The Year of the Hare Read Online Free PDF Page A

these little yellow flowers.... Damnit. There should be some yellow, to give you a better idea. I’ll go and get my son’s watercolors.”
    Kärkkäinen fetched some water and began coloring a thickset picture of a plant. He colored the stems and the leaves green, carefully cleaning the brush before he turned to coloring the flowers yellow.
    “This paper’s a little on the thin side. The color spreads.”
    When the flowers were tinted yellow, Kärkkäinen pushed his painting materials to one side and blew on the painting to dry it. He took a long look at his work, holding it far away, to assess the result.
    “Don’t know if this picture’s going to be much use to you after all, but this is roughly how the plant looks. It’s something a hare’ll gladly take to. Those tendrils have come out a little thick. You’ll have to thin them down a bit mentally when you’re out looking for the real thing. Have you got a briefcase for this, so there’s no need to fold it?”
    Vatanen shook his head. Kärkkäinen gave him a big gray envelope, large enough to enclose the picture unfolded.
    Vatanen thanked him for all his advice. The game warden smiled, slightly embarrassed but pleased. In the yard, the men shook hands warmly.
    The taxi driver had been waiting outside for half an hour. Vatanen asked him to drive to the outskirts of the town, to some place where there’d be luxuriant greenery. They found a suitable spot without too much trouble: a largish grove of birches, overgrown with dandelions on the roadside.
    The taxi driver asked if he could get out and help to pick the flowers: time tended to drag when you were sitting alone in a hot car.
    That was just fine.
    Vatanen handed him Kärkkäinen’s watercolor. It wasn’t long before the taxi driver, snooping around in the grove, gave a whoop: he’d found some meadow vetchling. Several other of the game warden’s recommendations were growing nearby, too.
    “I’ve always been fascinated by plants,” the taxi driver confessed to Vatanen.
    After an hour, the men had each gathered an armful of suitable eatables. The hare gobbled them eagerly. While he did, the driver went off to fetch some water from the hydrant. He brought it in a hubcap, first giving the cap a good rinse under the spigot. The hare took long drafts from the hubcap, and the taxi driver shared the rest with Vatanen. When the water was finished, the driver slammed the hubcap back on his front wheel.
    “Why not take these grasses around to my place? They can stay in the hall closet while you’re looking for a hotel or something.”
    Back in town, they drove to the driver’s apartment complex and into the yard. They gathered up their armfuls of plants and took the elevator to the fourth floor. The door of the apartment was opened by a diffident woman who looked a little astonished to see her husband and another man standing there with armfuls of sweet-smelling plants.
    “Helvi, these plants belong to my passenger. We’re going to put them in the closet till he needs them.”
    “Lord help us,” she groaned. “How’ll they all fit in?” But she stopped when she saw the look of annoyance on her husband’s face.
    Vatanen paid the fare. Before leaving, he thanked the driver yet again.
    “Just give me a call,” the man said, “and I’ll bring over the grasses.”

5
    Arrest
    B y mid-June, Vatanen’s travels had landed him on the road to Nurmes. It was raining; he was cold.
    He’d jumped off the bus from Kuopio, which was now heading for Nurmes. And here he was, on a rainy road, getting soaked, because of a snap decision. The village of Nilsiä was miles away.
    The hare’s hind leg had mended, and by now it was almost full-grown. Luckily, it still fit in the basket.
    Suddenly, around a corner, he came upon a house: a bungalow with attic space—a prosperous-looking setup. Might as well stop in, Vatanen decided, and see if a night’s lodging was available. A woman in a raincoat was scraping away at