This is a true story. Any similarities to people living or dead are intentional and no names have been changed in the retelling.
I hadn't been living in Finland long, a couple months at most. My apartment was small, old, a little decrepit and in the middle of the city. It was a great base of operations, close to my work and, the bars.
The weekend had started and it was Friday night in early December, and it was cold. The freeze had come early and it had dropped quite quickly to -15C and there was already a dusting of snow and more was floating gently down. It was two in the morning but unfortunately, I had run out of cigarettes. The service station store was open 24-hours and I decided to brave the cold for a pack, and perhaps some candy too.
I threw on a hoodie (The cold doesn't effect me much) and descended the stairs from the fourth floor and started to push through the glass door, but froze. Movement had caught my eye through the falling snow. Was that a ... It couldn't be.
But I kept watching and it kept moving. It was. A bear.
My logic told me I was wrong, as the chances of a bear being in the middle of the city were slim to none, but this is Finland and it has happened on occasion. And my eyes defied my logic. There it was, a smallish, maybe a juvenile brown bear about 30 meters away from me, rambling slowly from side to side in the carpark, not far from my car.
O-oh.
I watched it amble a little closer and then as it passed under a light, reality struck. I faced my fears and ventured out into the carpark, prepared to play dead, just in case. But, I was pretty sure there was no need.
The bear turned out to be a 60-something woman wearing a fur coat and a matching hat, crawling on all-fours. She was wearing a skirt, her knees and hands bleeding from having crawled from who knows where for who knows how long, smashed drunk. She was crying softly and every movement she made came with a "it hurts" whimper.
I recognized her as one of my neighbors, helped her to her feet and inside the door. I had to almost literally carry her, as she was so unable to stand and once I got her into her own door, I asked in Finnish,
Was it a good Christmas party?
And she responded:
"It was great!"
This is a good night out for A Finn.
For the rest of the time I lived in the building, she ignored me.
It is "Pikkujoulu" (Staff Holiday Party) season in Finland now and tonight, it will be the one for my company. There will be about 350 people attending from all over the world and while not all drinks are free, the alcohol will be flowing on personal accounts too - so I suspect there will be a few "bears" toward the end if the night. I won't likely be having too many myself, but I have said that before. Who knows, if I have enough, I might post an image of the view or something. Save people having to read all the typos.
The general rule of thumb is though:
Don't drink and blockchain.
I have failed to follow that rule a few times too....
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]