TAMMILEHTO LEGACY CHAPTER 4.2

It was already late evening but in the downtown of Bluewater the windows of an office building clearly showed that there were many people still working. In one of those offices a very small, but important meeting was about to take place.

”Oh, you are here too”, the guy in grey suit said with a tone that made it quite clear he didn’t like what he was seeing.

”Yup, Ms. Rusanen asked me to come, if it wasn’t for her natural attractiveness, I wouldn’t have bothered, knowing you were coming too”, the guy with the hat said with equally unfriendly tone.

”Guys, just take a seat, we don’t have time for that”, Ms. Rusanen said, ”and Jiri, please don’t call me Ms. Rusanen, the way you say it doesn’t make it sound exactly respectable”, the woman told him and then muttered herself, ”which, without a doubt, is exactly your point.”

”I take it that you both know each other?”, Ms. Rusanen said and as they both nodded somewhat reluctanly, she continued, ”and please, both of you, just call me Taina. Aaro”, she adressed the guy in grey suit, ”we have a problem, a very serious problem.”

The guy who had just been adressed glanced quickly at Jiri, ”based on your tone and for the fact that he is here, it is very serious problem.”

Taina nodded, ”indeed. Ever since our, maybe I should already say, former colleague, Kalle Makkonen disappeared I have been doing my own research about the case. How well do you remember what happened? Aaro you had talked to him just a while before he disappeared?”

Aaro nodded, ”he acted quite weird though, as if someone was listening and I understood that he was seeing some woman. I tried to press him upon the matter, saying that it probably wasn’t wise but he only said that he had the situation under control. Then he also said something about keeping the woman busy, whatever that meant and shortly after that he went missing and I can’t figure out how but I take it that you have an idea?” All of this came very fast as if he was nervous to talk that long in front of these people.

This time it was Taina’s turn to nodd, ”I have an idea. I don’t know if you remember but just before he vanished there was a small news about a death of certain Maya Tammilehto, nothing fancy, tragic death, left baby behind and so on. I probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to it if the name hadn’t caught my attention.”

As she saw that both men nodded in understanding she continued, ”don’t you think it is just a bit odd that first Kalle says that he is seeing someone and is ’intending to keep her busy’, then we read about a death of someone who has the same last name as our biggest customer and there is a baby left behind, whose birth just happens to fit in the time line we have here?”

Aaro looked shocked, ”you… you certainly don’t mean that Kalle was seeing one of Tammilehtos? How could he be so stupid?”

This time it was Jiri who spoke, ”maybe he didn’t know what her last name was?”

”He didn’t know what her last name was but still made her pregnant?”, Aaro looked indignified but Jiri only grinned,

”I don’t know the last names of most the girls I’m seeing, I don’t even think I know the first names of half of them.”

Aaro snorted, ”you disgust me.”

”But he is most likely right”, Taina said, ”this doesn’t mean that we are any closer knowing where Kalle is, as much as I have used all my contacts I’m nowhere even close to find him but now we know at least why. And we also know that our business here might be in danger as we can’t be certain what the family knows by now. I know”, Taina said quickly when she saw that Aaro was going to say something, ”that he said he was being careful but still, we can’t afford to ignore it. I made a search about the family and it looks like they have some family members in high positions, not that I’m surprised, their ancestor was one of the biggest business tycoons ever after all, and it means that they have plenty sources to find out more if they really want to.”

”You both know what’s at stake”, she said seriously and continued, ”you also know what that means. I have heard that the family has a habit of inviting the whole family over when there is a birthday and as it happens, at their main house, as I like to call the first of their houses in this area, is going to be a huge birthday party as all of their four children have a birthday at the same day. If my sources aren’t completely mistaken, the whole family should be present.”

With that Jiri stood up, ”I take it that you want me to do the job?”

Taina nodded, ”eliminate the family.”

Lucky for Ms. Rusanen and her companions, unlucky for the family, one of the people who probably had the access to most of those mentioned sources happened to be on maternity leave.

”Risto”, Sade shrieked partly from pain, partly from excitement, ”the baby… it just kicked me!”

”There, can you feel it too?”, Sade said as Risto had immediately rushed to feel it himself too.

”Wow”, Risto breathed, ”yeah, I can definately feel it.”

”We really are going to be parents”, Sade smiled happily.

”Now you get that?”, Risto smiled equally happily.

Sade laughed, ”it just feels more real now than it did before.”

Risto pulled her to a hug and without another word they just stood there hugging each other without pickering, without disagreements, just in perfect understanding.

Even though Sade was happier about the coming baby than she had never thought, she couldn’t help that she was getting bored. Staying at home didn’t suite for her at all. Of course the dogs took care that she wasn’t completely jobless and then eating and sleeping seemed to take surprisingly lot of her time.

But even so, she was getting bored and thought that surviving the maternity leave was bigger challenge than any of her working tasks as double agent, elite operative or now as a head of the SCIA had been. The thought made her laugh, should the other agents see her now and she would never again have quite the authority she was used to have!

