“THE HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT OF THE WINDOW AND
DISAPPEARED”
By – JONAS JONASSON
The Gist:
“Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be”
Chapter 1:
The introduction to the 100-year old Allan Karlsson’s escape
from the Old People’s Home in Malmkoping, especially bad-tempered Director
Alice, just an hour before the celebrations for his 100th birthday
were to take place at the Old People’s Home. Mayor and the press all were
invited. The Chapter very subtly defines a quality of Allan that he is never
used to pondering things too long and also bad-tempered nature of Alice. These
things are just mentioned in one line but are qualities maintained in the
characters across the book and this consistency is what makes any book/story
great.
Chapter2:
It gives the journey of 100-year old Allan away from
Director Alice and her Old People’s Home through the flowerbed, park and
churchyard to the Malmkoping Bus Station in his pee-sleepers, unchanged clothes
and some crown notes. The scenes at the Bus Station are explained as Allan
after discussing with the little man behind the ticket window, decides to board
the bus which is on its way to Strangnas but on the way, steals the suitcase
from “Never Again” man intentionally, who has asked Allan to look after his
luggage rather irritatingly (though Allan hardly let himself ever be irritated)
as he relieves himself at the station. The journey to Byringe Station by Allan
is not determined by where but as to how much it costs and with the help of bus
driver, the journey of Allan with the suitcase begins towards Life.
When Allan decides to steal the suitcase, the author
beautifully calls this decision as a ‘yes’ to life, which reader realizes on
further reading of the book. Also, the author briefly mentions about Allan
having crossed the Himalayas once, many years earlier, though it is pretty
difficult to identify that at this stage of the story.
Chapter 3:
Mayor along with the guests start searching for Allan but he
is long gone and finally police is called. “Never Again” man has taken out the
truth from the little man behind the station window through his methods had got
to know the Allan had taken the bus which will again return to Malmkoping on
its return journey. Allan got down at Byringe Station and met Julius Jonsson
whom he told about his little escape and stealing of the suitcase. Julius was
welcoming to the thief that Allan had become because he himself had been one.
But through the interrogation of the driver of the bus and a lift to Byringe,
the “Never Again” man had also caught up with the new thief. The “Never
Again" man had thought of getting his suitcase back and putting Allan to
rest but in a flash with a plank he was taken care of to spend the rest of his
life in the freezer for elks. Allan and Julius now opened the suitcase.
Chapter 4:
The story of Allan’s life from his birth on May 02, 1905 in
Yxhult after his mother’s march in May Day procession and his parents is
covered in this chapter. Allan’s father advocating use of contraceptives led to
his ouster from home and his anger at his railways’ job cost him his job. He
wanted to see socialism in Sweden but not seeing the situation improve left to
Russia to depose the Tsar. Overtime he got a liking for Tsar and thus dies
fighting the communists led by Lenin in Russia as he tries to save his
privately owned land. Her mother philosophically told Allan to move on after
his father’s death as things are as they are and will be as will be. Unable to
get support from father, Allan started working at Nitroglycerine Ltd.’s
production branch as mother sold firewood. Easter eggs sent from Russia were
used to cancel the debt to Mr. Wholesale Merchant Gustavsson. Allan’s mother
also died soon though Allan had learnt making explosives. After the death of
the parents, Mr Gustavsson learnt there could not be any debt from Allan but
only his parents. Allan had clearly established his life’s philosophy of
“Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be” and though he had an
interest in current affairs, he was very far away from any political opinion. With
his mother’s savings, Karlsson Dynamite Company was started and Allan tested
his explosives at the gravel pit till Mr Gustavsson accidently became victim of
one of the explosives in Aug, 1925. Allan had to spend the next 4 years
incarcerated in an asylum at Prof Lundborg’s clinic, who questioned any negro
or jewish aspects in Allan. Finally Allan had to leave his bed at the clinic
for someone else.
Chapter 5:
Returning to present, Allan is being searched by the police
and Detective Chief Inspector Goran Aronsson. Police dog borrowed from
Eskilstuna leads the police team in the evening to the Bus Station waiting
room. Though Aronsson went to Ronny Hulth’s home, the little man behind the
ticket window, but he could not meet him. Finally a late evening call from
husband of the lady travelling in the same bus with Allan informs police that
Allan was in the same bus and got down in some station mid way.
Chapter 6:
Next Day, Allan and Julius realized that the suitcase had 50
Million crown notes and the “Never Again” man was dead in the freezer.
Meanwhile Chief Inspector Aronsson got to know the parts of the story from
Ronny Hulth and bus driver Lennart Ramner through his live-in girlfriend
Jessica Bjorkman. He decided to go to Byringe Station which Allan and Julius just
left with the dead body in the Inspection Trolley and the suitcase. Allan had
changed his sleepers to the dead man’s shoes.
Now, the story of Per-Gunnar Gerdin aka the Boss of the
Never Again group is told where he separated from his partner and friend and
shifted to the robbery business from selling imported fruits and vegetables.
After around two decades, he founded “Never Again” (meaning never to go back to
jail again) group in jail with Bolt and Bucket and later Caracas joined. He
couldn’t recruit more after his mother’s letter in jail about her playing
Treasure Island game with him. The group was dealing with the Russians and Bolt
was carrying the suitcase after the deal when he had met Allan at Malmkoping
Station. The Boss sent Bucket to Malmkoping to search for Bolt.
Allan and Julius passed through fields, meeting a farmer on
the way and finally put the body in one of the containers at a factory yard and
left the trolley. Allan and Julius ate at a hot-dog stand, bought the car and
hired the owner – Benny as the Chauffer. They headed south, getting petrol in
Mjolby in the silver Mercedes and decided to stay in a farm or house rather
than a hotel for the fear of getting noticed. Into the Smaland forests, they
came to the Beauty’s farm house where they got to stay with an Alsatian dog,
Buster and an Elephant, Sonya. Benny had fallen for the Beauty.
Aronsson didn’t find much at Byringe except the pee-slippers
of Allan and locals calling Julius a thief. Later he got to know about the
three men on trolley with a suitcase from a tip from a farmer. On reaching the
factory yard, Aronsson was told by the workers that they saw only two men and
not three heading to a gas station and the hot-dog stand. Aronsson reached the
hot-dog stand but got no clue ahead and thus decided to return to Malmkoping to
get the slippers identified, which he did from Director Alice. On the way back,
he informed the county police chief of the developments, who inturn told the
press about the kidnapping scenario, including by Julius.
