Winter in Siberia gets rather boring. But, come Christmas time the townsfolk that are under twenty gather together. We meet at the top of old man Boris’ hill. The idea is to run down the steep hill as fast as you can, the problem is gravity. You see gravity has this way of toppling you and you fall head over heels down the hill. Fortunately, this is winter in Siberia so the hill is covered in snow.
We break into groups according to age group. Toddlers to fourth grade, fifth grade to twelve years old, thirteen to fifteen, sixteen and seventeen then finally eighteen and older. This year I’ll be in the sixteen-year-old group.
The oldest go first. It only seems right because this is their last year. The rest of their group help the youngsters. This is a self-judged event, however, it’s well known that the company managers watch closely. The ones with style, grace, poise and especially the one that goes the farthest down without falling is guaranteed a good job. We stand in awe and laughter as some boys beat their chest and make proclamations of being the best.
The small group of twenty-year-old’s line up across the top of the hill. Their destiny in front of them, so they choose their path well. They raise their right hand and start counting down from ten. On the count of one and with a great hurrah they run. Of course, my brother, Viktor, is the first to fall. Not much more than five feet down his path, he trips over a rock. My parents wince and turn away. One by one they fall, until there are only two still running, Mark and Eva. Mark and Eva look at each other and nod. They skip and start doing handsprings and backflips. On his third back-flip, Mark falls flat on his back, leaving Eva as the one to finish. The mayor congratulates Eva and Boris talks with Mark.
The next group down are the toddlers to fourth grade, the eighteen and nineteen-year-old’s, fifth grade to twelve years old, sixteen and seventeen then finally thirteen to fifteen. After our romp down the hill there is always a huge snowball fight and then we head off to the sauna. There are different sauna for the age groups, birth to twelve, thirteen to fifteen, sixteen and seventeen and the adult sauna. Each sauna is separate and cannot be seen from the others.
Every year we change into swimsuit’s, this year we are greeted outside the sauna by my parents. They explain that no clothing is to be worn inside. My mom shows the girls where to undress and my father guides us. The hoblet where we undress is warm and a small hall leads to the sauna. My father shows us the bins were we place our clothes and leaves. We just stand there gawking until Omar breaks the silence.
Omar, “Don’t just stand there you heard Pavel’s dad, get your things in the bins.”
The other seventeen-year-old boys nod and say, “We did this last year so hurry up.”
The room goes from absolute silence into chaos. Once undressed we head into the sauna, where we are once again greeted with silence. The girls are in here and they’re naked. Every year before this we had shared the sauna but we wore swimsuits. There had always been an adult supervisor but we had none. We gather ourselves on one side while the girls gather on the other. In the silence Rabekka stands, she gets one of the girls and a myrtle branch.
I’ve seen this ritual before. Starting when a girl is thirteen she is ‘blessed’ by being tapped with a myrtle branch. I didn’t understand this ritual until this year in health class. Myrtle represents fertility, tapping the girl blesses her, so that when she gets married, she can bear children. I blush seeing Rabekka performing this. Once Rabekka is done Omar stands and takes her by the hand. With a slight nod, Rabekka hands the myrtle to him. The older boys pair off with the older girls, I get the idea that we are to do the same.
I reach for a myrtle branch at the same time that Florentina does and our hands touch. Florentina is like my sister from another mother if you know what I mean. We were born in the same hospital on the same day. I was born three minutes before Florentina; however, my parents were in room six and her parents were in room two.
Florentina and I have been best buddies for as long as I remember. By the way, this is the first time I’ve ever seen her naked. I start hearing some boys hooting, I look around and they’re looking at me and some of the girls are pointing at me. I look at Florentina and she’s beet red. I don’t know why but I look down and I see I have an erection. I gasp, cover my erection and run out of the sauna into the boy’s changing room. As I run, I hear some jeering that turns to laughter.
In the changing room, I chide myself, “I can’t believe it, my classmates will never let me hear the end of this.