172 / 194
156
“I’ll spring for the next round.”
“We’ll see. Jenna’s pregnant and she feels lost without me.”
I congratulated Tommy H. He’d been a satisfactory bed-
mate, if uselessly romantic at times. It was better for him to
spend his emotions on his wife.
Merja waved at me from behind her counter. I blew her a
kiss and left to do my security rounds. Petri was nowhere to
be seen that day. I caught a pair of teenage girls trying to
snatch some push-up bras. I threatened no gifts for the rest
of their lives unless the young ladies straightened out their
ways. Their response would have made gang members in
the Kerava Juvenile Prison blush. Long live gender equality.
I left them waiting for the police in the store detectives’
room.
On Sunday the sleet blew horizontally. The storm winds
brought down one of the Christmas light garlands over the
store’s main entrance and it knocked a passerby
unconscious. From the coffee shop window next to the
cosmetics department, I watched as Petri called an
ambulance for the old woman. After it had come, he stayed
standing on the sidewalk even though the sleet had soaked
his light-blue Oxford shirt so thoroughly his nipples
showed through it. I turned away when he changed
position. His profession required him to be able to
distinguish one from another among us Santas. I drew back