Chapter 7:
Continuing Allan’s life story from 1928, after returning
home in Yxhult from Prof Lundborg’s care, Allan decides to move away and blows
his house with dynamite. The police caught him but let him go as Prof
Lundborg’s colleagues didn’t need him anymore. He secured employment as an
ignition specialist at a foundry at Halleforsnas where Esteban from Spain
worked as an ignition specialist. After a few years of work, both left for
Spain where war welcomed them. Allan remained non-political but in a foreign
country he followed his friend and joined Army. Esteban got killed and Allan
stayed to blow away bridges but in his own clothes for the army. He made sure
none was at the bridges he blew and thus saves General Franco from dying over
his last bridge blast. General Franco gave Allan his unconditional protection
through a letter wherever he wished to go and Allan unknowingly takes a ship
with Spanish flag.
Chapter 8:
Bucket’s story is told as the leader of violence committing
mistakes and landing in jail while his brother became the new leader of the
group.
From dog Kicki, Aronsson got to know of a dead body around
an abandoned inspection trolley but thinks that dog is unable to figure out the
dead body. But what the dog is unable to tell the chief inspector is that the
body disappeared from the yard. Meanwhile the dead body had been dumped into
the Red Sea from a ship at Djibouti after the Egyptian seaman had emptied the
pockets.
Benny also shares his and his elder brother Bosse’s story, about
their uncle’s will to teach both children and pay them till their education.
Benny took on a lot of courses but never finished any to continue getting the
money while Bosse does his course and without any stipend, curses his brother
for his loss. So Benny as an almost-vet takes care of Sonya. Sonya’s story of
landing from a circus at Beauty’s home is also told. Around midnight, Benny,
Allan and the beauty visit the clinic at Rottne to get the requisite medicines
for Sonya. At the same time, a car slowly passed by them driven by Bucket’s
brother in desperate need of a smoke. The next day after reading the story and
photos in Express, the brother called
Bucket.
Next day when Beauty returned from Rottne with her supplies,
she summoned all and demanded the explanation for what she read from the day’s Express. So the beauty was explained
everything. The next day she buys a big bus to enable an early exit.
Chapter 9:
Allan sails into New York on September 01, 1939 and same day
World War II started. Allan’s ship under the Spanish Flag was confiscated by US
till 1945 and Allan showed Franco’s letter and knowing him as an explosive
expert, he was locked for a few years until when one day the Senior Immigration
Officer’s brother needed help of an explosives expert. Allan was taken to US
National Laboratory in Las Alamos in 1943. The scientists were developing a
nuclear bomb but didn’t know how to control it until in 1945 when Allan
mistakenly suggested dividing the Uranium into two parts. Thus, Allan was
invited by US Vice-President, Harry S. Truman for dinner and they were enjoying
and have fun when Truman was told that President Roosevelt had died.
Chapter 10:
Bucket waited outside the supermarket in Rottne as ordered
by the Boss, for red-haired woman (Beauty), guy with ponytail (Benny) and
100-year old Allan and a Mercedes as informed by his brother. As Beauty passed
by him, he noted her presence, informed the Boss, noted her VW Passat’s license
plate and followed her to her place. Following her, he reached her place and
caught everyone. However, Allan got Sonya to sit on him and thus ended the
story of Bucket. He failed to listen to his boss and had got too enthusiastic.
Beauty had already bought a bus and it was modified by Benny and Julius to
create space to carry Sonya comfortably. Now that would be put to use.
Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Aronsson had ordered to bug
Per-Gunnar Gerdin, the Boss’ phone and got to know a few details through the
conversation between Bucket and Boss. Aronsson shared the developments with
Prosecutor Conny Ranelid.
After waiting for Bucket’s call for around 3 years, Boss
himself started off for the registered address for VW Passat.
Chapter 11:
Allan got a call from the new US President, Truman asking
for his help to enable Soong May-ling, wife of anticommunist Kuomintang Chiang
Kai-Shek in China win over the communists. She had gotten the promise of help
from Mrs Roosevelt. The next day Hiroshima was bombed with Atom Bomb. Allan
promised to blow up the bridges to limit movement of Communist leader Mao
Tse-Tung but as Soong May-ling’s bodyguards like to enjoy on the way and were
miserably late and Mao’s forces had left the Sichuan province long ago.
Kuomintang successfully captured Mao’s third wife Jiang Qing at the battle for
Yibin. As the soldiers celebrated their victory, Allan decided to abandon the
ship with the mess boy Ah Ming and Jiang Qing and moved towards Tibet. Jiang
Qing promised that Ah Ming would be able to serve Mao himself. Allan started on
foot and then on a camel he bought, from Tibet to Europe. Allan had learnt
Chinese, Spanish, English and Swedish by now. He met three communists on way
back to home Tehran. As the communists had a copy of the Communist Manifesto in
Farsi, they were shot at the Tehran border, while Allan’s hands were tied and
he was taken away.
Chapter 12:
Bucket’s body was put at the back of his Ford Mustang and
driven by Julius with Benny behind in the Beauty’s Passat to dispose of the
body. The plan was to burn the car and the body but as Benny and Julius stopped
at a service station in Braas to get can and petrol, Bucket’s little brother
and his colleague from the Violence group took away the Ford Mustang, changed
its name plates and sold it in Riga. As the car started to stink in the garage
in Riga, the garage boss learned of the dead body in the back and gave it to a
drunk for four bottles of wine to drive the wreck to the scrap-yard for
destruction.
The Bus driven by Benny left the farm around 6 in the
evening. Earlier Boss was getting impatient for his remaining henchman Caracas
who was late because he had gone to buy a watermelon. Boss got angry and split
the watermelon on Caracas’ head and thus Caracas left crying and Boss decided
to chase alone. With the help of GPS, he reached the farm, followed by
Aronsson. He just saw the bus leave but decided to inspect the farm and saw the
two hidden cars – silver Mercedes and red VW Passat. Knowing that he was at the
right place, he decided to follow the bus but the road was very narrow. After
patiently staying behind the bus for some time, Boss overtook the bus and
stopped ahead, blocking the way of the bus to stop the bus and also because he
running out of petrol too and took his gun out aiming at the Bus. He expected
the driver to pull the brakes and Benny did stand on the brakes but the
momentum because of Sonya torpedoed into the car.
