Free White Hunger (Chance Encounter Series) by Aki Ollikainen Page B

eyes are sunken and ringed with black. Juho and Ruuni are already snoring gently. Marja, too, closes her eyes.
     
    Marja rises from the hay. The barn walls have become even gappier. The wind sighs hoarsely, like someone suffering from pneumonia. Through the wall, Marja sees a three-legged figure approaching from far away in the field. Suddenly, she recognizes him as the man Ruuni bludgeoned.
    The man walks trouserless in the snow; a long member hangs between his legs, like a gigantic icicle. It ploughs a furrow in the icy field. The furrow fills with red blood.
    Marja is terrified. She presses herself against the wall and hopes the man will not see her. He is dragging himself past the barn when suddenly he stops and turns to stare with dead eyes, tongue hanging out indecently. And hiseyes smoulder with something that makes Marja freeze with horror.
    Until suddenly she realizes that it is Juhani. Her Juhani. But the relief is short-lived, for Juhani’s eyes are snowballs that crumble in the wind, leaving only black holes behind. Then a gust of wind blows Juhani, who has become mere snow, out of existence; slowly, her beloved is scattered all over the white field. Alarmed, Marja glances at Juho, who is lying in the hay. It is not Juho, though, but Ruuni, with whom she has just slept.
    And yet it is Juho, Ruuni never existed. Rather, her little Juho has grown up without her noticing and she has mistaken him for a man. She cries out, but the scream does not emerge – an invisible hand pushes it back into her mouth, which stays open. Marja cannot breathe.
    She realizes this is the same barn where she left Mataleena, and when she turns to look, Mataleena is lying next to her, white as snow, on a grey plank.
     
    Marja wakes up with a start and gasps for air. Cold penetrates her body from all directions. There is Juho by her side, and, pressed up against the boy, Ruuni. Marja tries to exhale the nightmare but it takes a long time for the images to leave her in peace. Then she shakes Ruuni awake.
    ‘We’ve got to be on our way. It’s too cold to stay the night here. It’ll be getting dark soon.’
    Ruuni wakes reluctantly. When he half-opens his eyes, cold rushes at him. When he closes them again, something drags him down deeper into the treacherous warmth of sleep. But Marja forces Ruuni and Juho to get up.
     
    Shadows lengthen. They begin spreading over the landscape, soon swallowing it up. The snow is deep; Ruuni and Marja take it in turns to carry Juho. Marja tries to hold on to the image of St Petersburg, but the city shrinks. A field of snow and a dark forest spring up around it, and finally the trees conceal the palaces, which flee into the distance.
    In the end, all that remains before her is a white track meandering between gloomy spruces. The snow casts a cruel light: teasingly, it reveals a road that does not shorten as you walk. Until suddenly, past a bend, there appears a narrow, frozen river with a wooden bridge, and a mill and mill-house looming on the other side.
     
    Without knocking first, Ruuni pushes the door of the mill-house open. The room is small. The miller lies wheezing on the couch. The bed is too short for him; the man lies oddly bent. The weak light draws deep shadows on the miller’s deathly pale face. He turns his face towards the door and looks at the visitors with empty eyes.
    ‘Scurvy,’ a voice says from the corner.
    Marja sees a grey-haired woman. On her head she wears a large woollen sock, which is unravelling above her forehead. Her tangled hair tumbles out from underneath. Marja looks at the miller’s foot. Long. He is a tall man. Was – he is not any more.
    ‘Shut the door,’ the woman orders. ‘There’s nowhere else to go in these parts. You won’t necessarily catch what he’s got, if you don’t get too close, but the frost will surely kill you if you run off into the night.’
    The woman promises Juho alone something to eat. The room is dim; the open fire flickers with a