The airport looked like a modern log cabin dropped beside the runway.
We stepped into the cold night air and climbed aboard the shuttle into Oslo.
The driver glanced at us in the mirror.
“Where are you from?”
Dani answered.
“California.”
He nodded.
“Why on Earth did you come to Norway… in October?”
He waited.
As we approached the city, he motioned me forward.
“Bring your camera.”
I stood beside him as the bus disappeared into a tunnel.
“Ready?”
The tunnel opened onto the city.
Lights spread across the harbor. Buildings climbed the hillside beyond.
I raised my camera, but before I could take a picture, we hit a bump. I stumbled forward, and the driver caught me. He smiled and turned back to the windshield.
A few minutes later, he asked another question.
“Do you have a hotel?”
“Yes,” I said.
“You are sure?”
“Yes.”
Dani gave him the name.
He relaxed.
“Good. Just don’t sleep on the steps of City Hall. Okay?”
I looked at Dani. She looked back at him.
“No. We have a hotel.”
I pulled my jacket tighter and found my seat.
Outside, the bus rolled through the rain. The city lights vanished as we entered another tunnel.
When the light returned, people stood on a sloped white roof beside the water. Their shadows stretched across the stone, enormous beneath the parapet lights.
I tried to take a picture.
“What are they seeing?”
Dani flipped through her guidebook.
“That’s the opera house. Wanna find out?”
The pavement was still wet. Our shoes slipped slightly as we crossed the broad slope toward the top.
Near the parapet, we turned around.
Oslo spread out behind us. The fjord was black. Lights reflected across the wet streets, and the waterfront buildings glowed in different colors. Farther away, the ski jump rose from the darkness like a white mountain.
We walked along the roof until we found the lights.
I stepped in front of one.
My shadow stretched across the stone.
Dani stepped beside me.
Our shadows grew enormous.
We moved closer to the light.
They shrank.
We stepped back.
They grew again.
Then we stood at the edge and looked out over Oslo.
The rain had stopped.
For a while, we didn’t go anywhere.