Meanwhile, as Boss left the farm, Aronsson entered the farm.
As he inspected the place in more detail than the Boss, he realized that the
occupants of the farm had been their till today, farm belonged to Gunilla
Bjorklund (Beauty), found a revolver lying on edge of the wooden floor (of
Bucket) and found in the mailbox an official letter from the Vehicle Licensing
Authority confirming that a 1992 yellow Scania K113 had changed owners. He
followed the BMW now only to reach the accident spot and finally that the BMW
had been hit by something big and yellow but he could not find the corpse.
The team had decided that Benny would call his brother for
stay if Bosse could be bribed since they had a lot of money in the suitcase and
thus Benny would settle the old differences and also because no other had any
family or friends.
Chapter 13:
Allan was put in a holding cell in Tehran, alongside Kevin
Ferguson, an Anglican pastor who had been in Iran for last 12 years searching
for lost souls to recruit to the new faith. Allan heard Ferguson’s story and
also got to know that they were being kept by the Secret Police of Iran. Allan
got to know that they would soon disappear after the meeting with the Vice
Prime Minister. So he started making plans of sneaking out. The holding cell
was not a real prison with all security and locks but guards sometimes even did
not lock the doors properly. But there were never fewer than 4 guards at
entrance & exit and thus sneaking out would get Allan killed. When the
Prime Minister (head of Security and Intelligence in Iran) was back from England,
Allan went to meet him. The PM was unhappy over his treatment at the hands of
British, which was because he had killed an Assistant Secretary in the British
Embassy. The PM was relieved of the responsibility of the security for visit of
Winston Churchill, former British PM, which was a major loss of prestige for
the police chief. Allan now told the chief about his experiences selectively
and that he was an explosives expert. Allan makes up the secret killing of
Glenn Miller, a young Jazz musician by making sure both engines of the aircraft
burn up. The Police Chief thus made plans to kill Churchill on his Iranian
visit with the help of Allan by blowing up the only bullet-proof motor – DeSoto
Suburban. Allan made the plan so that it would look like a communist attack and
none would be able to pinpoint it back to him. Allan asked for the 9
ingredients of bomb along with nitroglycerine and a bottle of ink. Reverend
Ferguson became Allan’s interpreter. The DeSoto was finally rigged as the
police chief put the day’s eighteenth cigarette into Allan’s coffee. Now Allan
placed a new cup on the table and along with Ferguson left, passing their
holding cell as the police chief puffed the day’s nineteenth cigarette. Stopped
short on their way to freedom, the guard was surprised to know that Allan and
Ferguson had been allowed to leave by the Chief so he went in to confirm as
other three guards kept an eye on them. As the police chief got to know that
they were lying, he put his cigarette into Allan’s cup and now the
nitroglycerine in the cup led to a huge explosion. Charge under DeSoto also
detonated and Allan & Ferguson ran away and two of the three guards caught
on fire with the third running in the opposite direction. Ferguson now guided
Allan to Swedish Embassy while he himself went to make the third ran-away guard
a Christian but got killed by the guard.
At the Swedish Embassy, Allan had no passport or the newly
introduced special personal identity number, so the Third Secretary Bergqvist
could not allow Allan to go. Allan finally called US President Harry Truman and
also chatting for some time, requested him to call the Swedish PM Erlander and
vouch for who Allan was and so the Swedish PM could call the Third Secretary
Bergqvist and inform him that Allan should get a passport. Due to the explosion
at the Secret Police Headquarters and the burning of the DeSoto, the meeting
between Churchill and Shah was held at the airport. On the return, Churchill
was accompanied by the Swedish Military Attache, Allan.
Allan met PM Erlander on landing in Sweden in December 1947.
Allan was given money by the PM for his services rendered to the nation and
then asked to help the country in making its nuclear bomb to protect it against
any attack by Sweden. Allan met the head of research at Atomic Energy PLC, Dr
Sigvard Eklund, who was not at all happy with the PM involving himself in the
atom project and recommending him to interview Allan. Allan put up at the Grand
Hotel with so much money given by the PM. Dr Eklund was pretty satisfied with
how the interview of Allan went and knew he was most unsuitable for the job.
Allan thought Dr Eklund didn’t deserve his assistance and thus he left. As he
sat outside the Grand Hotel on a park bench, Allan greeted the man that came
and sat beside him and the man returned the greeting with Mr Karlsson.
Chapter 14:
Prosecutor Conny Ranelid on hearing what Chief Inspector
Aronsson had to say, issued warrants for Allan, Julius, Benny and Gunilla and
hoped to construct a chain of circumstantial evidence. Ranelid had all his case
sorted out for the three men and the woman and hoped to atleast get a life
sentence on the centenarian literally. Then he asked Aronsson to put up at
Vaxjo to wait for all the tips next morning as he would leak the news that the
centenarian is a veritable murder machine.
Chapter 15:
The team reaches Bosse’s house and Benny apologizes and
gives three million up front, without any conditions and tells him the full
story. After asking a few questions, Bosse finally welcomes all to his
Bellringer farm. Since the Boss had not died after the collision, the team had
taken him into the bus and he was given first-aid by the almost doctor Benny
and laid in the bus. As all were busy with the dinner preparations, the badly
injured Boss came out of the bus, took out his gun from the glove compartment
and limped in to the Kitchen where all sat and asked the dog to be locked in
the pantry. As he questioned Allan, Bosse realized that it was his old friend
Pike, his colleague in the food business, who separated amicably over the difference
of opinion over the business of selling Swedish imported meatballs, treated
with formaldehyde. After a quick chat, all had become friendly and Pike had let
go his anger after meeting his old friend. Bosse told his story of how he got
hold of half a ton books of Bible, ultra thin in genuine leather and golden
leathering but he could not understand what was wrong in it. So he read the
whole book only to find that the writer had added another line at the end of
the book’s last chapter – the book of revelation.
Chapter 16:
Sitting on the park bench, Allan was greeted and offered a
job by the employer of the man who greeted. Allan left with the man in his
chauffer driven car and left his room at the Grand Hotel as it is. On the
journey, man explained the magnificence of the opera as Allan described how
difficult it was to cross the Himalayas. The two men got down in Dalaro and
walked in the winter darkness, finally getting into the submarine. The man
introduced himself as the Russian physicist, Yury Borisovich and wanted Allan’s
help in building the Bomb. As both drank vodka on the submarine, each shared
their life stories and experiences. Yury, a passionate socialist, sang the aria
“Nessun Dorma”, opera from Puccini’s Turandot. Allan and Yury discussed everything
on earth and heaven, including the atom bomb except religion and politics.
