and “Upuh-upuh!” Then it grabbed my hair and started pulling. Opening my eyes, I saw Saku’s grinning, slobbery face hovering above my head. I swam for fifteen minutes and ate about three times more breakfast than usual before departing for town. I had decided to stop by Ella’s house before going to work. I had to be the one to ask Ella directly about the brooch. Hopefully Koivu was coming from Joensuu again to help with the interviews, because I wanted someone to bounce ideas off of. Ella’s family lived in a slightly run-down wooden house right on the edge of the sinkhole zone. The house was originally one of the homes the mining company built for its workers, and was intended for two families. Ella’s husband, Matti, had turned half of it into an art studio by pulling down some of the interior walls. The yard with its unmowed grass was a permanent art exhibit for a group of steel sculptures created during a period when Matti was obsessed with “giving material form.” This was a departure from the standard themes of his paintings—triangles and cubes.
