Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Why? Why is he in hiding?” I ask, panic coursing through me at the thought.
“I didn’t ask,” he says, pulling me to a stop and placing the keys in my hand. “I figured your father will explain when we find him.”
“And he didn’t tell you anything else?” I ask.
“He told me all I needed to know. In a few days, he’ll remember where his car is, but he won’t have any memory of us being here. In fact, if you were to go up and see him again, he wouldn’t remember us. But we got the information we needed. So now, the question is, do we drive tonight to see your father, or save it for tomorrow?”
I ask for the address and then plunk it into my phone. It comes up as being in the middle of a national park, just below the Arctic Circle, and a ten-hour drive.
“We’ll park the car by the hotel and head off early tomorrow morning,” I tell him.
He gives me a broad smile, the kind that lights up his face and makes the silver in his eyes shine. “Does that mean we have time for more cake tonight?”
“Is cake another word for sex?”
He laughs. “Cake is cake, sex is sex. I will always make time for both.”
The next morning, we wake up before dawn, which isn’t saying much, since it doesn’t get light outside until eight a.m. We didn’t get as much sleep as we would have liked—yes, there was sex, and cake, but Tuoni was also up late because of all the coffee he was drinking. Who knew caffeine could affect a god so much?
We pack up our stuff and get in the car, with our little hotel coffees to go. I’m behind the wheel while Tuoni watches the sunrise and the city slowly come out of the darkness and back to life.
By the time we’re five hours into the drive, I’m wishing I was the one staring out the window. It’s tiring driving, even though there’s not a lot of traffic on the highway, and the scenery hasn’t changed much—trees, trees, more trees, the occasional moose on the side of the road, which has Tuoni marveling at how their bones aren’t showing.
Another five hours, and we’re driving through the dark, pulling off the main highway and down a snowy road that hasn’t seen a snowplow in years. I don’t know how I manage to drive the car without sliding into a ditch or a tree, but the Finnish tires seem to do a good job at keeping us safe and straight.
Finally, I spot some lights through the trees, so faint at first that I think they could be stars, except the skies are cloudy. We pull up to a cabin at the end of a lake, similar to the house I grew up in but much, much smaller.
I kill the engine and stare at the cabin, at its fading red-and-white paint and the dark roof with solar panels, its black-trimmed windows with a faint glow coming from inside, and I wonder how my dad could be here, this far off the beaten path. And why?
Perhaps this isn’t even his place at all.
But then the porch lights come on and the door swings open, and my father steps out into the cold, bundling a scarf around his neck as he stares at us in wonder.
I give Tuoni a faint smile. “This is it. Let’s hope he doesn’t want to kill you on the spot.”
I open the door and step out into the snow.
My dad comes forward a few feet, squinting at me, before pulling out a flashlight and shining it in our direction.
Then, he stops at the edge of the porch, still clad in heavy slippers, and the flashlight drops from his hands and into the snow.
“No,” he says. “Hellvete, no. It can’t be.”
I smile and walk carefully toward him, not wanting to scare him.
“Hi, Papa,” I say softly. “It’s me.”
“No,” he says with a shake of his head, and with a painful pinch, I realize how much older he’s gotten, even in the last year. Time hasn’t been kind while I’ve been gone. “No, it’s not…you aren’t.”
“I am.”
I pick up the flashlight from the snow and step up onto the porch. We stare at each other for a heavy moment, so many words unsaid, and my father blinks at me, face blanching as if he’s seen a ghost.
Because he’s looking at one.
“Hanna!” he cries out softly, his face crumpling, and suddenly, any anger I’ve had towards him over his lies, over Rasmus and Salainen, all dissolve as he pulls me into a hug.
It’s like I’ve brought my father back from the dead again.
Except I’m the one who died this time.
He holds me tight, sobbing softly, and I hold him just as tightly back.