And now, for my ninth SSSS-challenge story! For this story I was offered the word Drive, so follow along as we try to teach Emil how a car works!
Emil looked at Lalli as the mage threw up for the third time in just ten minutes.
"Are you sure you shouldn't just get off?"
Lalli glared at him, hand infront of his mouth and his cheeks greenish. Tuuri hit Emil's shoulder.
"Eyes on the road!"
Emil barely managed to miss a street lamp and Tuuri let out a sigh, turning to Lalli.
"Maybe you should go back to Torbjörn and Siv."
Lalli shook his head and Emil looked at the two of them, wondering what was being said. The car had stopped again, others honking at them to move and Emil pressed the pedal down again, slowly drove down the street. Almost drove over a dog, but turned the wheel at the last moment and ended up with a street lamp parked into the bumper. Tuuri let out another sigh, pushed him away from the chair and backed the car out.
"We're going to some large empty space, you're a danger to everyone around you."
She smiled when she said it. Emil settled down next to Lalli, offered him something to drink. Lalli shook his head and Emil handed him a new bucket instead, put his jacket over Lalli's shoulders. Lalli peeked through the window and got a bit greener again.
"We can let you off somewhere and pick you up again when we're done... Wouldn't that be better?"
Lalli looked at him, tilted his head. Tuuri giggled.
"Lalli doesn't speak a lot with people, haven't you learned that by now?"
Emil blushed and got back to the passenger seat next to Tuuri again.
"Well, maybe someday!"
"He still doesn't understand Swedish. I tried teaching him a few phrases since we're staying here for a while, but he's not interested."
Emil looked at Lalli again and Tuuri took a sharp turn, almost causing the two men to fall off their seats.
"Okay, this looks like a good place, you can practice here."
"Uhm..." Emil looked out the window. "Tuuri, we're not allowed to be here."
"Too bad for them. Here, take the wheel."
"...are you going to blame me if the police arrive?"
"You're the one who needs practice and this seems to be the only place in Mora where we can do it without risking anyone's life. Come on, Emil."
"But... this is military ground. We're not allowed here, especially not the two of you since you're Finns. Military secrets and stuff. And I'm technically still on leave so I'm not allowed to be here either!"
"Hey, you wanted to learn."
Emil looked away. Lalli had regained some of the normal colour in his face and looked curiously at the two people in front of the car. Tuuri looked at her cousin as well.
"You can get off while we're practicing here. We'll only go in circles anyway."
Lalli didn't answer and instead pulled Emil's jacket closer. Emil looked at Tuuri, smiling.
"I think he wants to stay."
"Lalli, you really should get off. Who knows what'll happen with Emil at the wheel?"
Lalli glared at her and Emil laughed, even if he had no idea what Tuuri said. He laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You're making him angry. Okay, let's train here. I'll... try to explain the situation if anyone comes by."
She got up from the driver's seat and he settled down, waited for her to settle down next to him before placing his hands on the wheel and his feet on the pedals.
"Eyes on the road", he said to himself. "Hands at ten to two. Slowly press down the gas pedal and..."
The motor stalled. Emil hit his forehead against the wheel, then turned the key a couple times.
"Just take it easy..."
The car jerked forward. Tuuri lost her balance, Emil could hear Lalli's bucket bouncing against the floor and he quickly released the gas pedal again.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
The car came to a stop and Tuuri settled up again, neither going to fetch the bucket. It was too late now anyway, Lalli's gastric contents already all over the floor. Emil tried again, took a couple deep breaths before redoing the process. It worked better this time, the engine didn't stall, they didn't jerk forward. Everything went pretty smooth.
"Try shifting gear."
Emil panicked slightly, tried to remember how Tuuri had told him to do it and then the engine stalled again. He leaned against the wheel, let out a sigh.
"I'm so stupid..."
He felt a lean hand pat his back and looked up to see Lalli standing behind him, still a bit pale but Emil could see determination in his eyes. He blushed.
"Sorry for trying to get you off the car, Lalli."
Lalli didn't answer, went back to his seat and put Emil's jacket over his shoulders again. Emil took a new deep breath and Tuuri looked curiously between the two of them. Emil was just about to start the engine again when he saw someone approaching in the rear view mirror. He let out a sigh, opened the door and jumped out. Tuuri and Lalli listened to him as Emil explained what was going on. He came back inside a couple minutes later, looked at Tuuri.
"We need to leave. They won't press charges this time, but he made it very clear that if it ever happened again he would get me removed from the military and put in jail. He never really liked me much though."
