The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Park-e Shahr in the middle of Teheran, with burns on his arms and an automatic with the safety catch off in his hands.
    ‘Well, there you are, my son,’ said the priest and walked up to embrace him.
    ‘You!’ shouted the guard, ‘It’s you!’
    And then he shot the priest twenty-two times in the chest. It would have been more but he ran out of bullets.
    Allan was allowed into the Swedish Embassy because of his regional Swedish accent. But then things got complicated, because he didn’t have any documentation that proved who he was. So the embassy could not give him a passport, nor could they help him back to Sweden. Besides, said Third Secretary Bergqvist, Sweden had just introduced special personal identity numbers and if it was the case that Karlsson had been out of the country for many years, then there would be no Mr Allan Karlsson in the Swedish system back home.
    To that, Allan answered that regardless of whether all Swedes’ names had now become numbers instead, he was and would remain Allan Karlsson from the village of Yxhult outside Flen and now he wanted Mr Third Secretary to be so kind as to arrange papers for him.
    Third Secretary Bergqvist was for the time being the most senior official at the embassy. He was the only one who hadn’t been able to attend the diplomatic conference in Stockholm. It was just his luck that everything suddenly happened at once. It wasn’t enough that some parts of the centre of Tehran hadbeen on fire for the last hour: now on top of that an unknown person turns up claiming to be Swedish. There were of course hints that the man was telling the truth, but this was a situation where it was important to follow the rules so as not to jeopardize his future career. So Third Secretary Bergqvist repeated his statement that no passport would be forthcoming unless Mr Karlsson could be properly identified.
    Allan said that he found Third Secretary Bergqvist to be exceptionally stubborn, but that they could perhaps solve everything if only the third secretary had a telephone available.
    The third secretary did. But it was expensive to make long-distance phone calls. Whom did Mr Karlsson intend to phone?
    Allan was beginning to tire of the difficult third secretary so he didn’t answer, but instead asked:
    ‘Is Per Albin still the Swedish prime minister?’
    ‘No,’ said the astounded third secretary. ‘Tage Erlander is prime minister. Prime Minister Hansson died last autumn. But why…’
    ‘Could you please be quiet for a moment so we can clear this up?’
    Allan phoned the White House in Washington, and was put through to the president’s senior secretary. She remembered Mr Karlsson very well and she had also heard so many good things about him from the president and if Mr Karlsson really considered it important then she would see if they could wake the president. It was only eight in the morning in Washington, and President Truman was not an early riser.
    A short while later the newly awoken President Truman came to the phone and he and Allan had a hearty chat for several minutes, catching up with each other’s news before Allan finally mentioned his errand. Could Harry possibly do him a favour and phone the new Swedish Prime Minister Erlander and vouch for who Allan was, so that Erlander in turncould phone Third Secretary Bergqvist at the Swedish Embassy in Tehran and inform him that Allan should immediately be issued a passport.
    Harry Truman would of course do this for him, but first please spell the third secretary’s name so that he got it right.
    ‘President Truman wants to know how you spell your name,’ Allan said to Third Secretary Bergqvist. ‘It would be easier if you told him directly.’
    After Third Secretary Bergqvist, almost in a trance, spelled out his name letter by letter for the president of the United States, he replaced the receiver and didn’t say anything for eight minutes. Which was exactly how long it took before Prime Minister Erlander phoned the embassy and ordered Third Secretary Bergqvist to 1) immediately issue a passport with diplomatic status to Allan Karlsson, and 2) without delay arrange to get Mr Karlsson back to Sweden.
    ‘But he hasn’t got a personal identity number,’ Third Secretary Bergqvist attempted.
    ‘I suggest that you, Third Secretary, solve that problem,’ said Prime Minister Erlander. ‘Unless you wish to become the fourth or fifth secretary instead…’
    ‘There is no such thing as a fourth or fifth