121

The village was relatively quiet, but by no means dead. Several market stalls in the village square were open, with their customers a mix of tired night owls and perky early birds.

Ante drove around the square in the direction of the parking lot. But instead of driving up the knoll to park his car he passed it by.

"Let's see if we can find the bowling alley everybody were talking about," Ante said, as he drove past the knoll towards the narrow street leading in behind the casino.

Bjorn nodded, thinking "why not", and started looking for the bowling alley, which turned out to be very easy to find. It was located along the road right behind the casino with a big neon sign above it saying "bowling" in bold letters, with the o drawn in the shape of a bowling ball, and the i and the l shaped as pegs.

The bowling alley was located next to a large shed that served as an auto garage, and with Ante driving slowly passed it, Bjorn had no trouble getting an impression of the place. There were at least three cars in there, and two men were hunched over the engine of one of them, clearly busy at work.

"This place really has everything," Bjorn commented as Ante took another left to get back to the square.
"It does seem so, doesn't it?" Ante agreed. "And to imagine that these people would otherwise have been locked up in the old asylum centres. What a waste of human resources."
"Yeah, you got a point there," Bjorn said with a nod. "It's actually better for everyone, isn't it? Bringing them all up her, I mean."
"Well, I think so anyway. It is a shame the way they have been treated."
"So why do you think they're protesting in places like Lier?"
"Good question. They must be thinking that this is some kind of hell."
"And it is, in a way, isn't it?" Bjorn said cheekily, knowing full well that Ante was rather fond of the arctic.
"Careful now, Bjorn!" Ante replied. "You're talking about my parent's home town. I have fond memories of this place, you know."
"I know. I just couldn't help myself."

Then, as Ante circled the village square a second time, Bjorn noticed the young black boy who had begged for money the other day, still hanging around Pingo where the odd bargain hunter was coming out with trolley loads of stuff. And sure enough, he was already at it, running over to people to offer his help as they came out of Pingo.

"You don't see that much any more do you?" Bjorn wondered out loud as he saw the kid rush over to a man with a full trolley.
"What?" Ante asked.
"Kids offering to help people for a penny or two."
"No, kids stopped doing that long time ago."

Bjorn nodded thoughtfully. He could remember his grandmother telling him about these things still being quite common during her father's time, and wondering whatever happened to that kind of service oriented attitude. So even his grandmother thought it a forgotten habit. Yet, here in Lundby, the olden days were in some respect being revived. Kids were out in the streets looking for ways to make a penny or two.

The desperation caused by the rampant poverty in the village had revived the old and much forgotten habit of always trying to find a way to make a penny.