After getting down at Leningrad, they started in Humber Pullman Limousine for
Moscow. Allan described his adventures in Spain, America, China and the
Himalayas and Iran, while Yury opened his heart about what he thought of
Marshal Beria, the boss of the secret service, who had no shame in killing
anybody. Allan wondered why Marshal Beria didn’t just get Allan kidnapped and
make him help in the formation of Atomic Bomb. Yury told that Marshal Beria had
recently failed in such a way. Trying to kidnap Albert Einstein, Marshal Beria
had got his unknown brother Herbert Einstein kidnapped and failed to get
anything out of him about the atomic bomb and he was put away in jail. Instead
of telling about this mistake to Stalin, Marshal Beria decided to get hold of
Allan with the new strategy. Allan met Marshal Beria and was invited for dinner
with Stalin.
The dinner started with Allan, Stalin, Marshal Beria and
Yury. There was another man in the room, claimed to be the interpreter. Allan
told his life story selectively about his father fighting for socialism in
Sweden and then in Russia. Allan himself had fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Allan raised the Swedish toast and Stalin sang a song. Allan also sang a poem
from his childhood he remembered from his village school and told that it was
by Verner Von Heidenstam. Stain, being a poet earlier himself, knew that the
poet had love for Germany and had met Hitler’s right man, Rudolf Hess. So the
dinner suddenly went a change in atmosphere. Stalin was getting angrier with
Allan with his each reply, including his becoming good friends with General
Franco, being in China for making war against Mao Tse-sung and prevented the
attempt to kill Churchill. After the abrupt end to the dinner, Allan put in a
windowless cell in the cellar of the nation’s secret police. Yury was unhappy
as he had brought Allan in good faith and feared that Allan might die but he
was assured by Marshal Beria that he would be kept as a back-up in case Yury is
unable to build the atom bomb by himself. Allan was sentenced by the special
tribunal for 30 years in the correction camp (the Gulag Camps) in Vladivostok.
As the prisoners were being carried in the draughty freight car to the cold
Vladivostok, each prisoner was allocated no fewer than 3 blankets due to
bribery by Yury. Allan met Herbert during the journey and Herbert told him that
he was deeply unhappy and preferred to kill himself, if in his own view he
hadn’t been such a coward. Allan assured that there would be plenty of
opportunities to die in the camps. Allan didn’t mind working in the camps but
only missed vodka and Herbert had also survived even by doing less work but
staying close to the hard working Allan. Finally after exactly 5 years and 3
weeks, Allan decided to move on and have a drink.
Chapter 17:
At the Bellringer farm, all enjoyed their breakfast and
Julius and Bosse informed all what they read in the newspaper about being
suspected for triple murder and warrants being out for them. However, Pike had
not died yet. All decided that none apart from Bosse would leave the farm and
they would not report to the police.
Meanwhile, Aronsson got a worthy tip from the deputy police
chief in Jonkoping, Gunnar Lowenlind about seeing a yellow Scania bus with a
badly dented front and only one functioning headlight somewhere near Raslatt.
Aronsson could not analyse the situation under the influence of alcohol and
decided to check out the next day from the Hotel Royal Corner in Vaxjo to his
home in Eskiltuna.
Chapter 18:
During the 5 years and 3 weeks in the Gulag camp, Allan
learnt Russian and also brushed up on his Chinese. From the contact established
with the returning sailors, Allan learnt about Soviet’s atomic bomb, the
divided Germany and the war in Korea. The 38th parallel separated the US
established South Korea and Soviet’s North Korea. Allan planned the escape but
needed Herbert’s help who had the reputation as the prisoner 133 who could
still hardly get his way correct even after staying for over 5 years in the
camps. Herbert used his reputation to get a pair of newly washed and ironed
uniforms and also steal a signal rocket. Finally the day came when huge
military consignment came by rail to be loaded in to the ship. Allan fired the
rocket into one of the containers when the opportunity came but instead of the
explosion, only smoke came out of the container. As a few prisoners tried to
climb the 2-metre high fence using the smoke as a shield, the guard on the watchtower
fired bullets but the bullets hit the containers also and series of explosions
began. All of Vladivostok was literally on fire in around 25 minutes. Allan and
Herbert’s barrack too got fire and thus they had to leave in black and white
prison clothes without changing into uniforms. Meanwhile, Stalin got to know of
the fire and planned Vladivostok as the base of Soviet Pacific Fleet, giving
its responsibility to his new favourite Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev before
dying of the stroke as he realized that somebody must be responsible for the
explosions in -20 degree Celsius temperature at Vladivostok.
As Allan and Herbert moved southwards, they came across
Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov, decorated commander in the Red Army and a
Marshal at Vladisvostok to administer the Soviet non-presence in the Korean
War. Marshal Meretskov was returning from his hunting cottage outside Krasniko,
2 hours south of Vladivostok when he saw the smoke and asked his aide driver to
stop to get a good view of the smoke in Vladivostok. Allan and Herbert were
nearby and thus got the opportunity to rob the Marshal and his aide of their
uniforms by pointing their pistol at themselves and also took their stylish
military green Pobeda and moved south towards North Korea. Crossing border was
easy. The full time war was being waged in North Korea as American War planes
circled in the air. So Allan left the main road and drove inlands to prevent
being the target. Allan and Herbert rested at a farmer’s place as Marshal and
his aide. The next morning, they reached Pyongyang and decided to meet North
Korean PM Kim Il Sung. Herbert as Marshal could not play his role well and thus
at the entry point where the soldier was immersed in alcohol, Allan translated
Herbert’s Russian into Chinese, telling that Marshal Meretskov wanted to meet
North Korean PM. As the drunken soldier called his superior and waited, Allan
and Herbert changed clothes. The drunken soldier tried to inform his superior
of the clothes being changed but he was dismissed as being too drunk. Allan and
Herbert got the pass to meet the second-in-command of the PM’s
second-in-command. Allan and Herbert met the second-in-command to PM’s second
in command, his son Kim Jong Il and waited for 3 days to meet him. Allan
informed the son that he had a message directly from Stalin to be delivered
directly to the PM because the communication could not be trusted as it was
suspected that the US had infiltrated the Soviet Communication System. The
young son wanted to confirm if Stalin had himself sent Allan or Marshal
Meretskov but Allan cautioned since the communication system was infiltrated by
the US. But the young Kim had known Uncle Stalin for a long time and he could
talk to him in code. On the phone, the young Kim got to know of Stalin’s death
and cried in the lap of Allan. Allan sang the Georgian song sung by Stalin at
the dinner and swept away any doubts in the young Kim’s mind. So Allan, Herbert
and Young Kim went to meet the PM in the SU-122 self-propelled howitzer. Allan
decided to tell the PM that Stalin had the important message that Soviet would
give a few hundred tanks to North Korea and he be helped with transportation
and Visa to China since he had some business with Mao Tse-tung too. The three
people reached PM Kim Il Sung, sitting with another gentleman and as Allan
introduced himself, PM replied that he knew Marshal Meretskov very well and
that Allan was certainly not him. Meanwhile, Marshal Meretskov had managed to
get his new clothes without the medals and got a new Probeda and started with
his aide southwards, five days after the fire at Vladivostok. At the Korean
border, his suspicions were confirmed and at the outer defence ring, he was
confirmed that the fake Marshal was visiting PM’s second-in-command and the PM.
