Five: Veli (and Arvo)
...So, I can't think of a more precious land
Than is Savonia to me
And nothing more sweeter rings in my ears
Of anything God has created
Than ”dear land of Savonia!”
The Song of the Savonian had ended what Veli saw as the official part of the birthday party. Apart from the food, there had also been some singing, and of course a few obligatory speeches. P.V. Heikkinen had given the main congratulatory speech, solemnly recounting Salomo Vaara's importance to the province, the nation, and naturally to the party.
”...setting an example for all independent farmers, through his efforts for improving his holdings and introducing new, scientifically-based methods of farming and animal husbandry. And doing all this together with his ongoing work in the interest of developing the conditions of banking in these rural areas of Northern Savonia, too – we can all agree that in Salomo Vaara we can see the very picture of a patriotic, upstanding, hardworking, intelligent and enterprising man, a real man to look up to, also for his many children...”
Veli Vaara had looked at the men and women nodding at the speech, some more, some less earnestly. It was well-known that for all his good qualities, Salomo Vaara could also be very strict, overbearing and downright nasty to people who for some reason disagreed with him or did not correspond to his demands towards them. The man pushed himself hard, and then he expected all others to fulfill the same standards, whether or not they could or even
wanted to do that.
At the last part of the feast, Veli Vaara had started to feel that his suit was becoming very uncomfortable. His tie felt like it wanted to strangle him. He was used to much more loose-fitting clothes, like someone who lives and works on a farm often is, and he didn't like the crowd and the whole set-up of the big birthday party, either.
Happily, though, the official part had now passed and the tables started emptying out. A lot of the older guests were starting to leave – the ship would be raising steam for the trip back to Kuopio, to embark in a couple of hours.
Veli surreptiously removed his tie and immediately felt a measure of relief.
Arvo
The evening had come to the Vaara farm, and now there was music. Salomo Vaara and those older guests that had stayed even after the
Tähti left the Vaarala pier had mainly retired to the main building where Arvo thought right now another round of coffee was being served, along with a bit of cognac for the gentlemen.
But outside, the dances were starting. Together, the younger people of the village had converted a large hayloft to a party venue, and a couple of local musicians had been hired for the night to provide music. Magnanimously, Salomo Vaara had decided to allow this bit of fun to the young men and women of Hirvilahti, who were now arriving to Vaarala in ones, twos and small knots of people, coming up the slight incline from the direction of the village centre where the school, the co-operative shop, the Youth Society House and the sports field were situated in.
The August evening was starting to cool down outside. For Arvo Vaara, who had felt sort of hot in his old-fashioned uniform tunic the whole day, it actually felt better when the temperature started going down.
Like the day, the evening was clear and bright, with only a line of clouds visible on the horizon.
”
Mr Lieutenant, I have an important message for you, so to speak”, someone told Arvo and he turned around.
It was Rieti, the old boatman, who after learning of all the birthday party involved had decided to stick around. For the feast, and what would come after. He had a knowing smile plastered on his worn face, and he nodded towards the left.
”...Behind the corner, that is.”
Curious, the military man followed Rieti to the indicated direction.
There, out of a line of sight from the main building, the man showed him a wooden box hidden behind a small bush. Winking, Rieti kneeled and pulled out a bottle. Then he opened the cork and held it out for Arvo.
”A message in a bottle.
A song.”
Arvo smelled the bottle and took a small, tentative swig. And then he had to cough to clear his throat.
”Horrid”, he told the old boatman, ”but genuine stuff none the less”.
Rieti's smile grew wider.
”I have a good, ol' supplier out by Nilsiä way. A right professional, when it comes to high-grade moonshine, see, he's got it down to science, he has – and you gotta support the development of the local economy, what? That's what the man said earlier. I always keep a box in my boat, for dif'rent
contingencies, as it were, and now I su'posed this might be the right sort of occasion to bring it ashore.”
Now Arvo smiled as well.
”I'd say you weren't half wrong with that estimate.”
The two men haggled over the price for a while, and then arrived to an arrangement.
And so, another matter of importance was laid to rest.
Veli
Veli had stayed out on the yard talking to some of his team-mates about various things, including, but not limited to, pesäpallo, drinking some beer and smoking. Now he and a couple of the guys steeled themselves and took off towards where the music was drifting to the Vaarala yard.
Inside, a polka just released as
a lively harmonica rendition in the early summer by Viljo Vesterinen and the Dallapé Orchestra was being played from a gramophone while the live musicians were taking a break.
About forty young people were bouncing across the hayloft to the tune.
”Look at them go!”, Väinö Korhonen quipped to Veli and winked, turning his look back at Miina Juntunen going past him at speed.
Miina was one of the most buxom girls in the village, and Väinö now stared at her in a trance-like state.
”I say”, he said quietly and shook his head in admiration.
Veli Vaara, for his part, scanned the dim space lit by a few lanterns and the summer night's light that was still filtering in through the doors and a few windows.
There was someone he was looking for.
