child traveling alone for the first time. If Hilde was here, she was certainly not going
to have the satisfaction of discovering him first.
He glanced anxiously at each passenger that came in. For a while he felt like an
enemy of the state under close surveillance. When the passengers were finally
allowed to board the plane he breathed a sigh of relief. He was the last person to
board. As he handed over his boarding pass he tore off another white envelope that
had been taped to the check-in desk.
Sophie and Alberto had passed Brevik, and a little later the exit to
Kragera.
“You’re going awfully fasf,” said Sophie.
“It’s almost nine o’clock. He’ll soon be landing at Kjevik. But we won’t be
stopped for speeding.”
“Suppose we smash into another car?”
“It makes no difference if it’s just an ordinary car. But if it’s one of our
own . . .”
“Then what?”
“Then we’ll have to be very careful. Didn’t you notice that we passed the
Bat Mobile.”
“No.”
“It was parked somewhere up in Vestfold.”
“This tourist bus won’t be easy to pass. There are dense woods on each
side of the road.”
“It makes no difference, Sophie. Can’t you get it into your head?”
So saying, he swung the car into the woods and drove straight through
the trees.
Sophie breathed a sigh of relief.
“You scared me.”
“We wouldn’t feel it if we drove into a brick wall.”
“That only means we’re spirits of the air compared to our surroundings.”
“No, now you’re putting the cart before the horse. It is the reality around
us that’s an airy adventure to us.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Listen carefully, then. It is a widespread misunderstanding that spirit is a
thing that is more ‘airy’ than vapor. On the contrary. Spirit is more solid than
ice.”
“That never occurred to me.”
“And now I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a man who
didn’t believe in angels. One day, while he was out working in the woods, he
was visited by an angel.”
“And?”
“They walked together for a while. Then the man turned to the angel and
said, ‘All right, now I have to admit that angels exist. But you don’t exist in
reality, like us.”What do you mean by that?’ asked the angel. So the man an-
swered, ‘When we came to that big rock, I had to go around it, but I noticed
that you just glided through it. And when we came to that huge log that lay
across the path, I had to climb over it while you walked straight through it.’
The angel was very surprised, and said ‘Didn’t you also notice that we took a
path that led through a marsh? We both walked right through the mist. That
was because we were more solid than the mist.’
“Ah.”