He gestured for Tuuri to take the wheel, but she shook her head, told him that he needed the practice and he gave up trying to convince her otherwise. The motor stalled a couple of times, but eventually they made it out to the roads.
"Okay, you need to shift gear now."
Emil glared at Tuuri and it made perfectly clear that he would not do that right now. Drivers honked their horns behind them and Emil felt his cheeks burning but he ignored them. Lalli continued his fight against his stomach and Emil was genuinely surprised that he hadn't tried to fall asleep instead. Most of the times in the Silent World he had noticed that sleeping was Lalli's prefered way to deal with his motion sickness.
Somehow they made it back to the Västerstöm Residence without much more happening and Emil gladly parked the car halfway up the sidewalk, got out and stretched. Lalli joined him while Tuuri parked the car the right way and then they walked together into the house.
"That's called gaffel."
Lalli tilted his head and looked at the fork before looking at Emil again.
"Haarukka."
"No, gaffel. Come on, say it."
"Haarukka."
Emil let out a sigh.
"Well, it's not important anyway."
Tuuri giggled at the other side of the table and Emil pointed at the plate instead.
"Tallrik."
"Spagetti."
Tuuri broke down in laughter. Emil glared at her.
"You're not helping."
"Sorry, sorry. Carry on."
She shook her head and continued eating her spaghetti, looking at the two friends on the other side. Emil tried different words, Lalli repeated them in Finnish and in the end Emil gave up.
"It's like you're not even trying."
"Haarukka", Lalli said and showed the fork to Emil.
"Yes, very nice. Haruka. I get it."
"Haarukka."
"Yes, that's what I said. It's a gaffel. Why are you..."
"You pronounced it wrong."
Emil blushed, looked at Tuuri.
"I did not."
"You did. It's pronounced Haarukka, you said Haruka. It's a large difference."
"There's no difference. Lalli, put that away, stop poking me with it."
"Haarukka", Lalli said firmly.
"Haaruka", Emil tried. "Okay, I get it, can you stop that now?"
Lalli seemed satisfied and stopped poking Emil with the fork. Emil shook his head, went back to the food and felt something poking his arm again.
"Lusikka."
"Lusikka, okay. Very interesting. Tuuri, why is he doing this?"
Tuuri smiled and shoved some more food into her mouth, making it perfectly clear that she would not answer Emil's question. Emil was pretty certain she didn't know anyway.
"Sked", Emil said, turning back to Lalli.
"Sked", the Finn answered.
Tuuri dropped her knife and fork, Emil dropped his jaw. Lalli shoved some more food into his mouth, looking satisfied. Emil shook his head.
"I do not understand you at all, Lalli."
Lalli patted his head, put the silverware down and promptly placed himself under the table. Emil turned towards Tuuri instead.
"So, are we going driving again tomorrow?"
"Maybe, we'll see how the weather is."
After that they finished the meal in silence so they wouldn't disturb Lalli.
Lalli came running the second Emil started the engine, placing himself in the middle of the road so Emil couldn't drive away. Emil opened the door to let him in and Lalli slinked past him and sank down in the seat behind Emil.
"We didn't want you to get sick again", Emil explained as he re-aligned the rearview mirror. Lalli didn't answer. "Torbjörn is still upset about the car smelling like puke."
Emil could see Lalli reaching for the bucket and he quietly wondered if maybe the Finn understood more than he let on. Lalli took a firm grip of the bucket as Emil placed his feet on the pedals, slowly drove out of the parking space. A pedestrian quickly hurried out of their way and Tuuri started instructing him about what to do.
It went a lot better this day, Emil only almost killed two people and Tuuri didn't even steal the wheel back from him. Of course, the drive was still shaky and Lalli had to throw up a couple of times, but he stayed awake this time as well. Emil looked curiously at him through the mirror. He parked near a field in the outskirts of Mora and all three of them got out, stretched a little. Tuuri put a blanket on the ground and they settled down, ate the packed lunch they had brought.
Emil continued his attempts to teach Lalli some Swedish, with varying results. By the end of the lunch Emil noticed how Finnish words had started slipping into his speech and he shook his head.
"Lalli, are you tricking me into learning suomi?"
Lalli strode back to the car, not answering the question. Tuuri giggled again, hurried after her cousin and Emil picked the blanket up before following his Finnish friends. Tuuri took the wheel this time, so they would be back in time to to the chores they still had to do. Emil looked at Lalli for a bit and noticed how he fell asleep almost as soon as the engine started.
Getting back to the Västerström residence went quickly and Emil shook Lalli awake.
"You wanna help me clean the car?"
