This story skims the surface. It is recounted in few words, as spare in its telling as Oskar himself is. It has cracks and gaps. But the surface has pores in it. Gradually it begins to turn and open up. And under the surface lies this story.
The story of the changes.
Hjalmar Branting. Party leader.
Oskar Johansson. Party member.
Per Albin Hansson. Party leader.
Oskar Johansson. Party member.
Tage Erlander. Party leader.
Oskar Johansson. Rock blaster who has left the Party.
Olof Palme. Party leader.
Hilding Hagberg. Party leader.
Oskar Johansson. Party member, former rock blaster.
C. H. Hermansson. Party leader.
Oskar Johansson. Party member, former rock blaster. Widower, pensioner.
Oskar is even-tempered. I know him as someone who never gets angry, who laughs a lot, who is an optimist. I know him to be stable.
Was it always so? Once he tells me the old joke about the man who says: I’ve never been a pessimist. I’ve been an optician all my life. He tells it as if the story were about him.
It may be. But the narrator has his doubts.
Was it always so?
No. It was not.
“Elvira and I never argued. I don’t think we said a harsh word to each other during all the years we had together. I suppose we scolded the children when they were little and making a racket, but we never hit them. Elvira and I always agreed. We never needed to discuss anything. We wanted the same things. But there’s nothing out of the ordinary about that.”