By February 1926, 200-Foot Logging—still tiny compared with operations like Tidewater, Western Cooperage, and Weyerhaeuser—had become a healthy gyppo outfit. Matti had three yarders, one diesel and two oil-burning steam, operating on two Klaskanine shows and a new diesel yarder on his own timber just north of Neawanna. The Neawanna show straddled a ridge running north-south from the top of which you could see the long line of white breakers to the west, multiple white lines of combers rolling in from the Pacific, stretching from Neawanna Head to the Columbia. Saddle Mountain could be seen to the southeast—on a clear day. In February, northwesterners see mountains mostly with their imaginations.
The spruce on the Neawanna show were so big and thick that their needles turned the usual coastal fog into rain even in summer, supplying nearly half of the trees’ total water. Sometimes if it did rain, no one on the ground far below was aware of it.
The first job on the Neawanna show required felling these big trees to make a road to get the yarder in position. Aksel and the Bachelor Boys started on the east side of the ridge and worked their way west and uphill, pushing the line of standing trees before them. Matti, supervising over on the Klaskanine shows, scheduled his trucks to service both operations efficiently. He put Aksel in charge of the Neawanna show along with the Bachelor Boys, two other loggers, and the new diesel yarder; 200-Foot Logging was moving forward.
* * *
Aino’s business also moved forward. Matti and Kyllikki replaced the big woodstove with one that used propane. This meant Aino no longer had to clean soot from the walls and ceiling and pay someone to split wood. It also reduced the fire hazard. People grumbled that you could blow yourself up with propane gas, to which Matti replied, “You can, if you’re stupid.”
Aino had dinner ready every evening at seven. The boarders were usually asleep two hours after dinner, exhausted. Aino would have liked to do the same, but she had to do the prep work and set out the table for breakfast at 5:00 a.m. The boarders would leave for work in the dark. Aino would clean up breakfast, then do the shopping for dinner and the next day’s breakfast. The rest of the day was spent preparing dinner, making sure the outhouse was serviceable, sweeping the halls and stairs, and whatever chores weren’t daily, like washing windows. The meals she served were the meals she’d learned to make when working at Reder’s Camp, twenty years earlier.
Almost all the boarders were loggers and worked eight-hour shifts, thanks to the IWW. Aino worked sixteen hours, albeit at her own pace and without a boss. Some days there was time to do personal shopping, visit Kyllikki, or even get a brief nap. She was thankful that at her poikataloja, the boarders took care of their own rooms and laundry.
Aksel asked Aino to a dance at Suomi Hall a couple of weeks after he had moved in. He could still dance so well that Aino felt both the joy and the envy of the other women watching them. He occasionally took her to the Liberty Theater to see moving pictures. Kyllikki and Matti often went as well and Aino and Kyllikki, over coffee at Matti and Kyllikki’s house, would discuss—even marvel at—the risqué clothing and makeup of the actresses.
Then, one Sunday in April, Kyllikki was wearing lipstick.
“Oh, my God,” Aino said. “Where did you get that?”
“At Woolworths. You know they’ve had it for several years now.” Kyllikki grinned, pursed her lips, and then licked them slowly.
“What does Matti think about it?”
“Matti doesn’t mind. I think he even likes it, but he wouldn’t say.” Then she put her face right up close to Aino’s. “See anything else?”
Aino pulled back abruptly. “Your cheeks are rouged.”
Kyllikki grinned again. “You wear this and men will see you clear across the dance floor and the women who don’t have it will be feeling like farmhands.” She walked back to the stove. She looked mischievously at Aino. “You want to try some?”
Kyllikki made up Aino the first time, talking her through the process, just as the salesgirl at Woolworths had done. When Aino looked in the mirror with Kyllikki smiling over her shoulder, she felt she’d done something illicit. The face looking back was, of course, hers but certainly more dramatic—highlighted. She moved her facial muscles and lips. She looked younger.
“Do you think this makes my lips too obvious?” she asked.
Kyllikki turned her around and gave the question serious consideration. “I don’t think so, but if you do, just go to Woolworths and get a color that fits you better.”
Aino turned and looked in the mirror again. She grinned and gaily opened her fingers in a “Voilà!” gesture. You just go to Woolworths. As easy as that.
Not entirely. Deciding among five different colors took consultation with the Woolworths salesgirl and considerable time. And it wasn’t cheap. Still, she put on lipstick for the Saturday dance, as well as a light dusting of powder the girl also sold her and just the slightest brush of rouge. When Aksel knocked on her door, she panicked. He’d think she was a whore. He’d think she looked like a clown. She took a deep breath and opened the door.
Aksel’s first reaction was to ever so slightly pull his head back and blink several times. Then he smiled—and then came that look.
He walked her home that night after the dance and they kissed for the first time.