”Still in one piece?”, Risto asked as he snuggled next to her to take a nap too after returning from work. They both had stayed up late on the previous night decorating the room for the baby and Risto had to leave to work without good night’s sleep and Sade had by now used to sleep on the weirdest times anyway.

”Yeah, just, I think I will simply explode some time soon. What are you doing in the bed?”

”I need a nap too, I don’t think I can’t keep my eyes open for much longer, you don’t mind?”

”Of course not”, Sade said and felt Risto’s hand on her belly and smiled, ”just let me sleep and don’t wake the baby.”

After waking up from their nap Sade went to make some dinner but as she was just about to start eating she felt a pain in her stomach that didn’t feel anything like the baby’s kicks had been and she yelled in pain causing Risto to run to the kitchen.

”Are you ok?”, he asked shocked.

”I… think so… it is just… that the baby is coming.”

”Now?”, Risto asked even more shocked.

”Right now.”

”See, I told you it was going to be ok”, Risto told Sade who laughed relieved tnow that the pain was over.

”I only remember you panicking more over it than I did so if you said anything like that, I didn’t hear.”

Sade grinned as she heard Risto muttering something about false accusations.

”Just come and meet your son if you have calmed down already.”

”I’m calm”, he tried and took couple shaky steps towards Sade.

”Would you like to hold him?”, Sade asked Risto.

”Me?”

Sade laughed, ”do you see other people around?”

”But… what if I break him or something?”

”Nonsense, if my brother can hold a baby, and apparently he has been doing that a lot lately and hasn’t broken any of them, you can as well.”

”Good point”, Risto admitted.

”See, he is still alive”, Sade smiled fondly at Risto.

”Miraculously”, he only managed to say, ”he is so tiny, why they have to be this tiny?”

”Just try to push something like that out of your body and I can quarantin that change your opinion about being tiny. Anyway, we need a name.”

”What do you think about my earlier suggestion?”, Risto asked her.

”You mean using your second name since you never use it anyway?”, Sade asked and as Risto nodded she looked at their son, ”I think he does look like Petteri.”

At the Tammilehto-Puljula household Touko was putting Minna to her crib and was just goint to go downstairs to play some pool when he felt a tuck on his pants. As he looked down he saw Mari who was clearly demanding him to read a story.

Touko sighed, ”with you and your sister around I don’t have any time for my own hobbies anymore, you know that little monster?”

”Yay! Monster!” Mari laughed happily.

”That’s right”, Touko laughed and muttered, ”not that I mind.”

Touko was opening the book that he had picked from book case searching for a tale that Mari always wanted to hear, the one with the princess and knights, naturally.

”Do you know what day it is today?”, he asked Mari and continued, ”it is your birthday and we will soon have guests here to celebrate it. And cake too, you can get some cake this time.”

”Cake!”

”Yes, cake.”

”Now?”

Touko laughed, ”not now, later.”

Before the big birthday party at the main household it was time for smaller party for Mari. Only people invited were Tuisku, Sade and Lumi, three people that were closest to Meri.

”Nice quick blow and you are ready to grow up”, Meri tryid to reassure Mari, not that she much needed it, she was quite eager to see what would happen once the candles were out.

As was everyone else. With loud cheers Mari got to her feet carefully and wondered what the tickling ment…

… and before she even realised the tickling was already over.

”Whoa! That was great! Can I do it again?”

Lumi laughed behind her, ”you have to wait few years for that.”

”Hmm… ok. But now the cake!”

After that the people chatted happily, ate some cake and as was usual at the parties had a pillow fight or two.

After all of that, Mari was more than ready for bed and when Inka went to tuck her, she was already fast asleep.

At the Kurvi household the life was going on its usual ways. Amatius and Lumi were both working hard to get their final promotions. Amatius was motivated by the fact that after that Pyry could finally retire, something he had been waiting for a while.

Lumi on the other hand couldn’t wait to get rid of her job behind the office table as a police chief and to finally get to do actually something that didn’t involve so much paper work.

”Why do I need to know all of this?”, Aleksi complained to his father, ”why do I need to know what are the Europe’s biggest rivers or what the biggest cities are called?”

”That’s called general knowledge that everyone just has to know. If you don’t, it would make your life quite difficult after a while since you wouldn’t know what everyone else is talking about and you wouldn’t understand what half of the news meant.”

”But still… I can always look them up in the internet”, he continued complaining.

Amatius sighed, ”even so, your brain is the fastest search engine there is – if you have all the information in it, that is. Besides, you would have finished that by now if you hadn’t wasted so much time in complaining.”

”Do you know the Europe’s biggest rivers?”, Aleksi asked Tuisku when he came for a visit on next day.

Lumi laughed behind him, ”you don’t know who you are asking now.”

”What do you mean?”

”Tuisku happens to be a professor and I bet he will be education minister in no time.”

Aleksi laughed as well, ”really? You? Wow! But do you know the rivers?”

