Sauna Culture

Sauna Culture

In time, it may occur to Juhani that his ex never said she wouldn’t sleep around. Eveliina says other things: Tapio’s in good shape, Kaarina has a sexy septum piercing, Lilja’s in a polycule. But during this evening sauna, Eveliina isn’t saying very much. They sit next to each other, in the hottest corner, and watch as strangers lash the stones with ladlefuls of water. Another young couple, naked and firm, stare at Eveliina and whisper back and forth, laughing. Then the couple heads out to the dock, to lower themselves into the icy waters of the Baltic. Eveliina stands to follow. Juhani grabs her hand. He wants her to wait a little longer, to wait for the real heat, to forget about her recent revelation that she’s bisexual. She’s unaware about what is to come. The couple have yet to slip their phone numbers into her bag in the changing room. And she has yet to text them, to meet for coffee, then wine, then lines of cocaine in a club somewhere in Uudenmaankatu. Maybe she won’t yet grind on Helmi and Mikael and go back to their sleek apartment and have sex on the white leather sofa and later try some new positions in their imported California King. The three have yet to have that weekend away at Helmi’s summer house, an idyllic afternoon picking cloudberries and making rice porridge and threesoming in every room of the house. Later on they’ll stoke the fire in the sauna out back and wait for it to reach the right temperature. They’ll stand in front of the wooden hut and smoke a little marijuana and talk about what to say to Juhani. Should they lie and say things weren’t working out or be ethical and say things weren’t working out? Eveliina slings her arms around her new partners and reassures them she has no feelings for Juhani. I made no promises, she says. Helmi and Mikael stare at the smoke rising from the chimney, sensing Eveliina’s half-truth. They have been through this before. Helmi says they’ll make it work. And maybe they do. All that is yet to come. For now, Juhani grasps Eveliina’s hand, wet and hot and slippery, almost gone.

ARTICLEend

About the Author

Christopher Linforth is the author of the story collection The Distortions (Orison Books, 2022). Recent stories have appeared in the Oxford Review of Books, Scoundrel Time, and The Barcelona Review.

-

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-leaning-on-brown-wall-269110/