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Katja caught the eye of Petteri in Hancock, Michigan. She was visiting relatives, he was a local, and during her ten-day stay in the States, they got to know one another fairly well. In the biblical sense, anyway. When it was time for her to head to New York for her flight home to Helsinki, Petteri decided to tag along and ‘watch over’ her. It was also the perfect excuse to get a free ride out of the Upper Peninsula and into NYC. Katja thought he was crazy and all the more intriguing, just to pack up a few belongings and start a new life on a whim in a foreign city, and she handed him her address, insisting that he write to her and keep her informed of his adventures.
Three months later, Katja realised she was on her very own adventure. Luckily, Petteri had stuck to his word and had sent two letters in the time they had been apart, and she waited patiently for his reaction to her pregnancy before spilling the news to her family. She made sure to plan another visit to Hancock near her due date so that her son would easily be granted dual citizenship. Petteri had not turned out to be an upstanding citizen, but he still had the right to know his offspring, was her belief. In the following years, Katja and Jaska would spend a week in New York in order for him and Petteri to spend time together. She eventually married an Englishman, which attributed to Jaska’s early fluency in the language. He received decent marks in school and completed his mandatory military service without incident. With the earnings he’d saved via odd jobs throughout his teenage years, Jaska traveled back to New York to stay with his father, with the thought that he could help to steer the man onto a better path. Petteri was consistently incarcerated for misdemeanors, usually that of petty theft and public intoxication. Jaska threw himself into work, hoping that providing rent via conventional jobs would give Petteri less reason to indulge in crime. It took about six months for Jaska to realise he was in over his head as far as his father was concerned, but the strong sense of family values which had been instilled in him kept him from giving up entirely, and instead doing what he could, within reason, to help Petteri. This mainly involved providing bail. It wasn’t usual for Petteri to disappear for a week or so at a time, but after two solid weeks without contact or a glimpse of him, Jaska began to fret. For a month he checked local hospitals, morgues and police stations before receiving word from a relative in Michigan: his father had fled New York and relocated to his hometown in Hancock. As annoyed as relieved, Jaska packed up Petteri’s belongings into storage and moved out of Harlem and into a decent apartment in Clinton Hill with the intention to finally place more focus onto his own life and well-being. |
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full name Jaska Kalevi Pirhonen |
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facts
X Jaska’s first occupation in New York was tending bar. He has also worked for a moving company, been a taxi driver, sanitation collector, and delivered pizzas, but bartending has been a constant from the start.
X Romantic relationships have been few and far between. Between babysitting his father and busy work schedules, actual dating has taken a backseat. Flings and random sexual encounters have been plentiful, however. X Jaska’s apartment was decorated by a professional he became acquainted with years ago during his job with the moving company. While he tends to wear dark clothes, he finds the bright colours in his home a welcome change from the dreary scenes he tends to witness at work. X Jaska spends a week each summer in Helsinki to visit his mother, grandparents and extended family, and in turn, Katja visits New York around his birthday. X No pets for Jaska; he claims he has a difficult enough time remembering to feed himself. X Jaska’s stepfather’s hobby is taxidermy. Following a traumatising moment in his youth when he witnessed the man working on such, he subsequently became vegetarian. X Jaska has always enjoyed writing stories; they tend to be dark and with a twist. He’s never intended to be published, but always enjoys a good challenge. X Usually polite and overly considerate, if he or someone he favours is wronged, he subconsciously forms a grudge against the offender. |
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