And it made me think

               It was hot. As it had been the whole summer. Hottest summer of all time in history of Finland made people to gather on the beaches and bars deck to let the cold liquids relieve the pain that heat gave to them. This kind of a heat streak gave citizens of Finland a whole new meaning of sweating as it gave a yet another reason for them to believe why cold and isolated Finland was just right place to live for them. As it came to me, I didn't have much of a possibility to join this great weather. I was working for a renovating business for the whole day, wearing hot overalls and working in even hotter apartments which needed a some kind of a reparation. It wasn't a dream job but knocked down my former one as a sports good salesman. At least I didn't have to walk into the same bulding everyday.

               That day was just a another early morning. Sun was already high in the sky when my alarm woke me at 5:45. It was same routine five days a week; get up, eat, wear your overalls, get into your car and try to wake up. I felt good that morning. I looked up at the sky from our kitchen window and a beautiful blue sky greeted me into the new day. The scent of early mist in a grass filled my lungs as I opened our front door. I saw two rabbits having their breakfast in our yard which was steaming already due the early sunrise. As they noticed me they slowly moved to our neighbours lawn. I almost could heard them swearing on me interrupting their delicious meal. It made me smile and think about my life. I had to admit to myself that it wasn't that bad at all. A short twenty minute drive to work made me feel even better. I have always liked driving a car. Steering wheel takes you to places where ever you want to go. Gas pedal and clutch working in a perfect harmony and open road ahead to give you the godlike feeling. Freedom and pure joy.

               Although this picture of beautiful and innocent world scattered as I marched into my foreman's office. When he gave the instructions for the day's job I felt little shivering in my spine. I was about to move a plastic carpet from apartment where a old gentleman had been laying for two weeks. I could smell the dead body already and see the flies and maggots around it. Two weeks in a summer like this makes human body to double its size and forces all the liquids out of the body. Or at least that I was told. I found it repulsive. The body had been removed from the apartment a few days ago and the whole house had been ventilated for that time to get the smell away. The body had been noticed by neighbours after two weeks when they realized that the smell in the hallways wasn't just someone who haven't showered lately. I heard that it wasn't really often that old people were found dead after a long time from their houses. But it wasn't unusual either. My boss told me that everyone who had been in this business for more than a year had been working with a case like this at least once. It made think about the status of our society. I had read cases about suicides of old people from magazines, seen statistic of elders depression and heard stories about how doctor's keep those elder people in drugs in hospitals and old folks' homes in order to keep expenses as low as possible. Nobody really had cared about this person. And it wasn't the first body that was found in this extremely hot summer. I had always kept information that I had heard or read a bit exaggerated but this event made me really think how bad this situation really was. Where had we gone wrong that there are people that are left alone in their apartments and nobody keeps in touch with them for two weeks? Finland wasn't Italia but, still.

               As I cruised all around the city to gather appropriate equipments for this job little bit of dark clouds started to gather in to the sky. By the time I got into the working site raindrops started to fall from the sky. That special equipment was made to prevent the smell of the rotten body to stick into my skin and hair. I looked like a CSI- investigator as I wore white plastic overall, a white hairdresser (the same one that people use in shower in order to prevent their hair get wet), gloves and a breathing mask as I entered the apartment. My first thought was that the smell wasn't as bad as I had imagined. But after few moments I realised that that wasn't the case. The smell was overwhelming as it came through my mask I could taste that rotten body in my mouth. And it wasn't just the smell. All the bodyliquids that had been abandoned the body had left sticky layer into the plastic carpet that I was about to remove . Every step I took deeper into the room made a sticky noise from my shoes. As if someone had poured some juice into the floor and hadn't washed it away. I was about to kneel on that floor and rip off the carpet with my bare hands and grind the cement of the floor so that new one could be assembled to replace that old one. The body had been laying right next to the outdoor. It made me think if it had been just a coincidence that he was next to the outdoor or was he feeling somewhat sick and was trying to get outside before it was too late.

               As I worked I felt sad for this person. No one should die alone. Not at least been left to live last years of one's life in isolation from the most important things of our lives, social relationships. I got a bit angry thinking about all of this. What were the backgrounds? Had he been abandoned by his children or did he have them at all? Didn't he have any close relatives or friends that would keep in touch with him? For God's sake there must be somebody for everyone that even calls once in a while! It also got me to think about my relations between my granparents. When was last time I called them? At least it wasn't this week. The other grandparents had moved away from the city I lived in and I hadn't been visited them for a while. I felt ashamed. I wasn't better than the people in this persons life. Part of my anger had emerged from my own actions. I tried to convince myself that I wasn't worse than my friends who I had talked about this issue. They had said that they didn't keep in touch with their relatives every week. But it didn't make me feel any better. Nowadays everyone has their own things to do and they are in a constant hurry, I thought. Schedules have tightened up and work requires more time. I had only lame excuses to cheer me up.

               After I finished I packed my stuff and cleaned the site. In the doorway I looked back what I had done and felt proud of that. My job wasn't particurarly difficult. Most could do the tasks that had been given to me and that was the reason I got that job. Still I enjoyed the clean surface of cement that I had left behind. It would be really easy job for the next guy to put the new carpet on. As I got out from that house I saw that sun was shining again. The first thing I did when I got home I called both of my grandparents.

N