, Keinänen had said as the younger man was leaving, with his brother some of the last villagers to do so.
”Don't mention it”, Veli said, ”you already helped at Vaarala last week, so we're even now.”
Keinänen smiled.
”Even and even. Your Jorma did a lot of work this time around, he's already a man grown isn't he? Fancy the time passing so fast.”
Veli glanced towards the barn to see his brother Jorma, turning 18 next year, talking to a couple of the Keinänen boys, younger than him.
”Say that again. But then he'll be leaving for the army next fall, so then we'll again be one short.”
Keinänen, dirty, sweaty and already a bit weary himself, scratched his head.
”Oh, I had forgotten that. The Vaara family's really going all out to support the military, isn't it?”
Arvo's role in the relief effort for the artillery accident near Viipuri was the talk of the town. Some already called him ”the man who saved Mannerheim's life”. Veli did not really know how to take it all, and it appeared to him his father was having similar problems.
”I guess so”, Veli just answered to the man who was known as a good farmer and for his prodigious ability to father sons. Seven sons he had, and not one daughter. It was a common joke in Hirvilahti[2] that one of these days, Jalo's sons would marry all the girls in the village, and they would have to rename Hirvilahti into Keinälä.
”Isn't your Mikko turning 18, too, next year?”
”That's true. But then I have reserves, don't I?”, Jalo Keinänen said, smiling and winking, ”I can afford to send one of my boys to be dressed in military grey, with no major shortfall in workforce.”
Veli rather liked the man. He was decent, and a hard worker. And then he had the presence of mind not to borrow money from Salomo Vaara. It made it much easier for Veli to deal with Keinänen, not to have the shadow of financial affairs hanging over their dealings like he did with several other men in the village.
Keinänen was also one of the farmers in the village who had been only lightly hit by the Sylvi storm. Several farms had lost a lot of their crops in just a matter of hours. Vaarala itself was hit hard, too.
That made things wrought between Veli and his father. Well, more wrought, that is.
”What are you thinking?”, Jorma asked, rousing Veli from his thoughts.
”Oh, nothing”, the older brother said, looking beside him.
”How's your hand, by the way?”
Jorma had hurt himself starting the agricultural engine to run the thresher. It wasn't bad, but it appeared the event had hurt the young man's pride a bit.
”It's fine, stop asking about it”, Jorma said, sullen.
”Let Mum look at the wound in the evening, we don't want it to get infected now.”
Jorma kept his eyes on the road as he walked on.
”Yeah. I'll do that.”
Veli glanced at his grumpy little brother and smiled.
Life's hard, isn't it?
Passing by the Kerman farm to the left, only a little way to go to Vaarala, Veli let his eyes wander to the neighbour's fields. To his surprise, he suddenly realized that he was looking at a dark-haired woman walking up the path from the lakeside to the Kerman farmhouse.
By the looks of it, Emma Kerman was returning from the sauna, her hair still wet and her cheeks red. She didn't look at the two Vaara brothers passing on the road, but appeared to be deep in thought.
Jorma had noticed her, too. He nudged Veli with his elbow.
”A pity we didn't happen to pass by when she was swimming...”
Veli let his mind wander in that vein. Right then Emma looked directly at him, probably catching a goofy smile on his face. Feeling silly, Veli raised his right hand to the girl.
Emma just frowned at him.
”Go home, boys, and get washed. You're dirty like animals!”[3], she hollered at the Vaara brothers.
Was there a hint of a smile on her face when she turned away?
”She's got a point, you know”, Jorma said to Veli.
”The sauna's bound to be ready for us, anyway.”
View attachment 385606
"Miscellanious photos from Finland: Harvest time."
Photo by Barbara Wright, US Library of Congress Photographic Collection.
...
Sisko
Sisko Vaara sat in a table at the Kappeli terrace in the Esplanadi park in central Helsinki, just off the Market Square. In her hand she had a glass of cold white wine.
This afternoon, the terrace was packed. The weather was fine, and people were trying to get what the could out of the last weeks of summer. People wandered past into the park. The general feeling in the Finnish capital was sort of subdued, though, Sisko Vaara thought.
