The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

by Jonas Jonasson

Three hours later the two men were calling each other Harry and Allan, which goes to show what a couple of bottles of tequila can do for international relations.

Bucket recognised it. He had once come in last at a car rally here. His then-girlfriend had been the map-reader; halfway through the rally she had realised she was holding the map upside down.

And that would have been difficult anyway because his hands were tied behind his back. No wonder Allan felt pleased when the journey was over.

Allan had always reasoned about religion that if you couldn’t know for sure then there was no point in going around guessing.

But God answered with silence. He did that sometimes,

they were seeing record results for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Oil provided fantastic wealth to both England and Iran. Mainly England, if the truth be told, but that was only fair because Iran’s sole contribution to the project was cheap labour – and of course the oil itself.

People could do what they wanted, but Allan considered that in general it was quite unnecessary to be grumpy if you had the chance not to.

Allan found it easier to say yes or no to something if he knew what he was saying yes or no to.

The Battle of Stalingrad was, to put it mildly, a personal matter for Stalin.

Herbert wasn’t allowed to complain about how miserable his life was. Allan had already understood that to be the case, and there was nothing wrong with his memory. To keep on saying the same thing over and over again thus served no purpose.

His experience was that Justice was rarely as just as it ought to be. The others agreed. Not least on account of what would happen if Justice this time should turn out to be just.

Gunung Agung, the three thousand metre high volcano, erupted. The immediate consequence for Allan, seventy kilometres away, was that the smoke blocked the sun. For others, it was worse.

It had been exciting, the entire journey, but nothing lasts forever, except possibly general stupidity.