On one rainy day Kaarna gets worried about Ken.
- It’s two in the afternoon and you’re still in bed! Are you sick?
- Oh no, quite the opposite! Look at this! There are millions of Guns N’ Roses videos on YouTube! I mean from the 90s!!!
- Of course there are. It’s YouTube.
- But I didn’t have a clue!!!! Concerts, interviews… My heart is beating heavily and my legs are numb! This is amazing!!!! Just like when I was in my teens!!!!
- Don’t get a heart attack, you’re 51 now!
Next morning Ken manages to get out of the bed but then he gets stucked on the sofa with his YouTube. Kaarna comes to check the situation:
- What are you wearing!? What’s that shirt? Where did you get it all of a sudden?!
- From my box of memories! It’s the original tour shirt from 1993! I bought it in Stockholm when I saw GNR.
- You’ve seen them?!? Live?!? At their peak?!? I’m so jealous!!!!
- Look, I even have the ticket here.
Kaarna sighs:
- And all I have is my dad’s old shirt that I’ve cut the sleeves off… I was born too late. Show me, what else do you have here?
Ken shows her all his cassette tapes, posters and scrapbooks from the early 90s.
He tells:
- I practically had no life other than Guns N' Roses. I came home from school, did my homework and spent the rest of the days in my room listening to GNR and immersing myself in dreams.
- How old were you?
- From 15 to 19, something like that. All through the high school anyway. The music was my friend at that time, I think.
- I also had bootleg VHS tapes and I watched them in our living room. The same tapes over and over again! I wonder why my parents never asked me to turn it off or even down.
- They weren't fans?
- Not in a million years! But Veli was! He was forced to! Ken laughs.
- I didn't get to see the band when they were in Finland, because my parents didn't let me go on my own. But finally two years later when I was legally adult, I took a ferry to Sweden. The concert at the Stockholm stadium was a dream come true!!! I was almost in the front line!
- Why haven't I known that you've been such a big fan?
- I kind of left it all behind when the band broke down and Guns N' Roses turned into Axl's solo project. I hated all that. Then I moved away from home and got a life of my own.
After wasting several days watching the hypnotic videos from the 90s, Ken realizes he needs to intervene himself and hands all his devices to Kaarna:
- Take these and hide them. I must go cold turkey on this.
- Excellent! You really have become obsessed!
Then Ken dances away singing:
”It’s a bad obsession / It’s always messin’ / It’s always messin’ my mind…”
(Guns N´ Roses: Bad Obsession)
But it’s too late already. Axl Rose has crawled his way deep inside Ken’s brain and heart. He’s there when Ken goes to sleep. He’s in every dream. And he’s there when Ken wakes up. And he makes everything amazing.
”I get up around 7 / Get outta bed around 9 / And I don’t worry about nothin’, no / Because worrying’s a waste of my time…”
(Guns N´ Roses: Mr. Brownstone)
Like any addict, Ken finds a way to keep up the bad habit. Kaarna can’t hear him watching the Instagram clips in the toilet on his phone! And if Kaarna happens to be around, Ken can watch the clips without any voice just to adore Axl’s smile, face, butt, legs…
”I think about you, honey, all the time, my heart says, Yes / I think about you, deep inside, I love you best / I think about you, you know you’re the one I want / I think about you, darling, you’re the only one”
(Guns N´ Roses: Think About You)
- Look, a clip that I haven’t seen before! Look at this! Look! Look!
Kaarna jumps over the table and yells:
- If you haven’t got the goddamn self-discipline, I will make you stop!!!! Give me that fucking phone!
She could swear that someone starts to sing behind her:
”Back off, back off, bitch / Down in the gutter, dying in the ditch / You better back off, back off, bitch / Face of an angel with the love of a witch…”
(Guns N´ Roses: Back Off Bitch)
Kaarna is absolutely right.
There are chores around the house that need to be done before the winter.
Ken really should focus on the real life also.
And little by little the hurricane called Axl is having a smaller impact in Ken’s mind.
And then eventually comes the day when it’s safe to say: Axl Rose has left the building.
Luckily the miraculous weather continues! A second little summer in September! Just like last year.
Ken and Kaarna take advantage of the warmth and sun and spend all the days outside hiking and geocaching.
- I feel like I just got an overtime in life, Kaarna says gratefully.
She fears of the autumn more than ever.
Also Hector and Janne enjoy the last warm days riding the motorbike. They stop by to have a cup of coffee with Ken and Kaarna.
Although Kaarna is not at home right now, because she’s stealing apples somewhere.
After a while she arrives with her haul:
- Freshly stolen apples, anyone?
But Janne says that his own apple tree back home is producing way more fruit than he can ever use, and Kaarna is welcome to pick them.
- So I stole these for nothing?!
Today Ken and Kaarna have been picking apples at Janne’s.
- Did we took too many? What hoarders are we?
- Well, he practically forced us to take it all. But we could give one bucket to Filia, right?
Filia complains that the Finnish apples are small and sour, nothing like the delicious Greek ones.
- But if you carry the bucket upstairs, I'll agree to take them, she says.
Then she shuffles away taking bites of the apple quite pleased.
- Ungrateful witch, Kaarna thinks and takes the bucket to Filia's apartment.
Sadly, no climate change can prevent the autumn in Finland. Along with the down pressure and rains, hits the fall paralysis. Kaarna reads from the news that the next winter will be warm and rainy. So, just like last year, it'll be a never-ending November. Her stomach starts to hurt.
Ken tries to stay positive, but he knows that in reality neither does he have strength anymore. Life without traveling is worth nothing.
And when your fears subside / And shadows still remain / I know that you can love me when there's no one left to blame / So never mind the darkness, we still can find a way / 'Cause nothin' lasts forever, even cold November rain
(Guns N' Roses: November Rain)