For obvious reasons.
Sisko looked at the man sitting across the table from him. The man was sipping a glass of wine as well, absentmindedly eying the people passing the restaurant.
There was something in the man Sisko found different from the last time she had seen him.
Arvo Vaara turned his gaze towards his twin sister and raised his eyebrows.
”My brother, the celebrity”, Sisko said, and ironically raised her glass.
Arvo put on an ”aw, shucks”-face and waved his free hand.
”It's not that big a deal.”
”Not a big deal?”, Sisko asked, raising her voice, ”they went and put your face in the paper! And you'll get an actual medal tomorrow. It is kind of a big deal, whether you think so or not.”
The man in a spotless cavalry uniform smiled but said nothing. And that was what was different. Somehow, Sisko thought, her brother now seemed less pointed, less eager with quick comebacks then he used to be.
Is it because he is finally growing up? Or is it just shock from what he had gone through in Viipuri?
Arvo was certainly distracted. There was as if a shadow would have landed on him, and he could not shake it off. Sisko had been apprehensive about meeting his brother, due to the argument Arvo and Veli had gotten into back in Vaarala, but then when she brought it up, Arvo had claimed he had already made amends with his brother.
When would he have had the time?, Sisko wondered.
The military officer drained his glass and called over a waiter, ordering the same again.
”You're putting it away fast today”, Sisko observed. His brother appeared annoyed at the comment.
”I've still three days of my leave left before I have to get my sorry behind back to the barracks. I intend to make the best of it, sis. It might be a while before I get to visit Helsinki again, anyway.”
Sisko Vaara smiled to her brother, and stood up.
”You want to see Helsinki? Tell you what, brother – there's a party at the New Student House, put together by some of the guys at the Savonian Nation. It's starting any moment now. You want to have more to drink? There'll be cheaper drinks there.”
”Money's no issue to me, you know that”, Lieutenant Arvo Vaara said, straightening his back, ”but if you really want to show me how you academic people party in this here town, well, I am not going to put up a fight.”
Arvo stood up and offered his arm to his sister, who grabbed his brother with exaggarated vigor. The two then walked off.
Some seconds later, the young male waiter arrived with the glass of German white wine, to find the table empty. Annoyed, he took the glass back to the kitchen. He was pissed off for the stunt the young officer had pulled on him, but then he guessed the man was some sort of a celebrity. They had a habit of doing stuff like that.
And, anyway, it had been a very good-looking couple. That the waiter had to admit, despite everything.
…
The old man with a respectable-sized mustache sat in a wheelchair. He didn't like it, but then his doctor had insisted on it.
”Mister President”, the man had said, looking at him gravely, ”I will not have you putting yourself into any unnecessary physical exertion. I will not have your death on my conscience, if I can help it at all.”
So, he sat in a wheelchair, and the President's Office had assigned a man to push him around in it. The man was a police officer, broad of shoulder and strong as an ox. It made Kyösti Kallio happy that he was also from the Ostrobothnian area like he was. Listening to the man's accent made him feel at home.
Now, though, the president had no time for idle talk. He was getting a visitor.
Positioned strategically in the hall, with his aide de camp standing by in the corner should anything be needed. Kallio watched the man enter the room. The presidential chauffeur had brought him over just minutes before.
It was a younger man than the president was. Well over a decade younger, in fact. The two men had a lot of history, though, having served together in the Eduskunta as early as 1907 – ten years before Finland's independence.
Sometimes one has to admit to being ancient, Kallio thought as his guest approached him.
”Mister President”, the man said, nodding.
With the help of his aide de camp and his ”bodyguard”, Kallio stood up from the wheelchair and shook the man's hand.
”Welcome to the Palace”, he said.
He then sat down, again helped to the wheelchair.
Together, the small entourage moved to the president's study, where Kallio asked his guest to sit down.
”I trust you know why I asked you to come here”, President Kyösti Kallio said to the younger man, who then nodded to him with serious look on his face.
”I think I do. But then, if you don't mind, I would very much like to hear it from you personally.”
Kyösti Kallio couldn't blame the man. These were strange days, and there were many rumours going around.
