130

Bjorn found Ante busy talking to a strange looking character up by the altar, a big African albino with a pair of very thick eyeglasses. The man was wearing a bomber jacket with a stylized image of an armillary sphere on the back, and Bjorn realized on seeing the logo, that he had indeed seen this a lot in Lundby. But since he had not associated the logo with anything, he had not thought anything of it.

Olga and Igor were standing next to the albino, nodding and smiling as he told his story.

"Hi Bjorn, this is Tyrone," Ante said with enthusiasm as Bjorn approached them. "He's from Liberia, and you won't believe the things he's been going through before getting up here to Lundby."
"No?"
"I mean, seriously! This guy has been chased through a village with machete wielding nut jobs. Isn't that so Tyrone?"
"Well, yeah, pretty much." Tyrone answered with a strange apologetic smile. "You see some people down there think people like me are daemons,"
"Really?" Bjorn asked, a little overwhelmed by this strange introduction.
"Yeah, yeah, they do... And there was this Ebola outbreak, and some people blamed it on me."
"Ebola?" Bjorn asked, taking a step back from the man.
"No, no," Ante said, waving his hands. "This is like two months ago, isn't it?"
"More than that," Tyrone said thoughtfully. "Three months, maybe."
"Yeah, at least," Olga added. "I mean, I've already known you like almost two months now, isn't that so?"
"Well, anyway... you work for Olga now, don't you?"
"Yeah, I'm helping her out with the lingerie project."
"How?" Bjorn asked, finding Tyrone a very unlikely character to have anything to do with lingerie.
"I got this sewing machine," Tyrone explained. "I'm helping her out making her first batch to send to Paris."
"You are?" Bjorn asked in amazement.
"Yeah, he is," Olga answered with a chuckle. "You're quite a wizard with the sewing machine."
"That's what you keep telling me," Tyrone said with a smile.

Bjorn looked at the big man with his strangely pale skin, yellow hair and thick eyeglasses.

"You wouldn't think it, would you?" Ante asked, smiling enthusiastically.
"No, I wouldn't."
"So your family scraped together the money for a ticket to Oslo, isn't that so?" Ante continued, turning back to Tyrone.
"Yes, they did, and then I was sent up here to Lundby as one of the first ones to be transported to this new asylum centre... I've had small jobs here and there ever since."
"Quite a contrast with Liberia, I would think," Bjorn commented.
"Sure. But I kind of like it. You see the sun isn't very good for my skin."
"Well, you've come to the right place," Igor commented with a smile.
"Yeah. And when I first came, there wasn't any sun at all... Terribly dark and cold."
"But you're finding your way?" Bjorn asked politely.
"Yeah... People are friendly. And there's no shortage of jobs."
"Mostly, pretty bad paying ones, though," Olga added.
"Sure! But you know... Things aren't exactly wonderful in Liberia either."
"No! That's true. But that's no excuse to be a scrooge like Ane."
"You know, I think you're a little too hard on Ane. She wasn't that bad a boss. Helping her getting the factory ready was a better job than many other jobs I've had."
"Well, I think she's keeping everybody down with her ridiculously low wages."
"You think so. She's not the worst."
"But she's the biggest single employer. She kind of sets the standard."

Bjorn looked at Olga, a little puzzled by her attack on Ane's salaries.

"Isn't that good for you, though?" Bjorn asked. "Makes it easier for you to keep salaries low."
"It does, but there's no need to drain every last bit of potential out of every employee. I worked for her a week, and I say, never again! Tyrone and I will create an alternative to her factory, and we'll get every one of her workers behind a sewing machine. Just you wait. We'll make a positive impact. None of this leaching mentality. I'm running a cooperative. We'll all share in the profits."
"And share in the costs too," Tyrone added with a polite smile. "I had to buy my machine. No one at Ane's factory are taking any risks."
"Well, would you rather go back to work for Ane?" Olga asked, a little irritated.
"No, no," Tyrone protested. "But it's not like you've been making the sort of investment Ane has. Everyone wanting to work for you has to buy their own machines. And you don't have a factory building. These things make a difference."
"Yeah, but seriously. She's a scrooge!"
"A very pretty scrooge," Tyrone said in a friendly mocking manner. "You're not jealous are you?"
"Of her? Come on!"

The conversation was taking a strange turn, and Bjorn thought it a good time to cut into it with Georgio's suggestion.

"You want to come and have a look at the apartment building they are finishing over by the main road?" Bjorn asked, turning to Ante. "One of the carpenter's over there has invited me to come have a look."

Ante looked over at Georgio, and so did Olga, Igor and Tyrone.

"Sure! That sounds interesting," Ante answered with a smile.
"Can we come too," Igor asked, clearly quite enthusiastic about the idea himself.
"That would be interesting, wouldn't it?" Olga added.
"I'm not sure," Bjorn answered. "I'll have to ask Georgio. How about you, Tyrone. Feel like having a look you too?"

Tyrone looked over at Georgio, and then at his watch, as if unsure of the time.

"No," he said. "I have quite a bit of work I plan to get done today. I'll have to prioritize that, I think."
"Yeah," Olga confirmed with a nod. "We'll have visitors from Paris coming up this week. We better have everything ready by the time they get here."
"So you're too busy as well?" Bjorn asked.
"No, I'm mostly done with my batch. I'm fine. I'd love to have a look at the apartments."