Film Strips and Hockey Sticks

Chapter 24

With the latest draft of her screenplay complete, Hannah and Olli flew to Oregon to visit her family, as promised. Due to the time differences between Oregon and Finland, they were often awake at night, and asleep during the day. On their first night, Hannah took him out to her family's lake house.

"It's not exactly a cabin, although my mom calls it that to make us sound more 'middle class.' But it's more like a nice house, on a lake, with other nice houses." Hannah shrugged at her terrible explanation, but she resented the fact that her parents pretended to be less wealthy than they actually were in the lamest ways possible. She gestured to the fake moose head mounted on the wall. "My mom thought it would make it look rustic." She rolled her eyes and continued giving him a tour of the house before stopping in their room.

"I know it's like the middle of the night, but I'm not really tired," Olli said after he put his bags down.

"Me neither. My brain still thinks it's 10 in the morning, and I've gotten used to it being light almost all the time." Hannah paused and thought for a moment. "You know what we should do? We should go swimming under the stars."

"That sounds like fun," Olli smiled. Hannah grabbed some towels and led him down the path toward the water. It was a short walk down a well manicured path to a serene, calm, lake that reflected the nearly full moon and thousands of stars that stood out clearly in the night sky. It was beautiful. Hannah had always loved coming here, but being here with Olli made it so much better. She set their towels on the back of one of the Adirondack chairs on the small beach and started to take off her clothes. She figured since it was the middle of the night and no one was around, they didn't need to bother wearing bathing suits. They left their clothes on the chair and skipped into the water, sending ripples through the mirror-like reflection of the moon.

When Hannah's parents arrived, Olli and Hannah were making breakfast/dinner (for them, since it was almost 7pm Finland time). Hannah sighed and rolled her eyes when she heard the clacking of Beth's high heels on the front walkway.

"I thought we'd lost you to Finland, Hannah," her mother said and gave her a big kiss.

"No, regretfully I came back," she replied with no enthusiasm. "And I brought you some presents, Finnish stuff." Hannah handed her mom a gift bag.

"Oh my goodness, thank you!" She took each item out and looked at it, confused, before placing it on the table as everyone sat down for breakfast. "What is this?"

"That is piparkakku, it's like gingerbread, this here is Koskenkorva Viina, Finnish vodka, and this is salmiakka. It's kind of like salty liquorice," Olli explained.

Beth grabbed the box of salmiakka and took one out. "So is this like salted caramel?"

Hannah smiled and cut off Olli before he could explain that it was not at all like salted caramel. "Yes, yes it is."

Beth unwrapped the candy and popped it in her mouth. Two seconds later she spit it out and ran to wash her mouth out. "That's disgusting Hannah!" She screamed, but Hannah giggled like the vengeful older sister that she was. Olli looked embarrassed, as usual, and said he liked it.

Her parents and Beth bombarded them with questions, and Hannah wished she was back in Finland. When her mother asked her about the latest draft of 'her little story' Hannah decided she'd had enough. They had never really taken her film career seriously, so she kind of lost it after she'd spent the last two months working on it, only to have her mom treat it like it's her stamp collection or something.

"It's fantastic." She replied, not hiding her anger. "I've actually heard back from one of the producers I sent it to; she wants to make it into a movie and she's agreed to talk to a production company for me."

"What?" Olli's eyes got big, and he turned to face her. She didn't even hear her parents comments of 'how nice that was' and Beth remarking that she'd been in a movie once. Olli looked hurt, and she instantly regretted not telling him first.

"I was going to tell you, I only heard about it this morning," Hannah apologized as guilt slapped her in the face. "I'm sorry."

Olli knew what this meant. If the production company accepted her film, she'd be gone for at least a year filming and editing it. And then what? She wouldn't come back to Pittsburgh to be assistant film director for the Penguins after directing her own movie and making a name for herself in the film industry. Olli was quiet after that, and Hannah didn't really feel like talking either.

"You know what, we're kind of tired, with the time change and all, I think we're going to head to bed for a while," Hannah got up and pulled Olli after her.

"We're going out on the boat later, maybe around 3, okay?" Her father called after her and Hannah nodded.

"Of course I'm happy for you, I'm just a little worried about what this means for our, you know, future," Olli said after Hannah explained everything to him.

"I am concerned about that too, trust me. But this is, after all, what I have always wanted to do. And there's no reason that I can't come back to Pittsburgh after I'm done filming, if I even get to film it, that is. Look," she took his head in her hands and looked him straight in the eye. "I love you, and I am not running away from you to pursue my dreams. I mean I am, but I'm not leaving you. We'll always be together, even if we're apart."

