1. Nightfall

Nightfall seemed to come even earlier today than on a usual winter day in Helsinki. Not that there had been much daylight anyway, but this late November Thursday had been particularly cold, dark, and snowy. Hands deep in the pockets of her thick winter coat a young woman trudges through the snow-covered streets. Long, blonde dreadlocks peaked out under her black hat, nearly falling down to her waist. Her boots left deep marks in the otherwise untouched snow, as even most Finnish people tended to stay inside due to the weather. It had snowed for the whole day already – and the day before as well as the day before that. Actually, it had snowed for the whole last week. It was the first, real snow for this year and while Lilja had been excited for it in the beginning, it already bothered her. It was her first winter in Finland, and even though she used to have snow in Germany before, winter in Finland was different for sure. It was darker, it was colder – and there was much more snow. Winter in Helsinki could be quite depressing, especially if you were new to the city. In summer people went outside, met friends, went to one of the many cafés, or hung out in parks around the city. During wintertime nobody wanted to stay outside longer than necessary, she even noticed attendance in class dropping once the temperatures went below freezing at daytime. She sighed. Not the best time for finding friends. Or at least getting to know anybody. While most people in her classes seemed to go along quite well, they usually glanced at her disapprovingly. Not that she wasn’t used to it, she had always been the ‘weirdo’. But still she had hoped that in a city as big as Helsinki she would be able to find friends. The only highlight, so to speak, had been the book club at university. Maybe because it was a place for all the nerds. She had to admit she fitted into that category. It was the only place where she at least dared to talk. Not that she had much to talk about anyway, but at least nobody scolded at her – or her accent. While she spoke Finnish fluently (which was a miracle seen how complicated that damn language was!), she never had to use it consistently before she went here.

Nevertheless, she had been invited to a birthday party. Jyrki Toivonen wasn’t somebody she would call a ‘friend’, he played in a different league than her. He was good-looking, popular and had a lot of friends. Consequently, half of the city was invited, and the thought about such a big party made her flinch. She was the opposite of popular, and she hated such big crowds, at least it wasn’t at a concert. She was afraid that Jyrki just wanted to embarrass her in front of all those people when she showed up alone. It had happened to her before, but she sincerely hoped he wasn’t one of those people. After all, he was the only social contact she made during the past months, and she didn’t want to screw it up. She wanted to find a nice present for him, and she wanted to impress him…somehow. There wasn’t much impressive about her, whereas his name had to be noted in the dictionary as the entry for ‘impressive’ with his height, the long black hair, and his gothic flair. Lilja sighed. She still wasn’t sure what to think about the invitation or how she would feel going there. But all the pondering wouldn’t be helpful, she had to find a present first.