Chapter 24

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The Metsala Farm’s renovations were going well. Mikael, being a Finn, predicted a disaster before the house was finished. Maybe it was Finnish pessimism, but Sean had an odd feeling as well. Something would go wrong with the whole endeavor for sure.

It turned out they were right. Mid-May came with lovely warm weather and they decided to paint the house, including the roof. Some human friends of the farm, locals they knew through different channels, were getting curious and wanted to help at the same time. The day of the roof being painted landed in the middle of the week. They’d picked a traditional dark forest green for the job, and then did a quick rock-paper-scissors on who would get what job in the painting. They got lucky, because the only human there was Mikael’s old friend, Joonatan, the mechanic.