"What?" Olli had no idea what she'd meant by that.

"I mean you'll always be right here," she put her hand on her heart, "In my heart."

"You sound like a hallmark card," Olli smiled, despite the impending sense of doom he felt over Hannah's possible film career.

"Besides, the production company may not even like my script, or if they do, they may not want me to direct it, or be any part of the filming process. I might just be an editor, since I have tons of experience with that," she added sarcastically with a laugh, and this brought another smile out of Olli.

"Maybe if you become some big Hollywood director, I can sign with the Kings or something," Olli replied. "I'm not really tired, how about you?"

"Not really, but I know how to make you tired," she pushed him back on the bed. "And please, please, please, never sign with the LA Kings. I'd rather you play for the Ducks."

They eventually ended up sleeping for a few hours before Beth woke them up to go on the boat.

The next few days they slowly got their sleeping schedule back to Pittsburgh time, since that was where they were heading in September. Hannah showed Olli around her home town a bit and had far fewer old friends to introduce him to than he'd had in Finland. The few that were still left and hadn't moved away after college were married, most had children, and all of them asked A) when Olli and Hannah were getting married and B) when they were having babies.

It was terrible. So, when Hannah offered Olli a drink, he took it. A couple drinks later, Beth appeared with her towel wrapped around her midsection, completely obscuring her strapless bathing suit, and announced they were all going swimming. Hannah still had her bathing suit on under her dress from swimming that morning, so she left Olli to get changed while she brought their scotch glasses down to the kitchen. Olli came downstairs, towel wrapped around his waist, and he and Hannah headed down to the beach.

Beth and her mom were already in the water pretty deep (up to their necks) and her dad was waist deep off to the side with a fishing pole.

"Hannah where's the rock you guys you used to jump off of out here? I know it's mostly under water, and with all the rain we've had, now I can't find it," her mom called to her from the shore, and Hannah shrugged and said she thought it was farther out.

The sun reflecting on the water was almost blinding, but in a beautiful way. Their neighbor went by slowly on his boat and waved, pulling his kids behind him on a tube. Hannah set her towel on the back of a chair, and Olli tossed her his towel as he ran toward the water and dove in.

It was kind of fast, and if her neighbor's daughter hadn't screamed, she probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Daddy he's naked!" The little girl yelled, and he sped his boat up, despite the no wake zone. Beth and her mom turned around and stopped looking for the rock under water. Her dad stopped mid cast and turned to look at Olli, sending his line up into the trees. Olli emerged from the water and had the sense to remain mostly under water.

"Oh my God I wish I had my phone, this is absolutely golden!" Beth shrieked. Her mom turned around and faced away from him, and looked like she was trying not to laugh. Beth's dad pretended to be busy untangling his fishing line.

"Olli, are you..." Hannah felt the blood rush out of her face. She stripped her dress off, grabbed his towel, and ran into the water to cover him up.

"But the other day when we went swimming, we didn't wear anything. I thought that was....normal for you," he explained, his skin turning every shade of pink.

"It was dark, there was no one here," Hannah explained, and fought back a giggle. "I'm sorry, this is conservative America, we need to keep our clothes on at all times. You can get arrested for this kind of thing, trust me I know."

She held the towel out, but he wouldn't move. "I, um, kind of don't want to get out now."

"Olli, you are not swimming like that." She pushed the towel forward more.

"No, I mean, I don't want to stand up," he whispered.

Hannah shook her head, understanding exactly what he was implying, and wrapped the towel around his shoulders.

"Just stand up slowly, and I'll make sure the towel stays in place and keep everything covered, okay?"

He really didn't want to do this, he wanted to disappear and pretend none of this happened. But he trusted Hannah, and he let her put the now soaking wet towel around him as he came out of the water. He shuffled out of the water and awkwardly ran back up to the house.

"I'm sorry, things are a little different in Finland," Hannah tried to explain. "And honestly, the way you were all standing when we got here, you could have been naked!"

Beth started laughing again as she stood up on something under the water. "I found the rock!" Hannah rolled her eyes.

"And he really wants to fit in with you guys, because you're my family," Hannah said a little quieter, before turning around and heading back up to the house. They were leaving the next day, so at least they didn't have to deal with any weird looks from her parents or Beth's comments for much longer.

The next morning, Olli flew back to Pittsburgh to start training camp while Hannah traveled to LA to meet with a producer. The fate of her potential film career hung in this meeting, so to say Hannah was a little nervous was an understatement.
​​

A/N: Want to keep reading? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z7DW6JS?*Version*=1&*entries*=0