”Of course, Rein, Danube, Seine, Rhone… how many do you want, I can still name a few?”

Aleksi looked crestfallen, ”you actually knew that?”

”But of course I knew, and if you don’t by now, it is about time you go back to learn them.”

”I know them… almost…”

”Well, in that case there is something funny I can show you.”

”Yiihaaa!!! This is sooooo coooool!”

After few rounds Tuisku had to let him down though, his hands couldn’t take it much longer.

”When can we do that again?”, Aleksi asked hopefully.

”As soon as you know all the European capitals by heart.”

Aleksi sighed, ”you are booooring.”

Tuisku grinned, ”isn’t that what they always say about professors?”

Tuisku’s own kids, Tuuli and Pilvi, didn’t know anything about the biggest rivers in Europe or what the capitals were, not quite yet at least. What they also didn’t know, was that it was their birthday on the next day and the whole family was invited and everyone was coming as well, except Inka and the smallest of the generation 4, Petteri and Minna. Sade had first thought of having a nanny but Meri had suggested that she could bring Petteri to their house and Inka could look after them both. And as Inka had had nothing against it, it was agreed.

It was also going to be birthday for the younger set of twins, Usva and Myrsky.

”You are almost sleeping there already. Maybe I just give up with feeding you and take you to your crib”, Pyry was talking to Myrsky, ”tomorrow is going to be a big day”, then he sighed, ”even though it just reminds me how fast I’m getting older when I see you grow up.”

”Hello Kitt”, Sade said to Aleksi as they had been the first guests to arrive.

”I don’t like to be called kid”, he complained.

”I didn’t say you were a kid, but Kitt”, Sade explained, ”you wanted to be a knight right?”

”What is Kitt?”, Aleksi demanded and while Risto grinned Pyry started to explain.

”You see, there was this fancy car with funny lights…”

As rest of the guests arrived, it was finally cake time. Even though the youngest ones were in a hurry and both grew up before anyone managed to blow the candles for them.

”You were in a hurry”, Pyry laughed for Usva who was happily giggling in his arms, ”let’s see how your brother did, he seemed to be as much in a hurry as you were.”

It seemed that Myrsky had done just as well as Usva and grew up to be a very adorable toddler.

Pilvi and Tuuli at least waited for blowing the candles before growing up so the guests got something to cheer for.

And cheer they did, first to Pilvi…

… and then to Tuuli who clearly wanted to grab a piece of the cake right away.

Almost at the same time they grew up, Tuuli looking like a princess.

”I got to be a knight, you got to be a princess, cool!”, Aleksi was whooping behind her.

Pilvi grew up in a more normal costume and to her disappointment, her hair changed too. But like Titta said, the dresses and hair were something that they could fix later on.

After that the party could really start, and it was busy with two toddlers on the floor, four kids when Aleksi and Mari were counted and quite a big number of adults.

”Why don’t I have any sisters or brothers?”, Aleksi asked Lumi, ”I want some too.”

”Sisters or brothers aren’t something that just fall from the sky”, she told him, ”but you can come and play with Pilvi and Tuuli often and also invited them home, Mari too.”

”That will be cool! We can play cops and robbers, they can be robbers and I will be the cop like you!”

Even though the house was full of people, there at least was enough cake.

”That is the last piece then Pilvi”, Titta said to Pilvi, ”no more cake for you today. Tuuli, where are you running to?”

”I’m cleaning the empty plates.”

Titta sighed, ”no need to run, you can just walk.”

”Mum said that I can come and play here with you”, Aleksi said to Tuuli.

”Great! We also have a pond, maybe we can go fishing too.”

”Awesome! Can we go now?”

Tuuli looked out of the window, ”it is getting dark and mum and dad wouldn’t like if we went out when we have guests inside.”

”No one would notice”, Aleksi tried.

”I think they would”, Tuuli assured him.

”Dad, do we have to stand here for a long still?”, Pilvi asked as Tuisku was taking a picture of the two birthday girls after they had finally made it to the wardrobe and Titta had fixed their hair.

”Just a short moment, I want a nice picture of you two.”

”Ok dad… but be quick, we want to go back to play with Aleksi.”

”Fine fine… you can go now, I need to take your brother to bed now, he is quite tired.”

The party was going to continue yet couple more hours but for the smallest ones it was just too much.

”Let’s take you to bed, what would you say little man?”

Myrsky only reached his arms to Tuisku and yawned heavily.

”That says it all, let’s go.”

After putting Myrsky to his crib Tuisku frowned, listening. The house was full of noise but that sound didn’t seem to belong there, as if someone was walking on the outside terrace. No, he must be imagining it and he turned to walk back to the living room.

At the hallway his first thought was that someone would need to change the light bulb as the light had gone out. Then he almost jumped when Maks let out a bark right next to him.

”What’s wrong boy? You don’t usually bark?”, Tuisku asked Maks and tried to stroke him but he only turned to the door staring out and barked again. Tuisku looked through the glass doors too.