Finally, after a few moments, he spotted Emma Kerman, not dancing for the while but seemingly engaged in a discussion with one of the other girls, laughing and joking. She wore a blue dress, and there was something unbelievably fetching in the way she absentmindedly brushed a lock of her nearly black hair off her forehead.
Veli took a step or two towards the girls when someone stopped him.
”Veli, I'm happy I finally found you.”
Annoyed, he turned around to see a man a bit older than him standing there, looking nervous.
”
Yes, what is it?”, he snapped, more angry than he would have liked.
The man recoiled slightly.
”Sorry... to bother you... It's just that I...”, the man stammered.
Seeing the man's confusion, Veli relented and steered him outside.
While back on the yard, Veli looked at Heikki Hyvärinen levelly.
”Its quieter here. So, Heikki, what is it?”, he said, this time in a considerably more friendly tone.
”It's about our payment – it appears that we will be late again...”
Hyvärinen had taken a personal loan from Salomo Vaara to finance the purchase of his farm. And for a while, everything had worked out well. But as of late... While Heikki was a good, decent worker, he had been suffering of a recurring illness since the spring, and had had trouble working. And that had caused him to have trouble with his payments, too.
Heikki was a kindly, quiet and timid man, and he was downright
terrified of Salomo Vaara. The old man had chewed him up bad a couple of times, and as a rule after that he had wanted to avoid it happening again.
So, when there were problems with his payments, what Heikki did was to come to Veli first, with his cap in his hand. Even then, on such occasions he was always so nervous that it made Veli feel sorry for him.
”...So if you could break it to your father, maybe?”, the man said, with a pleading look in his eyes.
”Don't worry, Heikki”, Veli said, trying out what he thought was his most reassuring expression, ”we'll figure it out. I'll take it from here, don't worry.”
The two men shook hands, and Heikki left, looking thankful and relieved. Veli liked that look on the man's face a lot more.
By now, and especially since his brother and sister had left the farm for Lappeenranta and Helsinki, Veli had been getting more and more acquainted with acting as a buffer between his overbearing father and the world. De facto, the oldest
resident son of Salomo Vaara found himself increasingly working as an acting master of the Vaara farm, very much like a steward of his father's interests while Salomo again embarked on his far-flung bank-inspecting trips around Northern Savonia.
Veli liked to think he was decent at it, as well. In some ways better than his prickly father, even, at least when it came to dealing with different people and their various very human shortcomings.
After Veli got back to the hayloft, he again started looking around to spot Emma Kerman. The musicians had returned and were now playing a waltz that was a lot less rowdy piece of music than the recent polka had been.
After a while of searching, he realized Emma was already dancing with someone. Veli looked at the dark-haired woman spinning around the room, smiling, holding on to a tall, handsome man in a military uniform.
Arvo, he thought and felt a pang of jealousy gripping himself.
Feeling foolish just standing there, Veli Vaara took a few steps towards Esteri, the younger of the Ollikainen sisters, a little wisp of a girl in comparison to the tall Emma Kerman and bowed to her. With that pang of jealousy still animating him, Veli steered the girl to the dance floor with sudden force that surprised her.
”Veli...”, she said, with a hint of concern in her eyes, and the young man softened his grip.
”I am sorry, Esteri”, he said, trying out his first steps with the young woman who seemed so absurdly
light in his arms.
After the two had danced for a while, Esteri glanced at Arvo and Emma, and then looked at Veli with a knowing look.
”They look very good, the both of them”, she said quietly, ”especially your brother”.
”Hmm”, Veli just grunted to the girl with the blue eyes and the straw-coloured hair.
”Maybe it's the uniform”, the young man then said, gloomily. He had understood that women tended to like men in uniform a lot.
”It's not just that”, Esteri said, and leaned her head closer to his chest. She smelled of summer flowers, and now a slight red tint had crept to her cheeks.
And just then the waltz ended. Veli bowed his head to Esteri, quickly, and started looking for another opportunity to ask Emma to a dance. But now, both Emma and his brother had seemingly disappeared. Veli could not see them anywhere in the room.
Feeling ever more irritated, he again wandered outside and decided to smoke a cigarette. A smooth August darkness was falling all around, and the moon and the stars were starting to come out in the sky. Arvo crushed the butt of his cigarette under his shoe and looked up to the sky, seeing the familiar shape of the Big Dipper up there. Suddenly, he heard muted sound to his right and unthinkingly wandered that way.
Upon rounding the corner of the stable, he saw two people in the semi-darkness. A man and a woman, standing close to each other. And then he could see the couple kissing.
It was Arvo and Emma, Veli realized with a shock.
A heavy feeling of bitter jealousy washed over him.
Hoping the two did not see him, Veli turned around and made a beeline towards the hayloft. He did not join the dance again, however, but instead rounded the corner again and soon stood face to face with an older man.
”Now,
this surely looks like a man in need of a drink”, Rieti the boatman said to him, his face uncharacteristically earnest.
”You have no idea”, Veli said.
He took the proffered bottle and drank deep.
...
Young people dancing at the Pörsänmäki Youth Association House, Iisalmi, Upper Savonia, August 1939. Source: Finna.
...
To Be Continued
