The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

Indonesia

Gustav Svensson had already had to manage without his partner for far too long. First Julius had disappeared, on Allan’s birthday and everything. Gustav had unfinished business with their hotel and couldn’t go there to look for him, but by asking around he discovered that Julius and Allan had gone to sea in a hot-air balloon.

After a few days, Gustav assumed Julius was dead, but almost a week later his cell phone received a call. He was alive! And asking questions about the operation, without leaving a call-back number.

Then came a few days of quiet before the next sign of life. Another message on the voicemail. Gustav promised himself he would get better at charging the phone. This time, his friend said he had travelled to New York from Pyongyang! He’d gone to America? In a hot-air balloon? Via North Korea?

Even so, the question of where Julius was and when he planned to return home was subordinate to the necessity of having someone to make important daily business decisions. Gustav didn’t know what to do other than sit down at his partner’s desk and make those decisions in said partner’s spirit. Without Julius, he listened to the Swedish importer/exporter who suggested that they call the so Swedish-sounding asparagus Swedish in Sweden as well. That would bring an even higher price.

Gustav had some vague memory from his conversations with Julius that this was something to look out for. But only a vague memory. The advantage of arak was that it freed your thoughts; the disadvantage was that they were not only freed but also, by the next morning, gone.

Julius would have put a stop to further Swedifying Gustav Svensson’s asparagus, if he’d had the chance. The last time it had happened, a stupid middleman had laid waste to the entire operation by doing that very thing.