”What the hell…?!”

There was someone on the terrace, someone who most certainly shouldn’t be there and the only thing that came to his mind was to go and check who that someone was. The wisest thing would have probably been to call out to the other people but there was no time and he would need to yell very hard to make himself heard anyway over all the music and talk.

”What are you doing here?”, Tuisku yelled at the stranger while Maks was growling at him, something he never did to anyone.

”Take that dog out or I will blast this whole place”, the man replied without even bothering to get up.

”I don’t think so”, Tuisku said with a confidence that he didn’t know he had, the only thought he had was to protect the family, but how? There was no time to call for help, the man was working with something that had to be a bomb, even he could tell that and would really blast the whole place.

But then he remembered a phone call with his father while he was at the college. ” Then he gave a present to your mum and when we opened it at home, we found some kind of a doll inside. I don't know what it does, but your mum is worried that it has some kind of powers, she has said that she isn't going to use it and recommends that no one else should either. I don't know why she is so worried about it but she said something about it being cheating and said that we should only use it in grave danger. A bit melodramatic if you ask me.”

If this wasn’t grave danger then what was? Tuisku didn’t have any idea how the doll worked but he had been carrying it with him ever since he arrived home from the college intending to find out but hadn’t had time yet. He just pulled the doll out and pointed it to the stranger willing it to work, putting all his will power to it.

”Please let this help…”, he muttered to himself.

To his surprise and great relief, it worked and the doll started to shine and sparkle and hit the stranger with something that must have hurt as the stranger swore loudly and clearly in pain. As peaceloving person as Tuisku was, he didn’t feel sorry for him, not even for a moment. Here was someone who had intended to blast all of them, he didn’t care what the doll did and how much it hurt, the main thing was to get this man out of their yard as soon as possible.

After the first blast from the doll, Tuisku was prepared to use it again but the stranger ran away before he could aim the doll again and disappeared into the night.

No one had heard a single thing inside but Sade had just happened to be going to the toilet when she saw what was going on after calling out for Lumi to come outside.

”What is going on here?”, puzzled Lumi asked Tuisku who told briefly what had happened. He was still out of breath and felt rather shaken.

”Did you see his face?”

”I did… but nothing much I can tell, it is dark here and it was over so fast, I bet he broke the lights out here too, these are usually on”, Tuisku told her.

”Did you see anything?”, Tuisku asked once Sade was back.

”Nothing, just leaving car, he must have had a car here waiting.”

Lumi was twisting his hands in frustration, ”I bet he was hired by the law firm we know all too well by now. Why else would someone attempt something like that?”

”Attemp what?”, Sade asked as she hadn’t heard Tuisku’s explanation.

”He tried to blast us all”, Tuisku told her grimly.

”WHAT?”, Sade yelled but continued with lower voice, ”that was well planned, someone must have known that the whole family would be here, had he succeed…”

”Petteri would be the only one to continue the family legacy”, Lumi finished her sentence.

All three of them shuddered.

”Ok, so someone wants to kill our family, we have been suspecting that someone wants to harm us but now we know. And apparently they don’t hesitate just to blow up a house full of people”, Sade thought aloud.

”And they will try again”, Lumi continued.

”What should we do?”, Tuisku asked, ”we were lucky this time but when… if the next time comes, what then?”

”I wish I could say that I will put the whole office after these bastards”, Sade grimaced, ”but I can’t, they aren’t mine to use as personal bodyguards as much as it pains me to say that.”

”I have the same problem”, Lumi said, ”we also don’t have any evidence that would link the stranger to the law firm so I can’t get anyone to act either. I can call my colleagues and they will come and get your statement about all of this, they will look around, maybe look for finger prints but I don’t see how those would be to any use.”

Sade nodded, ”exactly. But I won’t leave this here, I will poke around as much as I can.”

Lumi went to see the place the guy had been when Tuisku first came outside.

”I don’t like the sound of this”, Tuisku confessed to Sade, ”are we just going to sit down and wait when some other mad man comes and blows us up?”

”No”, Sade said firmly, ”first of all, you will move.”

”Move? But…”, Tuisku started to complain but Lumi interrupted him.

”I don’t see anything here, completely clear, whatever he had, was so small that he took it when you came out. Not that it means it wouldn’t have been effective, the size doesn’t really mean anything”, Lumi told them, ”I will get my colleagues to take your statement anyway and take a look around here, at least we have something to show if something happens again.”

After that Lumi left inside to call and to inform the other family members what had just happened leaving Sade and Tuisku outside.

”Yes move”, Sade continued, ”they know where you leave and they are after you. Someone wants to prevent our family line continueing and you know that after meeting a concrete evidence about it tonight. The only option is that you move, as fast as possible, get secret phone numbers and I will personally make sure that your address won’t be found in any database.”

”You really are professional in these kind of things”, Tuisku said looking thoughtfully at Sade.