”All right. The long and short of it is that I want you to be the next Prime Minister of Finland. You know that we are in sore lack of one, due to very tragic circumstances, and I would be amiss of my duties as president if I did not appoint a new cabinet as soon as possible."
Juho Kusti Paasikivi nodded to the President of the Republic.
”I see. And what do the parties say?”
Kallio smiled.
”The Agrarians and the SDP are ready to support you. I've already assurances of that, I've spoken with Tanner and my own party's leadership. You'll have to talk with the National Coalition yourself, it being your own crowd. But I can't see them opposing you, honestly speaking. The rest is on you.”
”I see”, Paasikivi repeated. Kallio could see the wheels turning inside his head.
Then, the diplomat looked up and frowned to the man in the wheelchair.
”No perkele”, he said and shook his head.
”It can't be helped. I'll take up the offer, Mister President. So help me God.”
….
....
Notes:
[1] Talkoot. Finnish harvest in the 1930s worked through a system of mutual assistance where the villagers helped each other out in turn, to make it possible to have a large-enough workforce at each farm without needing to hire extra workers for the harvest season. The people taking part in the harvest bee did not get paid, but the master of the farm was responsible for providing hearty-enough meals to give them energy to complete a heavy day's work.
[2] The village's name translates literally into ”Moose Bay”.
[3] ”Menkee pojat kottiin ja pesulle. Työ ootta likasia ku elukat!”
...
To Be Continued
Eighteen: Veli, Sisko and Arvo
…
Veli
Veli Vaara felt tired, hot and dirty as he walked home with his younger brother. The harvest bee [1] had been at the Keinänen farm today, and he had worked the whole day under the hot sun, first cutting wheat with a sickle, then operating the threshing machine with Jalo Keinänen, the farmer himself.
”Thank you again, Veli”, Keinänen had said as the younger man was leaving, with his brother some of the last villagers to do so.
”Don't mention it”, Veli said, ”you already helped at Vaarala last week, so we're even now.”
Keinänen smiled.
”Even and even. Your Jorma did a lot of work this time around, he's already a man grown isn't he? Fancy the time passing so fast.”
Veli glanced towards the barn to see his brother Jorma, turning 18 next year, talking to a couple of the Keinänen boys, younger than him.
”Say that again. But then he'll be leaving for the army next fall, so then we'll again be one short.”
Keinänen, dirty, sweaty and already a bit weary himself, scratched his head.
”Oh, I had forgotten that. The Vaara family's really going all out to support the military, isn't it?”
Arvo's role in the relief effort for the artillery accident near Viipuri was the talk of the town. Some already called him ”the man who saved Mannerheim's life”. Veli did not really know how to take it all, and it appeared to him his father was having similar problems.
”I guess so”, Veli just answered to the man who was known as a good farmer and for his prodigious ability to father sons. Seven sons he had, and not one daughter. It was a common joke in Hirvilahti[2] that one of these days, Jalo's sons would marry all the girls in the village, and they would have to rename Hirvilahti into Keinälä.
”Isn't your Mikko turning 18, too, next year?”
”That's true. But then I have reserves, don't I?”, Jalo Keinänen said, smiling and winking, ”I can afford to send one of my boys to be dressed in military grey, with no major shortfall in workforce.”
Veli rather liked the man. He was decent, and a hard worker. And then he had the presence of mind not to borrow money from Salomo Vaara. It made it much easier for Veli to deal with Keinänen, not to have the shadow of financial affairs hanging over their dealings like he did with several other men in the village.
Keinänen was also one of the farmers in the village who had been only lightly hit by the Sylvi storm. Several farms had lost a lot of their crops in just a matter of hours. Vaarala itself was hit hard, too.
That made things wrought between Veli and his father. Well, more wrought, that is.
”What are you thinking?”, Jorma asked, rousing Veli from his thoughts.
”Oh, nothing”, the older brother said, looking beside him.
”How's your hand, by the way?”
Jorma had hurt himself starting the agricultural engine to run the thresher. It wasn't bad, but it appeared the event had hurt the young man's pride a bit.
”It's fine, stop asking about it”, Jorma said, sullen.
