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Friday, October 24, 2014

136

"He's quite a character," Ante said, watching Einar follow Igor and Olga up the servants' hallway.
"He is," Georgio agreed. "But he's surprisingly talented and reliable."
"Really?" Bjorn asked.
"Yeah... I have some other helpers too, but Einar is the smart one. It's really impressive how quickly he's picking up the tricks of the trade."
"But you're not afraid he might click one day, and go completely bananas?"
"Well, I didn't know about his past before I caught him with that plank the other day. That's when he told me about the police man he killed."
"And you've chosen to ignore that?"
"Yeah... I guess I have... You know. It was an accident. It happened when he was twelve."
"So he managed to break out of jail?"
"No, of course not. They don't put kids his age in jail. They had him locked up in one of those orphanages, or whatever, and he just escaped one day. Stole some money from one of the guards and headed for Lundby."
"He's from Kirkenes?"
"Yeah, I think so. It's not very hard to get from there to Lundby."

Bjorn looked at Georgio, thinking it weird that he had not suspected anything was amiss right away. Einar had after all been quite aggressive several times just in the short time he had known him.

"But he's constantly making threats. Didn't you find that kind of odd?" Bjorn asked.
"Not to me he hasn't."
"Really?"
"Yeah. In fact, he is always very polite and helpful."
"You're kidding?"
"No."
"But he has threatened me several times all ready," Bjorn protested.
"Well, that's probably due to your uniform. He feels threatened by you and is telling you to stay clear. That's all."
"You think so?"
"What else could it be?"

Bjorn had to admit that Georgio had a valid point, and he felt suddenly uncomfortable in his uniform, suddenly realizing that not everybody might be equally happy to see him in it.

"But never mind that," Georgio continued. "I'll show you something... Come with me!" And off he went leading Ante and Bjorn through the dining room to the smaller one of the two living rooms.

"This is where Pedro will sit and relax when he is not entertaining guests," Georgio explained. "And as you can see, the floor is decorated with a small armillary sphere in each corner, and with St. George slaying the dragon here in the middle. Now... One of these armillary spheres was cut and put together by Einar on his own, with no help from me. Can you guess which one it was?"

"Is that so?" Bjorn asked impressed, immediately starting to scrutinize the handy work together with Ante. "Well, there's no way to tell, is there?"
"No. There isn't. And he has only worked for me like six weeks or so."
"Wow, that's quite impressive!" Ante exclaimed.
"It is, isn't it?"

Georgio was about to say more, but was interrupted by someone coming in through the main entrance.

"Oh my... That's Pedro," Georgio whispered. "I'm not sure he'll be too pleased to see you here. Let's go!"

Georgio led Bjorn and Ante into the hallway with the bedrooms, and through the door leading into the servants' section where they met up with Einar, Igor and Olga.

"Here's the key for the door downstairs," Georgio explained, handing it to Einar. "Can you show our guests out through the back entrance? Pedro is here, and I'm not sure how he'll react if he finds us here, showing his place off to strangers."
"Oh, really... He's here?" Einar asked, wide eyed at the news.
"Yeah... Now hurry up will you?"

Georgio opened the door to the servants' back entrance and started ushering his guests out.

"But what about my bag?" Olga protested.
"Your bag? What you mean?" Georgio asked.
"I dropped it off by the entrance."
"You did? Well... I'll come down with it... Now, go will you?"

But before they all had time to exit, Pedro appeared in the kitchen, directly from the main entrance, and closely followed by Jan and his two daughters. He was holding Olga's bag in his hand, and was looking straight down the servants' hallway.

"Hey Georgio, shouldn't you at least introduce your guests to me?" he asked in a loud voice.

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