”I don’t think they made me head of the SCIA for nothing”, Sade grinned somewhat gloomily and continued, ”I have two puppies who will be adults soon, I will give one for Lumi and another one for Meri, you have Maks here. I think that all of the family members should have dogs and fully fenced yards with LOCKED gates and full alarm system from now on, just in case.”

”I still don’t like this, we have to suffer because someone wants to kill us, we have to go hiding because they are after us and what is it that they do? They probably live nice, easy life somewhere where they don’t have to worry a thing!”, Tuisku exploded, the evening was finally becoming too much.

Sade laughed and Tuisku looked at him, ”what are you laughing at?”

”I agree with you that it sucks to restrict your life because of something like this but do you really think that people who can be behind something like this could live easy life? That they would be happy and carefree, ever? For example the guy who just ran from here is probably swimming in cold sweat by now because he failed. The life that they have is definately something I wouldn’t like to have.”

”So this is better?”

Titta looked at Tuisku when he and Sade came back inside.

”What is it? Lumi said that…” but Tuisku interrupted him.

”Later”, he only told her, ”after the kids have gone to bed.”

Luckily the kids hadn’t noticed anything and that was how it was going to be as far as their parents were concerned. They didn’t need to worry anything that big for a long time. Instead they were very curious about their new bedroom upstairs.

”This is pretty”, Tuuli said, ”but I’m not tired.”

”I’m not tired either but they told us to go to bed”, Pilvi told her.

Tuuli grinned slightly, ”they told us to go to bed but did they say what we should be doing there? No, they didn’t.”

Pilvi grinned too, ”are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

”Yep!”

And after the girls had changed to nightgowns obediently, instead of sleeping they started jumping on their new beds.

”No one here to see and tell us off!”, Tuuli shrieked with laughter.

”And everyone else is downstairs, they can’t hear us either!”, Pilvi laughed.

All of the adults were indeed downstairs, Pyry had also gone outside to see the place himself even though Tuisku had told him that there was nothing to see and Gunnel was having a shower.

”So someone really tried to kill us”, Titta was saying to Tuisku.

Tuisku sighed and looked carefully at her, last time that they had had a threat like this, their whole marriage seemed to be in danger. Titta noticed his look and continued,

”I’m not leaving you, not anymore but I just want to know the truth.”

”Yes, someone tried to kill us and Sade reckons it was planned to happen tonight when the whole family was visiting, apart from Petteri of course but I don’t think it would have been any problem for them to get one baby killed if they could kill houseful of people just like that.”

Titta nodded, ”true. But even after we move, how about the kids and school, should we start driving them to school?

Tuisku thought this for a while, ”I think they are safe at school and after all they take a bus there instead of walking.”

”But even then… are the kids ever going to be able to live free life, do they always have to be on the lookout? Do we have to be always on the lookout whenever we go to the shop or to a park or whatever?”, Titta asked, resigned.

”I guess that taking some precautions wouldn’t harm but I don’t think they try to kill us one by one. What was supposed to happen today could have explained to be accident, how do you make 8, or 11 if you count Sade’s family, separate accidents to happen without someone noticing what is going on? At least Sade will make sure that our address won’t be listed so we are safe at home.”

”I’m just glad you heard the guy, if you hadn’t… if he had…”, but her voice trailed off as tears started trickling down to her cheeks. Tuisku reached his hand to wipe them out and then took her hand squeezing it gently.

”But I did hear it and he didn’t succeed. It is better if we don’t think what could have happened but focus on what actually happened and what will happen now. Ok?”

Titta nodded, ”ok.”

At Puljula-Tammilehto household Mari had brought Aleksi home from school with her.

”Does your mother know that you are here?”, Touko asked Aleksi.

”Yeah, she does.”

”And she is coming here anyway for the birthday so can Aleksi please stay here until then?”, Mari asked eagerly.

Inka looked at her, ”I think he can, just make sure that you get your homework done.”

”And it wouldn’t hurt for Aleksi to do your homework too, if you are going to stay for the party, you will be home quite late.”

Before the guests arrived Mari and Aleksi actually finished their homeworks and had even time to play. The party was again small one with the usual people.

As Minna became toddler, it was clear who her mother was as she took after her in many features, just with deliberate mistakes such as her mouth which was clearly from Johannes.

Aleksi and Meri complained that playing mahjongg was boring with that just two people and managed to persuade Sade and Tuisku join them too.

”Mum said that you know many things, is it true?”, Mari asked Sade who smiled.

”Depends what kind of things you mean.”

”Tuisku also knows many things”, Aleksi told her, ”ask him anything and he can tell you because he is boring professor.”

Tuisku laughed and after seeing a puzzled look on Sade’s and Mari’s faces quickly explaned where that comment came from.

”But you don’t know how to find missing people, right?”, Mari looked Tuisku who had to admit that indeed, he didn’t.

”And you know?”, Mari turned back to Sade.

”That’s part of my job, so yes, I know. Why?”, she asked curiously.

”Oh, no reason, just thought it would be interesting to know how you do it.”