”Let Mum look at the wound in the evening, we don't want it to get infected now.”
Jorma kept his eyes on the road as he walked on.
”Yeah. I'll do that.”
Veli glanced at his grumpy little brother and smiled.
Life's hard, isn't it?
Passing by the Kerman farm to the left, only a little way to go to Vaarala, Veli let his eyes wander to the neighbour's fields. To his surprise, he suddenly realized that he was looking at a dark-haired woman walking up the path from the lakeside to the Kerman farmhouse.
By the looks of it, Emma Kerman was returning from the sauna, her hair still wet and her cheeks red. She didn't look at the two Vaara brothers passing on the road, but appeared to be deep in thought.
Jorma had noticed her, too. He nudged Veli with his elbow.
”A pity we didn't happen to pass by when she was swimming...”
Veli let his mind wander in that vein. Right then Emma looked directly at him, probably catching a goofy smile on his face. Feeling silly, Veli raised his right hand to the girl.
Emma just frowned at him.
”Go home, boys, and get washed. You're dirty like animals!”[3], she hollered at the Vaara brothers.
Was there a hint of a smile on her face when she turned away?
”She's got a point, you know”, Jorma said to Veli.
”The sauna's bound to be ready for us, anyway.”
…View attachment 385606
"Miscellanious photos from Finland: Harvest time."
Photo by Barbara Wright, US Library of Congress Photographic Collection.
...
Sisko
Sisko Vaara sat in a table at the Kappeli terrace in the Esplanadi park in central Helsinki, just off the Market Square. In her hand she had a glass of cold white wine.
This afternoon, the terrace was packed. The weather was fine, and people were trying to get what the could out of the last weeks of summer. People wandered past into the park. The general feeling in the Finnish capital was sort of subdued, though, Sisko Vaara thought.
For obvious reasons.
Sisko looked at the man sitting across the table from him. The man was sipping a glass of wine as well, absentmindedly eying the people passing the restaurant.
There was something in the man Sisko found different from the last time she had seen him.
Arvo Vaara turned his gaze towards his twin sister and raised his eyebrows.
”My brother, the celebrity”, Sisko said, and ironically raised her glass.
Arvo put on an ”aw, shucks”-face and waved his free hand.
”It's not that big a deal.”
”Not a big deal?”, Sisko asked, raising her voice, ”they went and put your face in the paper! And you'll get an actual medal tomorrow. It is kind of a big deal, whether you think so or not.”
The man in a spotless cavalry uniform smiled but said nothing. And that was what was different. Somehow, Sisko thought, her brother now seemed less pointed, less eager with quick comebacks then he used to be.
Is it because he is finally growing up? Or is it just shock from what he had gone through in Viipuri?
Arvo was certainly distracted. There was as if a shadow would have landed on him, and he could not shake it off. Sisko had been apprehensive about meeting his brother, due to the argument Arvo and Veli had gotten into back in Vaarala, but then when she brought it up, Arvo had claimed he had already made amends with his brother.
When would he have had the time?, Sisko wondered.
The military officer drained his glass and called over a waiter, ordering the same again.
”You're putting it away fast today”, Sisko observed. His brother appeared annoyed at the comment.
”I've still three days of my leave left before I have to get my sorry behind back to the barracks. I intend to make the best of it, sis. It might be a while before I get to visit Helsinki again, anyway.”
Sisko Vaara smiled to her brother, and stood up.
”You want to see Helsinki? Tell you what, brother – there's a party at the New Student House, put together by some of the guys at the Savonian Nation. It's starting any moment now. You want to have more to drink? There'll be cheaper drinks there.”
”Money's no issue to me, you know that”, Lieutenant Arvo Vaara said, straightening his back, ”but if you really want to show me how you academic people party in this here town, well, I am not going to put up a fight.”
Arvo stood up and offered his arm to his sister, who grabbed his brother with exaggarated vigor. The two then walked off.
Some seconds later, the young male waiter arrived with the glass of German white wine, to find the table empty. Annoyed, he took the glass back to the kitchen. He was pissed off for the stunt the young officer had pulled on him, but then he guessed the man was some sort of a celebrity. They had a habit of doing stuff like that.
