‘Seems likely we’ll head out early, if they’re sending us reinforcements.’
‘Could mean’nat. Guess you must a lost some fellas for ’em to be sendin’ us out here.’
‘A few. Bombing just took a couple. You guys stick with the first squad from now on, OK? Then we’ll see if we start needing you more somewhere else.’
‘Don’t matter where you stick us long as we stick together. We’re neighbors, see.’
Finally, the man fell silent and dropped off to sleep. Somebody was still asking him something, but no further reply came.
‘He drops off kinda quick,’ Susi explained.
The next morning they were roused by a chattering Rokka, who had already been up Lord knows how long. ‘Tea, fellas! I took some mess bowls and fetched it from the kitchen. You all know which one’s yours. Lissen, Ensign! We’re headin’ out today. I went checkin’ up on things over there and they’ve already got gear for the whole battalion packed up on’na carts. That means we’ll be headin’ out soon for sure. Say, you fellas’s all pretty young. Me and Suslin’ here’s both over thirty. Got wives and kids, too.’
‘None of us’s hitched,’ Hietanen said. ‘We’re, uh, Finland’s junior heroes.’
‘Well, we’re heroes, too, me and Suslin’! But, goollord! Lissen’na that cannon fire. Well, that’s where we’re headin’ real soon.’
‘Have you guys been out on the front before?’ Koskela asked.
‘In’na Winner War. We had our jitters out down in Taipale. Kannas’s where we come from. Got our goddamn farms stolen. Got out with our lives, though! Course they took a couple a cracks at those too. We’ll see if they git on any better this time round. It’s Kannas where I wanna fight. I got some things a settle up with the neighbors round there, see. Ain’t got no damn business round these parts.’
‘It doesn’t matter where we fight,’ Salo said. ‘There’s cabins up for the taking all the way to Smolensk.’
‘I don’t know nothin’ ’bout Smolensk. Seems like we’re makin’ those Fritzis out as some kinda gift from God. They’re makin’ it through all right, but I saw some of ’em on my way out here and those fellas click their heels too goddamn much ’fyask me. That ain’t how you git things done. But anyway, that ain’t our business. Europe can go to hell far as we’re concerned. We just take Karelia and go home.’
‘I don’t know,’ Hietanen said. ‘If we were thirty million, we could take a crack at the whole world too – ’cause we’d hold all the cards.’
‘Deep-Forest Warrior Takes Charge. Heeheehee!’ Vanhala giggled.
Rokka started gathering his belongings into a pile, making up a tune as he went.
Mmbadedar-dee dah-dee dar… tell ’em
we hold all the cards… mmba dee dah-dee dar
’cause we’d hold all the cards…
‘Start gittin’ your things together fellas, we’re pushin’ off soon…’
Right from the start Rokka seemed to belong – he never acted like a newcomer in a strange group, bashful for a while before acclimatizing to the particular spirit of the crew. Rokka was pretty much domineering right from the get-go. The others weren’t really offended by it, sensing that beneath this man’s brazen self-assurance lay the goods to back it up. He was certainly confident of their as-yet unannounced departure and acted accordingly. And indeed, when Mielonen came down the road twenty minutes later yelling, ‘Get rrready to move out! Take down the tents! Departure in one hour!’ he did not miss the opportunity to say, ‘See? And what did I tell you all?’
Mielonen’s announcement didn’t provoke the usual round of commentary, however, since they all more or less recognized that their time was up.
And so they left. They marched rather gloomily toward the rumble of cannon fire. Little by little they slipped back into the mind-frame of the front, that curious state of mind governed – sometimes clearly, sometimes more obscurely – by death. The booming of cannons solidified into something real again. Men came toward them from the opposite direction, carrying guys from the preceding battalion who had been killed or wounded trying to penetrate the enemy artillery blockade.
Lucky for them there was a break in the firing, during which they were able to get through. As they neared the front, they turned off the road and set up camp in the forest behind the front line. They whiled away the entire day there, trying to guess what their assignment would be and listening to the faint fire coming from the positions down on the riverbank about half a mile in front of them.
Sometime before midnight, Rokka, who’d been wandering off somewhere unknown to them for quite some while, arrived, announcing, ‘They’re gonna make amphibians out of us this time, fellas! They’re haulin’ pontoons and storm boats over there.’
‘Straight into the piss we go.’
‘Aw, c’mon, fellas. It’s just water.’
‘Guys, we’re crossing the river in cutters.’
‘Yeah, I bet we are. Nothing but the best for the hero brigade.’ Sihvonen was bitter.
‘Seems’a me the job’ssa same wherever they dump you. What’ssa difference if you’re on land or water? Death’s pretty much the same wherever it nabs you, ’fyask me. Everbody thinks those pilot fellas’re some kinda heroes, but I don’t really see what difference it makes how high up you are when death shoots you down.’
‘Don’t talk about death!’ Hietanen exclaimed in mock horror, shivering with fear. ‘You’re gonna make me wet my pants over here.’
‘Well, just make sure you don’t leak all over the rest of us.’ Rokka sat down on the grass and started chomping on his rye crackers. He looked around for a second as if searching for a target upon which to unleash all his excess energy. Spotting Kariluoto’s platoon a way off to the side, he yelled, ‘Hey you, Ensign! Lissen!’
Kariluoto turned to Rokka in wonder and asked, ‘What’s the problem?’
‘We’re crossin’na crick soon!’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘Well, ’at’s all.’ Rokka waved him off and turned toward Koskela. ‘Heya, Koskela, lissen here, how we gonna organize this here crossin’? Sh’we put the guns in’na boats or are we gonna set up some kinda firin’ positions on’na bank?’
‘They’ll give us instructions soon enough. Probably both ways, I guess.’
‘That’s what I was thinkin’, too. Few fellas take the boats and the rest set up on’na banks and give it all they got. Tricks a the trade, huh? I always said you gotta be tricky in a war. The Russians, see, they woulda taken our positions tons a times in’na Winner War if they’da just thought up a few good tricks. But they just kept at it straight on, straight on, so acourse not a damn thing came outta that. Gotta think about what it is you’re doin’ all’a time. Goes for each man just the same’s for each unit. ’S’called strategy… Let’s have a lil’ shut-eye now, huh, fellas? Never know when you’re gonna git another chance to sleep.’
Rokka crashed immediately, but the others had trouble falling asleep. Now that they had rested, their anxiety and dread of the coming events overpowered any drowsiness. Their egos got a little boost from the reservists on the side of the road, whom they could overhear murmuring, ‘The guys on active duty are coming. Now things are really gonna heat up.’