Marshal Meretskov convinced the PM’s son’s second-in-command about the imminent
danger to the PM and his son and started towards the PM and reached just in
time as Allan’s interrogation by the PM began. As everyone said that Allan is
going to die, Allan said that the PM’s guest had not demanded his death and
hoped that he would have a different opinion. He was Mao Tse-tung and Allan
told him to give regards to his third wife who was saved by Allan in China. Mao
was astonished to meet his wife’s savior but Allan’s imminent death was averted
again. Herbert tried to run to get himself killed but he ended up entangling
himself with the contents of the cleaning cupboard. Allan also met and hugged
Mao’s cook Ah Ming. Mao was present in the room of Kim because Kim had set up
his headquarters in Manchurian China only. Now, Mao was prepared to help Allan
and his comrade, Herbert with whatever they wanted. Allan said he wanted a
holiday and Bali was suggested and Herbert decided to accompany. Mao promised to
give false papers and a pile of dollars sent by US President Truman to
Kuomintang, who abandoned it in their haste during their flight to Taiwan.
Chapter 19:
The team at were able to stay away from the world for two
weeks, enjoying their time at the Bellringer farm. Their story had also died in
the media. However the local paper kept publishing something on them, with a
short recap of the events, such as Director Alice giving Allan’s room to
somebody else, fitting of the security door at the ticket office of the bus
station, etc. Reading all the paper reports led to an angry man calling Chief
Inspector Aronsson that the police hadn’t checked up properly on the foreigner,
mentioned as the “hot-dog stand proprietor”, and he could be a turk or a
muslim, having hundred relatives and all living on public assistance. While
replying to the man on phone, Aronsson suddenly realized that Benny had a
brother as Aronsson asked for enquiries into the families of Allan, Julius and
Benny, before the identification of Gunilla Bjorklund and that brother lived
just outside Falkoping and all could be holed up there. Aronsson told
prosecutor Ranelid and sought his permission to go to Vastergotland to follow
up on the new tip but didn’t give the details.
Chapter 20:
Allan and Herbert reached Bali through the fake British
Passports and relaxed on a white beach. The waitress constantly got the orders
wrong and Allan wanted to complain about her to the manager. But Herbert liked
the waitress Ni Wayan Lakshmi, who was around 30 years younger, equally
slow-witted as Herbert and knew German when trying to learn Dutch. They both
married and her name was changed to Amanda and she left the job of waitress.
They bought a house close by the hotel of Allan. Everything could be bought in
Indonesia and Amanda asked what Herbert would like for himself as they had so
much money. He wanted and thus got a driver’s license in his name and a diploma
certifying Herbert as a driving instructor. She also bought a local driving
school and renamed it Einstein’s School of Driving. It soon became a successful
company. Amanda also had acquired a degree in economics and decided to enter
politics. She named her party – Liberal Democratic Freedom Party. She decided
to fight the Governor election and became Governor with the help of dollars.
They bought the hotel in which Allan was staying and their family entered most
of the businesses. Over time, Amanda also gave birth to two sons – Allan
Einstein and Mao Einstein. But one day, Gunung Agung, the three thousand metre
high volcano erupted and thousands of Balinese died. Riots had taken place
everywhere in Indonesia and Communists were being wiped out. Herbert retired
and Amanda also thought of retiring but was offered the post of Indonesia’s
Ambassador in Paris even though she had no idea where Paris was. As Herbert and
Amanda decided to move to Paris, Allan also decided to accompany them and get
some work at the embassy in year 1968.
Chapter 21:
Chief Inspector Goran Aronsson reached the Bellringer farm
and met Allan sitting in a hammock on the large wooden veranda, introducing
himself and telling Allan that he and his friends were under arrest and Allan
should tell where they were. As Allan walked into the kitchen to prepare coffee
for Aronsson, Aronsson analysed Allan and the situation around. As he took out
his mobile to call his colleagues in Falkoping for reinforcements, his phone
rang and it was Prosecutor Ranelid and he had some sensational news.
Chapter 22:
The Egyptian sailor, who had dumped Bolt’s body in the Red
Sea, had taken Bolt’s wallet with 800 Swedish crowns and come to Djibouti for
three days of leave and looked to change the money. A person was revolting in
Djibouti because the USA had established a military base there and thus was
carrying a suicide bomb with himself to blow off some American soldiers. But
since he was wearing too many clothes to cover his bomb and it was very hot, he
accidently pulled the bomb’s string and the subsequent explosion also killed
the man standing closest to him and carrying Bolt’s wallet, carrying 800
Swedish crown notes, passport and driving license of Bolt. The body could not
be identified but from the wallet, assumed to be of Erik Bengt Bylund (Bolt).
Meanwhile, Arkis Ikstens was shocked to see a human arm sticking out of the
last car squashed at the car-crushing machine at the scrapyard in the southern
suburbs of Riga, the capital of Latvia. The police identified him from his
wallet as Henrik Mikael Hulten (Bucket). The Swedish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs at 11:15 am on May 26, 2005 got fax from Djibouti and Latvia, one after
another, indicating the death of two men. The two faxes were scanned and mailed
to Prosecutor Ranelid as the official at the Ministry had identified the two
photographs from what he had recently read in the papers. Thus, the case of
Ranelid seemed completely dismissed and he thought to somehow salvage the
situation. As soon as Aronsson heard Ranelid’s voice, he told him that Allan
was now under arrest and others must be in the vicinity but Ranelid told him
about the update on Bolt and Bucket and asked Aronsson to find the third victim
and then newly awoken Per-Gunnar Gerdin stepped out into the veranda and
Aronsson sensed that the number three had just found him.