”That is too and complicated to explain here”, Sade said casually and glanzed at Tuisku, this possibly couldn’t mean anything good.

One morning when Mari woke up she found Johannes sitting on the floor with Minna.

”What are you doing?”, she asked as she was sliding down from her bed.

”I’m teaching your sister to talk but she doesn’t seem to like the idea.”

”You mean she doesn’t know any words yet?”, Mari asked, stunned.

”Hardly”, Johannes sighed but then clapped his hands as Minna had finally got at least one word right.

”But I know all the words!”, Mari told him, ”and look what I also can do! I bet she can’t do this!”

”Wow, you are good!”, Johannes cheered at her but couldn’t help thinking at the same time that if they weren’t careful with their two daughters, they would soon have trouble with Mari.

Even though Mari might have been a bit jealous about their parents attention but at least she liked her sister and could have found playing with her quite often.

”Grandpa”, Mari started, ”I asked Sade and she said that she knows how to find people who have disappeared but that it is difficult. How difficult it is?”

”It depends about many things”, Touko said and thought for a moment how to form what he had in mind, ”how far they are, if they left any hints where to go and also where they are. Some places are more difficult to search than others.” Touko watched as Mari was eating her omelette and asked after a while.

”Why do you want to know?”

”Oh, no reason… maybe I will be like Sade one day”, Mari said casually and continued eating.

”And maybe I will go and find my father one day”, she said while playing with his omelette.

Touko’s fork stopped midway to his mouth, ”I don’t think that is… that it is wise.”

”Why not? He is my father right? And he has disappeared? Why couldn’t I find him?”

”That’s complicated”, Touko only said, he didn’t think it was his place to explain any of this for Mari.

”Grown ups always say that”, Mari said grumpily but dropped the subject anyway.

People at the main household had gotten over the worst shock as the everyday life continued, with small kids around it was important to keep the life as normal as possible. Titta even got herself a job, she was afraid that she would get mad if she wouldn’t have anything else to distract her about what possibly laid in the future.

It was again time for toddler training and once again it was done quite fast with the help of two grandparents who simply adored their grandchildren.

”I’m nice girl now?”, Usva asked Titta as she was potty training her.

”Yes you are, very nice girl”, Titta said and wondered how different it was with these two, whatever they were thaught, they just took everything in, focusing on the matter at hand almost as long as their parents or grandparents wanted.

It was also something that Gunnel and Pyry had noticed, Tuuli and Pilvi had always been eager to start learning everything new but their attention span seemed to be shorter then Usva’s or Myrsky’s.

”You know”, Pyry said to Gunnel, ”these two remind me of Tuisku, he was like this at their age too.”

Of course the life wasn’t all just learning. Both of the twins were more than eager to hear a story, or more likely stories and could sit down listening to them as long as someone wanted to read them.

However, that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t get themselves into trouble at all. Especially Myrsky went to Maks’s food cup as soon as there was no one to run after him.

”can you come here? Mari is already here and it would be awesome to go and play to our playfield all four of us. Your mother said that you can come here right?”

”…”

”Good, see you soon then!”, Tuuli put the phone down and turned to Mari who had come home from school with her, ”Aleksi is coming too. Let’s go!” With that the two girls ran to the play field.

”Wait for me!”, Pilvi yelled as she was sliding down the stairs to be down faster.

”Mum has said that we can’t do that”, Tuuli told her.

”You do it too, I have seen you.”

Tuuli grinned, ”ok, I don’t tell her that you did it and you don’t tell her I did it?”

”Deal”, Pilvi grinned back.

And what fun it was! Mari and Aleksi were both happy to have someone at their own age to play with and Pilvi and Tuuli were happy to have even more playmates.

They had had so much fun actually that Johannes had to come and pick up Mari who refused to come home even it was already dark.

”Come on, dad, I will just climb up one more time and then I will slide down so you can see!”

Johannes sighed, ”fine, one more time but then we go. I don’t think you have your homework, have you?”

”Ooops?”

”Ooops indeed, now go fast so we can go home.

”Do we really have to leave this house?”, Gunnel sat next to Pyry on the couch, ”it has so many good memories in it.”

Pyry pulled her next to him and looked at her, ”but you know we are moving so that we can get even more of those memories where as here… Here we might just lose everything.”

”I know, it is just… unfair.”

”Are you alright?”, Pyry asked concerned.

Gunnel smiled, ”I think I will be, I’m just a bit shaken, it was hard to realise that someone actually wants to… you know.”

”I know, but we have a brilliant, genius, daring daughter who will look after us, don’t you think?”

”Not to mention a son who just saved all our lives”, Gunnel continued.

”Exactly”, Pyry agreed, ”and we have each other.”

”Thank god for that”, Gunnel smiled at him.

Pilvi and Tuuli were quick to find the pleasures of piano and the joy in dancing. Something they did whenever the homework was done, if they weren’t jumping on their beds that is. Tuisku and Titta had both told them off from doing that uncountable amount of times but it didn’t seem to have any effect at all.