And, anyway, it had been a very good-looking couple. That the waiter had to admit, despite everything.
View attachment 385603
"The Kappeli restaurant at the Esplanadi park was a popular summer spot in 1930s Helsinki."
Photo: The Finnish Military Museum.
"The Kappeli restaurant at the Esplanadi park was a popular summer spot in 1930s Helsinki."
Photo: The Finnish Military Museum.
…
The old man with a respectable-sized mustache sat in a wheelchair. He didn't like it, but then his doctor had insisted on it.
”Mister President”, the man had said, looking at him gravely, ”I will not have you putting yourself into any unnecessary physical exertion. I will not have your death on my conscience, if I can help it at all.”
So, he sat in a wheelchair, and the President's Office had assigned a man to push him around in it. The man was a police officer, broad of shoulder and strong as an ox. It made Kyösti Kallio happy that he was also from the Ostrobothnian area like he was. Listening to the man's accent made him feel at home.
Now, though, the president had no time for idle talk. He was getting a visitor.
Positioned strategically in the hall, with his aide de camp standing by in the corner should anything be needed. Kallio watched the man enter the room. The presidential chauffeur had brought him over just minutes before.
It was a younger man than the president was. Well over a decade younger, in fact. The two men had a lot of history, though, having served together in the Eduskunta as early as 1907 – ten years before Finland's independence.
Sometimes one has to admit to being ancient, Kallio thought as his guest approached him.
”Mister President”, the man said, nodding.
With the help of his aide de camp and his ”bodyguard”, Kallio stood up from the wheelchair and shook the man's hand.
”Welcome to the Palace”, he said.
He then sat down, again helped to the wheelchair.
Together, the small entourage moved to the president's study, where Kallio asked his guest to sit down.
”I trust you know why I asked you to come here”, President Kyösti Kallio said to the younger man, who then nodded to him with serious look on his face.
”I think I do. But then, if you don't mind, I would very much like to hear it from you personally.”
Kyösti Kallio couldn't blame the man. These were strange days, and there were many rumours going around.
”All right. The long and short of it is that I want you to be the next Prime Minister of Finland. You know that we are in sore lack of one, due to very tragic circumstances, and I would be amiss of my duties as president if I did not appoint a new cabinet as soon as possible."
Juho Kusti Paasikivi nodded to the President of the Republic.
”I see. And what do the parties say?”
Kallio smiled.
”The Agrarians and the SDP are ready to support you. I've already assurances of that, I've spoken with Tanner and my own party's leadership. You'll have to talk with the National Coalition yourself, it being your own crowd. But I can't see them opposing you, honestly speaking. The rest is on you.”
”I see”, Paasikivi repeated. Kallio could see the wheels turning inside his head.
Then, the diplomat looked up and frowned to the man in the wheelchair.
”No perkele”, he said and shook his head.
”It can't be helped. I'll take up the offer, Mister President. So help me God.”
….
View attachment 385598
"The new Finnish Prime Minister, J.K. Paasikivi.
Paasikivi, who just recently worked as the Finnish ambassador to Sweden, will lead a coalition cabinet of his own National Coalition Party, the Agrarians and the Social Democrats."
Dagens Nyheter, August 22nd, 1939.
"The new Finnish Prime Minister, J.K. Paasikivi.
Paasikivi, who just recently worked as the Finnish ambassador to Sweden, will lead a coalition cabinet of his own National Coalition Party, the Agrarians and the Social Democrats."
Dagens Nyheter, August 22nd, 1939.
....
Notes:
[1] Talkoot. Finnish harvest in the 1930s worked through a system of mutual assistance where the villagers helped each other out in turn, to make it possible to have a large-enough workforce at each farm without needing to hire extra workers for the harvest season. The people taking part in the harvest bee did not get paid, but the master of the farm was responsible for providing hearty-enough meals to give them energy to complete a heavy day's work.
[2] The village's name translates literally into ”Moose Bay”.
[3] ”Menkee pojat kottiin ja pesulle. Työ ootta likasia ku elukat!”
...
To Be Continued
- DrakonFin
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