Chapter 23:
In 1968, Allan joined as an interpreter for the Ambassador
Amanda in Paris and was to accompany her to the Elysee Palace for
accreditation. He had not had any shave or haircut since the volcanic eruption
of 1963 but since riots had erupted in France too, he could not get a haircut
here too. As he returned back to embassy, Amanda had been told that the
two-minute accreditation had been replaced by a long lunch with French
President De Gaulle and US President Lyndon B Johnson. Actually both the
Presidents hated each other but since it was customary to have lunch together
when in the same city, So, President De Gaulle had invited Indonesian
Ambassador Amanda also for lunch to be able to skip talking to Johnson. Herbert
decided to stay home to prevent any mishaps from his side as he and Amanda both
were susceptible to saying wrong things. Riots and Demonstrations were taking
place everywhere in France but De Gaulle did not suspect any communist hand as
he trusted his leading advisors including the Interior Minister Fouchet and his
especially knowledgeable senior official, Claude Pennant who were also present
at the lunch. The senior official had advised the President to treat tough
protests with equal toughness. As both the Presidents directed their questions
to Amanda, Allan was kept busy and he changed almost everything from Amanda’s
answers in her mother tongue. Claude Pennant, the senior official with the
Interior Minister had been a Soviet Communist spy brought up under the wings of
Marshal Beria and Allan remembered seeing him at the dinner with Stalin, Beria
and Yury. Allan brought this to the notice of President De Gaulle when he was
exchanging pleasantries with US President and told them that he was not
recognized by Claude because of his long hairs and beard. As President De Gaulle
went to privately converse with Interior Minister, President Johnson and Allan
shook hands and Allan mentioned former President Harry Truman as his friend
before leaving. As Allan reached the Indonesian Embassy, he was called by
President Johnson for dinner because he wanted to know more about the spy,
meeting with Marshal Beria and Stalin, he had got to know about Allan’s
contribution from Harry Truman and also he was happy for putting De Gaulle in
tension after the lunch. At the dinner, President Johnson introduced him to the
secret agent Ryan Hutton. As Allan shared his life’s story with President
Johnson about giving the atomic bomb to Yury in an inebriated state and having
a 15 year holidays financed by Mao Tse-tung, President Johnson became a picture
of misery as he also heard people outside the Embassy shouting “USA out of
Vietnam”. Allan asked if he could do anything for the President but President
asked him to leave and he left thanking the President and Ryan. After Allan
left, Agent Hutton suggested that they make use of Allan to get to Yury
Borisovich Popov who was the technical director of the entire atomic arsenal of
the Soviet Union and then the President Johnson could take the initiative
toward mutual disarmament. Meanwhile, as Claude was imprisoned, French
government controlled the riots and the workers were appeased with big increase
in the minimum wages. President De Gaulle asked the Indonesian Embassy in Paris
for Allan to award him a medal but he had left without anyone having a clue, including
Amanda.
Chapter 24:
Prosecutor Ranelid in trying to save his career and honour,
arranged a press conference the same afternoon to inform that the arrest
warrants of the three men and the woman had been cancelled in view of the new
evidence even though they were guilty anyway and that law sometimes required
that arrest warrants be withdrawn, however offensive that may feel in certain
cases. But the press was not convinced and finally Prosecutor had to say that
for technical reasons in connection with the investigation, he was unable to
say anymore but at 3 the next afternoon, he would describe exactly what
happened (because he knew that Aronsson had got hold of the group).
Aronsson was enjoying the evening with his new friends who
did not have arrest warrants on them anymore and they talked about everything
except what happened in past few weeks. Finally Prosecutor Ranelid called
Aronsson to check with the team if he would be welcome at the farm the
following morning for a little informal chat about the earlier events and he
would also personally apologise to the four. As Aronsson told the team about
the Prosector’s request, they all discussed and finally Allan convinced all
that it was better to tell some story to one person in person rather than having
the whole press behind them until they had their story and plus they also had a
whole evening to come up with a story. Aronsson told Prosecutor Ranelid that he
was welcome at 10 the next morning. Then as Benny, the only non-drinker, was
going to drop Aronsson at his place of staying in his car, he iterated “John
8:7” and asked Aronsson to remember it in the Bible when he comes the next
morning at 10.
Chapter 25:
Prosecutor Ranelid started early from Esiltuna for Falkoping
and knew he would not have more than an hour to hear the team’s story because
he had to return to the press conference at 3. Chief Inspector Aronsson woke up
late as he had drunk champagne in substantial quantity and had also clearly
heard Allan that they would make up a story for Prosecutor Ranelid and thus he
was being an accomplice to something he was himself not aware. The previous
night at his hotel, he had looked up “John 8:7” in the Bible, followed by full
reading of the chapter in which there was a story of woman who had committed adultery
and the Pharisees had taken her to Jesus to put him in a dilemma that if the
woman not be stoned for her crime then Jesus goes against Moses and if he does
then he would be battling the Romans who had monopoly on the death sentence. To
this, Jesus replied “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and thus
the woman was not condemned by any of the Pharisees. Similarly, Aronsson
realized that who was he to cast the first stone on the four innocent and also
they were rather an appealing bunch and so he let go off any thought of their
being guilty.
Finally Ranelid and Aronsson were at the Bellringer Farm and
the team started with their story beginning from Allan’s escape climbing out of
the window. Allan had climbed out of the window to get a bottle of vodka to
meet his friend Julius. Meanwhile, he was called by Julius who was in turn
called by Pike to take charge of the Bibles from Bolt. Bolt had been entrusted
by Pike to collect the suitcase with 200 Bibles from Bosse’s place as Pike as
part of the organization, Never Again (meaning never to break the law of man as
well as GOD), to spread joy among the worst villains of the country. Bosse thus
brought from inside a heavy grey suitcase and showed the Bible. Ranelid
enquired why Bolt had done the nasty things at the station and Pike replied
that Bolt hadn’t seen the light (of GOD) yet. Allan said that Bolt had called
Pike resigning from his Never Again organization in order to join a foreign
legion and thus intended to make a bonfire of the Bibles. As Bolt went to use
the station’s public convenience, Allan took the suitcase and boarded the bus
to meet Julius and meanwhile played little fun with the driver as he asked for
the destination with a fifty crown note. Later Bolt also joined them at Julius’
place and after having elk and vodka with them, decided not to burn the Bibles.
