Page 90 of Night and Day
After a feverish writing session, hiding at the far end of a dimly lit lounge, he’d spent the last flight snoring against the wing of his headrest, sleeping off the alcohol and exhaustion. Right now, he desperately needed a shower. Instead, he’d stripped in the bathroom and washed his upper body over the sink, ignoring the side-eyes from ghostly white, expressionless blond guys this country seemed to have an infinite supply of. Travelling had pushed him to his limits, but he’d survived.
Izzy rubbed his swollen eyelids, adjusting the guitar case on his shoulder. He’d arrived in Mia’s country, finally standing within the same national borders again. Now he had to find her. Thank God for the tracking app on the phone he’d given her. The idea had come to him right before the first flight, granting him the courage to board the plane. He’d downloaded the app and there it was, a blinking map marker in the middle of Helsinki, pointing to the location of his phone.
Mia had kept the phone on, maybe because of the Spotify playlists he kept updating. He’d tried to keep himself busy on the flights by building a new one of songs she might like, but it was difficult in an offline mode, and once he’d started drinking in Singapore, the song selection may have gotten a bit sappy.
As Izzy stepped outside the airport, the cold air hit him like a sucker punch to the lungs. How could anyone breathe in this country? He watched the stony-faced blondes in their thick parkas and woollen accessories lining up at a nearby bus stop, spaced two metres apart. Mia hadn’t been kidding.
Izzy checked his phone. According to the tracker app, Mia was in a suburb called Eira, by the seashore. Izzy stared at the street name, cold sweat prickling on his neck. There was no point in even attempting to pronounce it, just like there was no point in trying to take the bus. He had to show the map to the taxi driver, as soon as he located one somewhere.
The middle-aged driver nodded at his Visa card, and Izzy got in. After glancing at the map on his phone, the driver steered away from the airport. The latest model Mercedes Benz with a black leather interior looked identical to the other two taxis available. Izzy wondered if he’d somehow missed the budget options. There seemed to be no airport shuttle or Toyota Priuses. Inhaling a lungful of new car smell, he fixed his gaze at the window, mostly to avoid seeing the running meter.
It was late afternoon and fairly light outside, yet everything in the landscape looked white and grey as if the colours had come out in the wash. The sun hid behind a solid layer of clouds that didn’t crack despite the constant wind. Piles of dirty snow lined the roads. He’d landed on an alien planet inhabited by highly evolved beings who survived with the help of technology.
After a twenty-minute drive, they reached the city, the multi-lane highway turning into narrow roads lined with candy-coloured apartment buildings and leafless trees. A couple of times, a green tram clanked past. As they got closer, he caught a peek of the ocean, but the water looked odd. It must have been frozen, or partially frozen. Did sea really freeze? Maybe he should have brushed up on school geography instead of writing a book or mucking around on Spotify. He could have at least learned a couple of phrases in the native language, to seem like he was making an effort. Maybe that’s why the taxi driver seemed so miffed.
The driver had remained quiet for the entire trip, his eyes firmly on the road. Monotonous, foreign chatter on the Radio sounded like someone reading architectural drawings out loud. Finally, the driver stopped in front of a glass-covered office and said something he couldn’t follow, gesturing at the building. Izzy checked the tracker app. It was the right address.
“Thank you.” Izzy handed over his credit card and winced as his measly travel budget shrunk further.
He had enough for a few weeks, if he decided to never upgrade his computer. But since editing was his only source of income, he needed to keep something in the bank for a rainy day. The old machine could die any day. Financially speaking, travelling to Finland was the most ill-considered decision of his life. But surely there was still time to make worse ones, since he’d clearly lost his marbles.
Taking his suitcase and guitar, Izzy stepped onto the footpath, staring at the office building. Was Mia really here? It was Sunday, and she’d quit her job before travelling. Had she found another one, or were there apartments among the offices? Izzy double-checked the app, which insisted he was at the correct address.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the automatic glass doors.
Chapter 36
“Mia!” Mikko ambushed her as she stepped out of the staff kitchen with a cup of tea. “Everything ready for Tuesday?”
Mia jumped backwards, reeling from the sudden run-in. She’d returned to the office in the afternoon, hoping to find it empty. No such luck. Music was still blasting and two developers sat at their desks, hunched over their keyboards.
“Uh, yeah. I’m nearly done with the pitch,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “I’m just getting some graphics done by tomorrow. I’ll run you through it so you can practise.”
“But, you’ll pitch, right?” His gaze skittered around the room, his face a picture of abashment.
Mia sighed. “I’ll pitch.”
