15

The alarm on Bjorn´s mobile phone went off at 7:30. Starting off softly before gradually increasing its volume, Bjorn did not rush to turn it off. Instead, he kept reading the article he was in the middle of, while absentmindedly pulling the phone out of his pocket and pushing the right buttons to turn it off without looking at it.

Finishing the article, Bjorn leaned back in his chair, fixing his gaze again on the wide landscape, so as better to digest what he had just been reading. According to the rather conspiratorial piece, the rebel commander in charge of the latest beheadings in Syria was the brother in law of a top American politician. And once again, Bjorn had been struck by the level headed and honest reporting of what he had been reading, finding it hard to dismiss, yet quite unbelievable that such evils could go completely unreported by the mainstream media.

Bjorn found this kind of fringe stuff endlessly fascinating, yet hard to fully believe. He felt certain that all the pieces had to fit together somehow, and that there must be some sort of key to understanding the world that would make everything fall into place, some key that would give him a way to sort the lies from the truth. He was not looking for certainty. He knew that such knowledge cannot be attained. But some general world view that could help him sort things out in his head would be great. As things stood at the moment, he could not even figure out his own life, let alone the politics of the world.

But it was time for breakfast, and Bjorn felt hungry and eager to get started in his new job. And he was looking forward to seeing Ante again, so he decided to go down to the kitchen, even if it was a little early.

Bjorn came across Thomas and Espen, heading for the communal bath room, out in the hallway, and a mixed feeling of shame and relief surged in him as he politely greeted the two men with a "good morning." He hated the idea of being in a bathroom with a bunch of acquaintances, and was happy he had gone there at an odd hour so that he would not need to go there now. But his sense of relief did not come completely without a sting of shame. His discomfort in the company of others was quite shameful, he felt, even if he could not quite identify the exact source of his feelings.