But next day, Bolt had the worst hangover and thus was taken in the trolley,
leaving his shoes somewhere, to the Aker foundry. Leaving Bolt in the trolley,
Allan and Julius went to meet Pike’s friend Benny at the hot-dog stand, who had
studied criminology and had met Pike when once interviewing inmates in a big
prison. Benny was supposed to take them to Stockholm to Pike but instead first
decided to meet his fiancée, Gunilla and drove to Smaland but didn’t inform
Pike who now thought that Bolt with the three planned to do something with the
Bibles. Ranelid asked Benny why he didn’t inform the police about Allan and
Julius after reading about a suspected Kidnapping of a cenetenarian, he replied
that Allan and Julius declined since Allan was on run from Director Alice and
Julius had had bad luck with the police. He also didn’t inform Pike because
they suspected the police yet didn’t know that he had turned a believer of
Bible and would thus be tapping his phone and he was right about it, making
Ranelid curse himself for letting this information in the newspaper. Pike told
that only Bucket knew of the informant who gave the tip regarding the four and
since he died, there was no way of knowing that. Ranelid asked about the taped
conversation of Pike and Bucket where Pike swears and thus Ranelid asks if the
Lord would permit that swearing. Pike replied that he talked that way to make
Bucket believe that it was his same old boss Pike and not the new religious
boss so that he followed the orders as Bucket was not at all comfortable about
the new direction of the group. Beauty was not happy when Bucket entered her
farm, already drunk and using all the expletives and having his gun. Finally he
left saying that he would be doing drugs in Latvia. Pike continued that he went
to Lake Farm as Bucket had given him the address but they left just before he
arrived as they were not aware of his visit. Ranelid asked why Gunilla had
bought the bus. Gunilla told that she and Benny bought it for his brother Bosse
to fill it with the watermelons. As Ranelid asked now Pike about the Russians,
Pike was caught on the back-foot and didn’t know what to say but Benny
intervened with a Russian statement and said he and Bosse were nicknamed
Russians by the acquaintances. Though Allan only understood the real meaning,
it got Pike off the tight situation. Finally Pike told that he had overtaken
the bus but lost control and thus the bus had hit him but he was taken care of
by the almost-doctor Benny. Ranelid was not exactly convinced with the story
but he had no other choice. He asked why they all had remained hidden when they
were innocent and to this Allan replied that innocence can mean a lot of things
depending on whose perspective is adopted and finally, with no more questions
Ranelid left from the Bellringer farm thanking all. In his car, ranelid went
over the story again but was not convinced over how the indication of a dead
body by the dog Kicki could be that of a very old man as Allan had argued. So
Ranelid decided to blame the dog for leading him to the wrong conclusion of the
events. He already held a favour with Kicki’s dog handler over saving him from
a suspected shop-lifting. After Ranelid left, the team with Aronsson got
together to resolve a question but before he started, he asked if Aronsson was
comfortable with the story or wanted to go for a walk as the team chatted.
Aronsson replied he was convinced with the story and asked for the favour of
not telling him anything that he didn’t really need to know and thus Aronsson
was welcomed to the friend zone, where Aronsson never had been. When Allan told
Aronsson that they had pile of money, he was shocked but no explanations were
sought or given but only the question of its ownership was asked. Pike said
that he would like the friends and the millions to stick together. They all
decided to go on a shared holiday but there was the problem of destination as
none had valid passports and there was Sonya also to be carried. Allan and
Beauty got some idea for that all.
Chapter 26:
Allan’s once Russian physicist friend, Yury Borisovich
Popov, lived and worked in a secret place which had no existence for the
outside world but only for the Russians and was thus unapproachable. However,
Allan was recruited by CIA agent Ryan Hutton and employed as Administrator
under the name Allen Carson at the US Embassy in Moscow after practicing the A
to Z of spying for several weeks. Allan had no ideas and neither did Ryan on
how to approach the unapproachable and thus Allan took the refreshing walks to
the city library in Moscow everyday reading daily papers and magazines, hoping
for Yury to make a public appearance. Months passed by when finally one day in
1968, Allan came across the news that the Vienna Opera was to give a guest
performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Franco Corelli as Tenor and
the international Swedish star Birgit Nilsson in the role of Turandot. Allan
remembered that Yury had sung ‘Nessun
Dorma’ in the submarine and assumed that Yury may not miss this guest
performance. On the evening of March 22, 1969, Allan placed himself
strategically at the entrance hoping to recognize Yury as he entered the
auditorium but it was dark and all looked similar, wearing black suits under a
black coat and entering in pairs with women and Allan didn’t have any luck with
finding his old friend. Now, Allan looked for his opportunity on Yury’s exit.
Secret Agent Ryan emphaised on discretion but Allan paid no attention to it and
so as everyone came out of the auditorium after the extended performance, as it
was a huge success and the performers were called back to the stage 20 times by
the applauding audience, each noticed a man standing in the middle of the
bottom step, holding a homemade poster which read: “I am Allan Emmanuel” and
thus if Allan was going to be indiscreet, he was going to be on his own behalf.
Yury Borisovich Popov came out from the theatre with his wife, Larissa
Aleksandrevna Popova, who was very thankful to her dearest husband for the
outing, when he saw the man standing with the board and could not believe it
could be true because he believed that Allan had died at the explosion at
Vladivostok. But Allan was in front of him and now Yury could finally live with
himself for he felt he was responsible for Allan getting deported to Gulag as
Allan had come to Moscow on Yury’s trust. Yury’s wife understood the situation
as Yury was hardly able to say much and she had been her confidante and life
partner for 40 years, knowing his guilt feeling. So she took Alan and Yury to a
restaurant and as Yury got to his senses in a while, she and Allan got to know
each other. Allan asked Yury if he wanted to be a spy and Yury couldn’t digest
that Allan was himself a spy while Larissa wanted to know more. So Allan told
about the offer from US President Johnson and secret agent Hutton and his
spying work in the US embassy in Moscow and search for Yury. He also told about
Herbert Einstein and Amanda at Paris. Now Herbert had finally died, after all
his death wishes failed him, at 76 last December in Paris, leaving behind a
successful wife diplomat in Paris and two teenage children – Allan and Mao.
