tokumaru

I MOVED INTO an apartment that happened to be located inside a Tokumaru Japanese restaurant in Helsinki. The interior design was white and spotless. I didn’t mind sharing my living quarters with the clientele nor the smell of gyoza being served in ceramic bowls. Then one day, Jonas came to find me so he could threaten me about talking to his girlfriend Margot. He stood outside the Helsinki Tokumaru with his face against the glass. I wasn’t sure how he had even found me. I had moved out of my last apartment for the same reason. There he was. His white, angry face was pressed against the window, and his teeth were clenched. I could see the steam of fury in his dark-rimmed glasses. His hair was combed neatly. Margot stood nearby, staring into space. Her eyes were black with mascara and shame-terror. “How dare you, how dare you write to my girlfriend!” he stormed. The Finnish owner offered Jonas some black coffee and tried to soothe his jilted nerves. I was unaware that Tokumaru served coffee.

Supposedly, the Tokumaru coffee was very good.

While Jonas was distracted, I fled out the back door. I wanted to take the ship back to Tallinn to get away, but there had been a major storm. The waters of the Baltic Sea had flooded the city, and there, at the foot of Korkeavuorenkatu, I looked up, only to see an enormous Tallink cruise ship come crashing down the street, crushing every building in its way. I looked the other way, and saw another Eckerö Line ship floating on its side. There was nowhere to run and the waters rushed into the Helsinki Tokumaru, washing away everyone with them. Jonas, Margot, the Finnish-Japanese owner. They were all drowned in the sea. I grabbed onto a floating navigation buoy that had washed in from the archipelago and survived. Later, the storm calmed and the sun came out and the waves died down. I could even hear birds singing.