Holmenkollåsen viewpoint, a clearing above Oslo with a view of the fjord, is a recurring landmark in Simon Kefas’s life: a place where romantic memories gather and where, after violence, he seeks perspective. Its returns link the intimacy of his past to the uncertainty of his immediate future, making the view a quiet counterpoint to the city’s crimes and crises.

Setting and View

The viewpoint lies in a forest clearing above Oslo. From there, Simon can see the fjord; the setting offers distance from the city without removing the city from sight. In one visit, at two in the morning on a dark summer night, the fjord shimmers dully beneath a large yellow moon. The isolated hour and subdued view give the scene a stillness distinct from the pressures Simon faces elsewhere.

The location also recurs at sunset. After driving west through Smestad and zigzagging up Holmenkollåsen, Simon parks where he can look out over the fjord. As darkness falls, Oslo appears to him like a dying fire, its red and yellow lights resembling embers. The image makes the city visible as both a familiar place and something seemingly exhausted, while the viewpoint lets Simon look at it from a removed position.

A Place for Remembered Love

At the clearing, Simon tells Kari that he once brought the first girl he loved there simply to look at the view and make out. They had nowhere else to go, and the spot became part of the beginning of his experience of love. His account makes the viewpoint more than a scenic overlook: it holds an intimate memory tied to the limited choices of youth.

Years later, after he and Else had a flat and a double bed, Simon brought her to the same place. He recalls that the outing felt romantic and innocent, as though he were in love for the first time again. The repetition connects two stages of his life without making them identical: the first visit belongs to a young couple with nowhere private to go, while the later one deliberately revisits that feeling despite the home and bed they already share. The viewpoint becomes a setting where memory can renew an earlier emotional beginning.

Conversation with Kari

During the late-night visit, Simon shares these recollections with Kari, who shifts her weight as he speaks. The exchange moves from personal history toward a question about what is happening between them. In another part of their conversation, Kari asks why; Simon tells her to keep following up the lead and says that he has to go. When she blocks his path and demands to know what is going on, he repeats her words as a question rather than answering directly.

The location’s association with looking and recollection sharpens the contrast in this exchange. Simon can describe earlier love with unusual openness, yet he turns away when Kari presses him in the present. The viewpoint therefore accompanies both disclosure and evasion: it provides room for memories, but does not resolve the immediate tension between them.

Return After Violence

Later, Simon drives to the viewpoint after throwing his phone over a neighbouring fence and hearing fire engines in the distance. The Honda has been removed, and the crime-scene officers have finished their work: the place is no longer a crime scene, at least not for a murder. The phrasing leaves the aftermath marked by what has happened even as the investigation at the site is over.

Simon chooses the viewpoint because it has always given him a sense of perspective. He parks facing the fjord, watches Oslo darken into the image of dying embers, pulls up his coat collar, and reclines his seat to try to sleep. He knows the next day will be a big one, the biggest of them all. The return thus ends not in calm resolution but in a pause before an approaching test. The same overlook that once framed romantic beginnings and a conversation with Kari now becomes a place to gather himself, with the city in view and tomorrow still uncertain.