Allan got back on the proposal of Yury to be a spy but Yury dismissed it as he
was honoured for his services to his mother country. However Larissa countered
Yury’s views saying that though Yury got a lot of decorations and awards for
his work, they were shut up in Arzamas-16 behind barbed wire and Yury slaved
day after day for nothing. Allan thus further explained the proposal that
Hutton wanted to know what the Soviet Nuclear arsenal consisted of, so that US
could start negotiations with the Soviet Union over atomic disarmament as
otherwise a nuclear war was imminent between USA and USSR. Yury as the
technical boss of the entire Soviet nuclear weapons knew everything about the
program’s strategy, geography and force and had no political inclinations like
Allan which helped him serve three different leaders as well as Marshal Beria
but he also knew how much Larissa had to sacrifice and yet she had never
complained. So Yury agreed to the deal and decided with Allan that US President
Nixon only needed to hear something that would make him happy rather than the
whole truth. Since Allan had so indiscreetly announced himself through the
handheld poster, no KGB agent or the GRU military people took him to be a spy
and even at the restaurant, no one could take note as a US spy was recruiting a
Soviet spy. Allan and Yury would thus mostly meet during the 3-4 performances
in the theatre annually and would cook up some suitable nuclear weapons
information to be sent to the CIA, mixing fantasy with reality in such a way
that from an American perspective, information was both credible and
encouraging. President Nixon brought nuclear disarmament on the discussion
table considering US to be stronger of the two while Chairman Brezhnev also
believed the same from the spy – a cleaning lady at the CIA section for
Intelligence reports. She sent information indicating CIA spy at the centre of
the Soviet nuclear weapons program but the problem was that the information
being relayed by the spy was incorrect. Brezhnev called Yury and showed him the
documents which Yury dismissed them as that could be written by any student
after a bit if research in a library and there was nothing to worry about.
While KGB set up discreet surveillance on literature related to nuclear weapons
at 200 libraries in Soviet Union, Brezhnev didn’t respond to Nixon’s unofficial
proposals until one day when Nixon was invited by Mao of China, Brezhnev’s
recently made enemy and thus he feared China and US may make an unholy alliance
against the Soviet Union. Thus, Nixon received an official invitation to visit
the Soviet Union the following day and when Nixon visited, two separate
disarmament treaties were signed, one concerning anti-ballistic missiles and
other regarding strategic weapons. Then Nixon met the agent Allan at US Embassy
in Moscow who had supplied crucial information and invited him for coffee.
Allan and Yury continued to supply information and enjoy food, drink and good
company of each other. However, even though Nixon had won reelection in 1972
but had to subsequently resign due to Watergate scandal, being accused of
receiving illegal campaign donations, ordered secret bombings, persecuted
enemies and used break-ins and telephone bugging. Meanwhile Allan and Yury
toned down the Soviet capacity over the years as it seemed to satisfy every US
President. The American budget for defence against nuclear weapons reached
astronomical sums and Soviet Union couldn’t match it and the country seemed to
crack at the seams. On November 10, 1982, Brezhnev died of a heart attack and
at the next day intelligence meeting, Allan, Yury and Larissa decided to stop
the non-sense. Allan informed Agent Hutton and CIA airlifted Yury and Larissa
to the US and given an apartment in Manhattan and they both died in 1984,
Larissa three months after Yury. As Allan informed the US Embassy at Moscow
that he was leaving, the section discovered that Allan had only been paid the
additional foreign allowance during the 13 years 5 months of his service and
Allan was assured that he would be paid via cheque as soon as he reported to US
Embassy at Stockholm.
Chapter 27:
Allan called Amanda and she was more than happy to welcome
Allan and the team. To arrange for the travel, Beauty called the nearby
military airfield in Sweden but they refused and then she was refused by the
German airline also. Finally an Indonesian transport company agreed to take
them to Bali for a reasonable fee. So, Benny and Julius arranged the false
papers for the elephant and also false Veterinary Certificate for Benny. Thus,
the team along with Aronsson and Pike’s mother boarded the Boeing 747 and as
they approached the Bali International Airport, Allan talked Dollars to the Air
Traffic Controller, exactly 100,000 Dollars and then doubled it. They all
landed and reached the hotel owned by Amanda where Mao and Allan Einstein along
with her met them. Everyone enjoyed at the hotel with their drinks and the
evening Balinese party. Everybody enjoyed there all the time and Amanda
proposed and married Allan.
Prosecutor Ranelid addressed the media with the story presented
to him by the team and blamed the dog Kicki for wrongly identifying the body on
the trolley when there was none actually. Ranelid had to say that an
investigation would be carried on the death of Bucket but he was able to save
his skin on the escape of Allan’s episode. The investigation into the death of
Bucket ended as the drunkard didn’t know who gave him the car to be taken to
the scrap yard. Ranelid also went on a holiday to Canary Islands.
Chapter 28:
The salary from the US Embassy helped Allan found a little
cottage near his earlier place and the Swedish authorities paid him pension
too. He leisurely spent his time, reading the newspaper and also got himself a
cat which appeared at his one on his birthday. He named it Molotov and both
enjoyed each other’s company, until one day the fox caught up with the ageing
cat and that made Allan very sad and thus angry and put revenge as his agenda
even though he knew revenge was a poor thing to live for. So Allan set an
explosive charge beside the chicken coop and as the fox came lurking to the
chicken coop, an explosion far greater than ever heard in the area took place
and the fox was blown into little pieces and Allan too flew in the air in his
armchair. Allan was 99 years old and had blown his own place. The social
services came and the Social worker Henrik Soder took him to a hotel in Flenn.
By January, 2005, Henrik got Allan into the Malmkoping’s Old People’s Home and
there he felt his life was over listening to Director Alice’s rules. He slept
the first night at the Old People’s Home thinking that he would never wake up
but he was woken up by Director Alice for breakfast. Days passed and Allan
longed for death as Herbert did once. Lastly the staff at the Home started
preparing for Allan’s 100th birthday and Allan felt it as the last night in
which to die.
Chapter 29:
It is a repeat of Chapter 1, the beginning and the end of
the story.
