“Sato, why do you look so down?”
Tomas Satoransky realized that he had paused halfway through taking off his shoe, being too lost in thought to continue his postgame routine. Did his facial expression really make his sadness that obvious? “Oh, just homesick I guess,” he said, putting a smile on his face even though smiling was the last thing he felt like doing. What he really wanted was to get on the next plane to Czechia and celebrate Christmas with his family and friends.
Lauri Markkanen plopped down in the seat next to Tomas’ locker. “You know what I do when I get homesick?” he asked.
“Type ‘Finland’ into Google Images and scroll down the list for hours?” Tomas said in what he hoped was a joking enough manner that his teammate wouldn’t suspect that Google Images binges for ‘Czechia’ were one of Tomas’ main coping mechanisms.
“Even better,” Lauri said, pulling out a tupperware container from his bag. It held some kind of gross-looking brown substance that was almost fecal in nature. When Lauri took off the lid, Tomas expected a foul smell to fill the locker room, but the stuff didn’t smell nearly as bad as it looked. “I always keep some Finnish delicacies with me when I start yearning for the homeland.”
“What is that stuff, anyway?” Tomas asked.
“Mämmi. Rye pudding. It’s great!” Lauri answered, pulling a spoon from somewhere and offering it to his teammate. “Here, try it.”
Thinking that traditional Czech vánočka were much more appetizing than the slop that was being offered to him, but not wanting to insult Lauri’s heritage, Tomas took both the spoon and the container and took a single tentative bite. After hesitantly chewing the unfamiliar foodstuff, Tomas’ eyes lit up. “Hey, this isn’t bad!” He took another bite, then another. “It tastes way better than it looks.”
Lauri seemed genuinely pleased at his teammate’s reaction. “Told you it was good.”
“Can you buy this anywhere?” Tomas asked. He was already in mourning for when Lauri would take the container of mämmi away from him.
“Nope, I have to make it at home. But I’ve got a bunch in here.” Lauri tipped over his gym bag to allow at least fifteen containers of mämmi to tumble out on the floor. “Take some. Consider it your Christmas present.”
Tomas didn’t want to be greedy, so he took just two containers of the traditional Finnish pudding. “Thanks man.” He was already thinking about how the mämmi would pair nicely with some home-baked Czech-style Christmas cookies. Maybe he didn’t have to be so homesick after all.