Helsinki Demands a Warm Coat

Helsinki demands a warm overcoat 

By Michael McKenna 


Albert waited for his tram on the capital city’s central avenue, Mannerheimintie, flanked to his right by the National Museum, tracing history from the Stone Age to the present. 

Suddenly he felt a cold wind slip under his cheap overcoat.

Worried he might be coming down with “some thing” all day…

He swallowed hard and his left ear ached.

He missed his normal ride home to get a fresh copy of his favorite kausijulkaisu “Epoch” from the news agent on the street.

The first chapter of “Home of the Dead”  would be in it by the newly returned exile Anton Gennerrattori …

Amazed at the exiled writers’ writing after 10 years in prison

Albert couldn’t stop reading the new novella. In a pause in his reading, he realizes… he’s not quite soaked by the drizzle in from over the gulf (that started raining sideways). 


The last tram suddenly appears out of ice fog and whooshes past him sending a puddle skyward and covering him with ice cold dirty water. He’s soaked….he will have to walk home.​

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