Lalli blinked, yawned and got up from the seat, leaving the car. Emil looked stumped.
"I guess that's a no?"
Lalli came back a minute later with a basket full of cleaning products and a bucket of water. He showed the products to Emil.
"Siivoustarvikkeet."
Emil blinked.
"I... uh... thank you?"
He took the basket from Lalli, and the two of them got to work, starting with the outside while they let the inside ventilate and then proceeding to clean of the dried vomit from the day before. Lalli looked a bit apologetic as they did it and Emil patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Lalli, it happens to the best of us. And I guess it was kinda my fault anyway."
Lalli nodded. Emil wasn't sure if the Finn had actually understood what he said or if he just nodded because that was what people did. When they were done both of them climbed up on the roof of the car, and looked towards the house. Tuuri and Onni were currently outside playing with Emil's cousin but Emil had a feeling Lalli wasn't interested in joining them.
"They are nice once you get to know them."
Lalli wrinkled his nose. Emil tilted his head, certain that it couldn't just be a coincident.
"Lalli, how well do you actually understand ruotsi?"
He could see a small smile forming on Lalli's lips and he shook his head when he realized he had picked up another Finnish word. He gestured towards the five people playing on the grass.
"Onni has picked up more words than you have and he claims to be allergic to the language. Why don't you start learning some Swedish as well?"
Still smiling, Lalli put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a fork and showed it to Emil.
"Gaffel."
Emil blinked. He looked from the fork, to Lalli and back to the fork again. Then he laughed. People stopped in their tracks, looked towards the two of them and Emil hit Lalli lightly in the back.
"Haarukka."
Lalli put the fork down again, jumped down from the roof and ran up to the house. Emil looked after him, smiled, and leaned back, looked at the sky.
"Haarukka..."
He heard Tuuri and Onni calling for him to join their game and he waved towards them, climed down and hurried to them. His cousins all lit up when he grabbed the ball and started playing with them. Emil was certain he could see Lalli looking at them through one of the windows.
"I can drive them!"
"Emil, I'm certain that's not..."
"No no, I've gotten way better! You should come along and see. Tuuri has taught me everything."
Torbjörn looked towards his wife for support, but she just smiled at Emil.
"That's a great idea. Isn't it, Torbjörn? You're always talking about how boring it is to drive anyway."
"But... walking is good for the health."
"Don't be so greedy, let Emil show you how good he is."
Emil helped Onni and Tuuri put the baggage in the trunk of the car before getting in. Lalli hurried in after him and settled down behind him, Tuuri placed herself next to the window and Onni settled down between them. Emil waved to Torbjörn and Torbjörned looked towards his wife once more before taking place in the passenger seat next to Emil.
"Alright, watch this."
Emil started the enginge. The car gently started to move forward and he drove out into the traffic. He could hear Onni saying something to Lalli about a bucket (ämpäri) but Lalli shook his head. Onni seemed a bit worried, Emil could see part of his face in the rearview mirror, but he didn't worry himself. He continued down the road, could feel Lalli grabbing his seat.
It wasn't far to the train station, but it was enough for him to show Torbjörn how far he had gotten when it came to driving. Lalli didn't threw up even once during the ride and Emil parked outside the station, helped the Finns unpack the car and followed them inside. He looked sadly at them as the train came in.
"I... guess this is it. You sure you can take it from here?"
"Emil, don't worry", Tuuri said and hit his shoulder, grabbing her backpack. Onni exchanged some words with Torbjörn in Icelandic and Emil couldn't understand them but knew what they meant anyway. He looked at Lalli, who still only had his riffle as luggage.
"Well... I guess this is it. For now I mean. I... I'm going to miss having you around. Well... Emil stretched out a hand. "I guess this is nämekiin..."
Lalli took his hand, shook it.
"Hejdå."
Emil smiled at him.
"Hyvästi. I... I'll see you again in autumn."
Lalli nodded, let go of Emil's hand.
"Vi ses."
With that Lalli went up to Onni and Tuuri and the three Finns waved at Emil and Torbjörn before they hurried onboard the train. Emil ran among the train as it started going, but it soon speed away from him. He waved after it.
"I'll miss you..."
Torbjörn laid a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it a bit, and Emil looked at him, smiled. They walked together back to the car. Torbjörn took the wheel and Emil looked at the station as long as he could before it disappeared behind the houses. He let out a sigh and Torbjörn patted his shoulder.
"You'll meet them again soon enough, don't worry."
Emil smiled, looked towards his uncle.
"I won't."
He put his hand inside his pocket, squeezed the fork in there. He wouldn't worry.