Winter in Finland is ice mean and it lasts long. Some years very long; especially if you are a foreigner to the Nordic lands. Sometimes winter pushes its way into spring and summer. These are the dark years. Years where you feel that the clouds have moved so low that they can reach your soul.
It is also confusing separating day from night through the winter. While in the north parts of the country there is no daylight at all, in the south and especially in Helsinki, there are some hours when natural lights tries hard to penetrate the clouds’ dark grey.
Your physical clock might say that it is barely afternoon, nature around you has put on pyjamas and is ready for bed. Six o’clock can give you the feeling of late at night and that you should never be out of your quilt. If you add to that, temperatures well under zero Celsius, then there are very few excuses to be out after six in the evening.
The man that was standing between the houses seemed to understand nothing of the above. In the pale glow of the small street light, he looked small and round. He seemed to embrace himself in an effect to keep all the heat his body projected inside his jacket and his breathe was visual from distance. The temperature had reached fifteen under zero but he was not moving. Just standing there looking at the building on the side of the street and especially at one balcony at the second floor.
Here and then you could hear noises and voices coming from the surrounding apartments but there was no movement in the little street and definitely nothing on the balconies.
After a few minutes he moved a bit his legs, just to make sure that they hadn’t froze and then he returned to his former position staring at the balcony of the second floor.
Around seven thirty a light turned on in the apartment and a shapeless shadow moved in front the balcony windows. The man instinctively moved a bit backwards wanted to minimize the possibility of being seen. The light in the apartment went off and in a few seconds another light; a much less bright one went on in the room. Then the balcony door opened and a woman came out.
Definitely a woman and the man’s posture betrayed recognition; more aware of him being there he tried to blend into the shadows in an effect to totally disappear from her view. The woman looked around like she was waiting for somebody and then she returned inside.
He suddenly started to move.
Half an hour later the only thing heard in the dark neighbourhood, in a frozen corner of Helsinki, was a brief scream and then silence.
The snow covered fast every other sound.
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Thanos' Pulp Fiction 