The same applied for sliding down the stairs, no matter how many times they were told not to do that, they just seemed to forget it and claimed that it was simply faster this way.

”Coming!”, Tuuli shouted to Pyry who had asked her to play chess with him.

Of course playing chess with Pyry wasn’t as nice as with some other people in their household.

”Grandpa, you cheated!”, Tuuli said, shocked.

Pyry only made helpless gesture, ”you can’t blame me if you just are much better at this than I’m.”

”You are silly grandpa.”

Palosuo household also had a birthday but one that went quite unnoticed in the family as both Aada and Aatu grew up to be be gorgeus dogs.

Meri and Johannes would take Aada.

And Lumi and Amatius would take Aatu.

”What brings you here?”, Sade asked Touko as he was joining them for a dinner.

”I’m not allowed to visit my niece if I please?”, Touko asked mockingly.

Sade laughed, ”I haven’t seen you for ages and now you just suddenly happen to stop by? Right.”

”I just wanted to see your son and those dogs.”

Sade rolled her eyes, ”right, if you say so. What do you think about the dogs, gorgeus right?”

”They are, the girl is going to move to us?”

”Yeah, if I will give her, it will be hard…” Sade told him.

”But you are right, I have a reason for my visit”, Touko said and continued, ”Mari has been asking about finding disappeared persons.”

”I know”, Sade told him, ”she asked if I know anything about it.”

Touko nodded, ”that is because she seems to want to finds her father.”

”Seriously?”, Risto asked.

”Seriously. I managed to get her mind out of it for now by telling that it is complicated but I’m afraid that it isn’t the last we here about this. There are no clues about Kalle?”, Touko turned to Sade.

”Just some rumours, the same ones you told to Lumi but nothing else. No one seems to know where he is. Not that we are really looking, no one has declared him missing so he isn’t anywhere close to the top priority.”

”I thought as much but just prepare yourself, if I know Mari at all, she won’t give up and will come to you again.”

”Let me get this straight”, Kalle was saying to Elmo, ”you are telling me that your last name is Joutila which also happens to be the name of this village?”

”Yup, it got name after my father who moved here when he was around my age. This place didn’t have any name and it still isn’t anything official, we don’t have any bureaucracy here you see.”

”You don’t seem to have anything here”, Kalle muttered.

Elmo looked at him curiously, ”then why did you move here?”

”That’s a long story”, Kalle said evasively, ”anyway, are you really a half alien? I have heard that those exist but I have never seen anyone.”

”Yeah, my father was abducted by the aliens and here I’m, as perfect as anyone! Actually… even more perfect”, Elmo grinned.

Kalle wasn’t sure if he hated this half alien or if he had started to like him.

”I probably would need a job, any idea where I might find one?”

Elmo actually laughed, ”you count the amount of jobs that are here with your one hand’s fingers but I have heard that there is a new opening in architecture, would that be something for you?”

”I think it would do for now, your houses definately need some remodeling.”

Elmo laughed again, ”you are clearly used to different life style than the one in here? Where did you get all this expensive stuff anyway?”

”I brought them with me, lucky I did as I don’t seem to be able to buy anything in here.”

Of course the fact that Kalle couldn’t been easily found in this forsaken place also meant that he couldn’t find that much anything that happened outside the village. He had brought some of his most valued possessions with him but even the fancy computer didn’t help him much as the internet connection was the poorest he had ever seen.

That was quite a problem since he wanted to know what was happening in his home town, but even more than that, he wanted to know where his child had gone. Kalle had tried to search all the possible orphanigies but hadn’t found anything, the poor internet connection didn’t help at all and he was starting to lose his temper.

”What do you mean you can’t do anything about it? I need better internet connection for heaven’s sake, the one I have now is unbelievable lousy!”

”…”

”No, I can’t live without it damn it, I really need it. Not possible? What do you mean it isn’t possible? We live on on 21 st century, don’t we?”

”…”

”Right, so I’m just about in the only village in the whole world that doesn’t have properly working internet connections? Thank you very much”, and he slammed the phone back to its place with unnecessary force.

That evening when Kalle went to bed he was again doubting his decision to come here. Lousy work that paid next to nothing, no internet connection, boring houses and above all, arrogant, self-confident half alien who treated him like any other people at the village, no respect at all. The only thing that he could congratulate himself right now was the fact that he was alive, even though at that moment his life didn’t seem to worth of anything.

The following day Kalle did as Elmo had suggested and took the job in architecture. He had to get out of the town and after considering a while moving to Twikkii or Takemizu, he had chosen Joutila as there he would have been harder to find. He felt extremely humiliated though when he had to start right from the bottom, as a cement mixer. He, the famous lawyer who could charge almost anything for his assistance in a work that paid next to nothing?

At work Kalle had been informed that if his mechanical skills weren’t any better, he would barely make it to a brick layer if even that and had given him a book for studying. Kalle had started but after a while slammed it shut. This was simply ridiculous, wasn’t it? Certainly there had to be something else, something that his experience would count for something? He had tried to ask about the need for a lawyer at his new working place but they had almost laughed at him asking what they would need the lawyers for.

