It was pouring down already early in the morning. Karsten Haller cancelled all plans for tree pruning. The maples in Årsta would still be there after the weekend. And if they weren’t it didn’t matter to him. Instead he took the bus down to the city to visit a travel agency on Drottninggatan. There he had been well treated before, and he felt that a friendly reception was even more important this time. Perhaps he would never need the services of a travel agency again. He was on the point of leaving the country and now every human contact and every transaction had significance. These were the memories he would carry with him and he did not want to have bitter thoughts now at the end. He stepped into the agency’s office with a smile and half an hour later he stepped out with a smile. He walked along the street with the quiet exhilaration of a person who has just made a life-altering decision—a mixture of reverence, euphoria, and an absolute conviction of having chosen the right path.