Kalle always opened the newspaper hopeful that he would find something but he found nothing. And his boss also refused to promote him day after day.

Kalle thought that he would go crazy if he couldn’t meet anyone else but the only club that there was charged more than he could afford so instead he headed to a park. Of course at the park there weren’t that many activities and after talking to couple local people he decided to try his hands on fishing not expecting to get anything.

”Yak! I actually got a fish.”

The woman next to her laughed, ”that’s what might happen if you start fishing.”

”But what do I do with it?”

The woman glanced at him, ”you cook it”, and seeing Kalle’s shocked expression asked, ”what’s wrong, never cooked a fish?”

”Most certainly not, I used to eat at the restorants where it was cooked for me.”

Kalle had thought of burying the fish in his fridge but then to his surprise he found a woman on his yard who didn’t seem to mind his company.

”I heard that you are new at the village so I came to have a look myself”, the woman who had introduced herself as Mirkku said.

”That’s… uhm… nice. How do you like the fish? It was the first time I made it.”

”Really? It isn’t that bad, just don’t cook it this long next time.”

”It was nice to meet you”, Kalle told Mirkku truthfully, ”maybe you can stop by again and I will see if I can make descent fish? Or if I manage to catch one to start with.”

Mirkku looked shyly away, ”I think I could come, it was nice meeting you.”

After she left Kalle felt lonely again, for a moment he had almost forgotten that he was in this forsaken place but now he had to face the reality again.

Kalle had also caught a broken boot from the pond and decided to frame it and put it on the wall in middle of the room where he could see it all the time even though he wasn’t sure if it was wise decision or not. But he wasn’t used to have empty walls around him, he had only took what was necessary on the boat here but the paintings just didn’t fit. Besides, the boot reminded him of his mistakes and as much as he wanted to be a tough guy he still missed Maya and didn’t want to forget her.

”What do you mean you failed? You don’t fail just like that? They did what?”, Taina was yelling at her cell phone.

”You try again as soon as possible, the family has to be eliminated as soon as possible, no more mistakes!”

Taina was just putting her phone away when someone speaking behind her.

”I would take that back if I were you”, woman’s voice told her calmly.

”Who are you to…”, as she turned she saw the woman’s face and finished somewhat lamely, ”to tell?”

”I can see that we have an understanding. Good. Now you take that phone to your pretty hand and call to whoever it was that you just talked with and take that back.”

”Why?”, Taina managed to ask from her shock.

”Why? You need to ask why? Do you want to live?”

”Uhm… yes”, Taina’s self confidence was cracking.

”Thought so. Do it.”

”But… why does it concern you?”

”My intentions, or should I say ours, shouldn’t concern you.”

That’s everything for now, thanks for reading! Couple notes here, toddler stats on the next page and on the page after that some cute toddler pictures that didn’t fit in the chapter.

I know that Minna and Mari as Meri’s and Maya’s daughters as well as Aleksi as Lumi’s son actually belong to generation 3 but it is much easier to refer all of them just as a generation four.

About Kalle and Joutila, Joutila is my BACC village and as I needed new inhabitant for my village and hiding place for Kalle, this solution was a real win-win. This way Kalle will live his life the usual way and not just be forgotten in some apartment. Elmo Joutila is, as he explained, really a son of the founder and happens to be one of my favourite sims. He appeared on the welcome wagon of Kalle and I couldn’t resist writing them together, they are almost from two different planets, well, in Elmo’s case also literally.

I thought when Myrsky was born that his hair is brown but it turned out to be red. Quite a shock since no one has had red hair and my first thought was that Titta is red head originally but after taking a look at SimPE, the red head turned out to be Armas! I never wondered how come that Pyry and Touko got brown hair as I believe black hair should be very dominant, I just thought that brown hair was as dominant. Of course that wouldn’t explain Sade’s and Touko’s blond hair, they both should have also brown hair if my logic was followed but it turns out both have red hair gene as a recessive gene. Funny how these things go.

I’m sorry for the lack of photos about Myrsky and Usva as babies, but the house simply lags so much that taking pictures is a real pain in the ***, also the house was so busy that I barely had time to focus on taking pictures. The same goes for birthday, sorry for the lack of pics, didn’t have time for more and again there was the lag. Thanks to intruding guests, the younger twins didn’t make it to the cake.

The lag also explains my intentions to move the family to another house, it is already build and in next chapter they will move. You can find pictures about the house here: http://simeliina.livejournal.com/915.html

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the fence around the yard changed between the shots of Tuisku with Jiri and Tuisku with Sade and Lumi. I first had the three of them talking inside but those pics didn’t work very well so I made new ones, forgetting I had already made new fence. My bad.

Myrsky

2/7/7/2/8

Usva

8/6/10/2/9

Minna

5/8/1/8/5