Until Tomorrow (16 page)

“Guess I'll never know if she ripped me off or not,” Katie said as they entered the main terminal. “You just have the right look, Christy.”

“Okay, now we're getting organized.” Todd walked over to the computerized schedule board and read the departure times. “This is the one we want. Roma to Venezia departing at 20:35 at platform . . .” He glanced at his watch. “Come on! We're going to have to run to catch it!”

Todd took off at a sprint, and Christy fell in line behind him. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Katie was with them. As they jogged through the crowds, Christy felt her pack dig into her shoulders and hit her repeatedly on her hip. The spicy pizza in her stomach threatened to come up for another visit.

Despite all the discomfort, they made it to the train. And, thanks to Todd's quick thinking, they arrived in time to upgrade to first class at the ticket window. First class was packed. It seemed everyone was leaving Rome on this Friday night. Christy figured second class was even worse. They found two seats at the end of an aisle, which Katie and Christy took while Todd stood, studying the tour book.

The train rumbled out of the station, and Christy closed her eyes and tried to find a comfortable position. They were definitely on an adventure now, and they were also coming up with a plan. It seemed to her that both wishes were being fulfilled. She hoped that meant the next two weeks would be less stressful.

During the five-hour trip to Venice, Christy slept some, walked around some, and visited the rest room with Katie so Katie could demonstrate exactly how she managed to lock herself into the stall in Naples. Christy laughed at her crazy friend and thought how glad she was that they were getting along this well. Much of the earlier tension they both seemed to have struggled with had dissipated. Now Christy felt that
the wide gap that had spread between them while she was in Switzerland was closing, and they were getting back to being the close buddies they had been for so many years.

About an hour before they arrived in Venice, Todd and Christy left Katie so they could sit across from each other in the dining car, sipping cappuccino and discussing plans. Todd had done some serious reading during the past few hours, and he now was a huge fan of Christy's travel guide. His eyes glimmered as he told Christy about the sights that lay before them in Scandinavia.

“And this Fredericksborg Castle in Denmark sounds pretty interesting,” he said. “I know you like castles. It's only about half an hour from Copenhagen, so when we go through there, I thought that might be a place you would like to stop.”

Christy smiled at Todd. “You remembered that I like castles.”

“Hey, you remembered that I like mangoes. Maybe we've both been taking notes on each other for a long time without realizing it.”

“I'd love to see at least one castle on this trip. More, if we can fit them into the schedule. What about you? What do you want to see? I doubt many mango trees will be along the way.”

“There's this museum in Oslo.” Todd pointed to a short paragraph in the tour book. “It says they have the original
Kon-Tiki
on display there.”

Christy waited for an explanation. “
Kon-Tiki
” sounded Polynesian, which would explain why Todd, who had lived in Hawaii when he was young, would be interested. She just didn't know why a museum in Norway would have something Polynesian.

“It's Thor Heyerdahl's raft. He sailed it from Peru to the Easter Islands to prove that early civilization from South
America could have found its way to the islands of the Pacific.”

“Oh,” Christy said. “And Thor was Norwegian, I take it.”

Todd nodded. “I think Katie is going to want to see this.” He pointed to the words
Lille Havfrue
in the tour book.

“What's that?”

“It's a statue of the
Little Mermaid
from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.”

“We'll definitely have to see that,” Christy agreed. “This is going to be fun.”

“It's already been fun.” Todd reached across the table and gave a playful little tug on a strand of Christy's hair that hung over her shoulder. “It'll only get better.”

With a smile at Todd that reflected all the delightful anticipation she held in her heart, Christy said, “I can't wait until tomorrow.”

12

At 2:00 in the morning, their train pulled into the Venice station. They grabbed their packs and headed through the ornate terminal, trying to find their connecting train north to Salzburg, Austria.

In the middle of the platform, Katie stopped and said, “You guys, we have to talk.”

“We can talk on the next train,” Christy said. “We have to make that connection to Salzburg.”

“No, we need to talk now. I have to be honest with both of you about something.”

Christy thought Katie was going to say she had felt left out during the past hour when Todd and Christy had gone to the dining car to sip their cappuccinos. Christy already was preparing her apology for excluding Katie and planning their transition to the next train, which left for Salzburg in forty minutes. If they were among the first on the train, Christy hoped they would be able to find better seats than they had had to settle for on the ride from Rome.

“I want to stay here,” Katie said.

“Stay where?” Christy asked, looking around the platform.

“In Venice. The one thing I wanted to see was a gondola.
Marcos lives here. He told me a lot about Venice. Remember? His dad has the jewelry store. I'd like to stay here for a day or two and then go on to Norway.”

“Okay,” Todd said. “We can do that.”

Christy felt reluctant to agree. She wanted to see a gondola, too, but for the past hour, Todd had been telling her about Scandinavia, and now she had visions of castles and mermaids floating in her head.

“I know I should have said something sooner,” Katie said. “I kept going back and forth in my mind, trying to decide if I was being a team player by bringing this up. I guess it just hit me when we stepped into the station. This might be the closest I'll ever be to a real gondola. I want to see one. I don't have to ride in one; I just want to see one.”

“We'll need to find a place to stay,” Todd said, turning and heading for the exit instead of for the track to board the train for Salzburg. “Let's ask at information. It's the middle of the night, so we'll have to take what we can get. Are you guys okay with that? It might be pretty expensive.”

“I think it would be worth it for one night,” Katie said. “Besides, we haven't had to pay for a single hotel yet. We have money to burn.”

“I wouldn't go that far,” Christy said.

“Or you know what?” Katie said. “We could call Marcos and see if we could stay with him for free.”

“Doesn't that seem a little pushy?” Christy asked. “It's like we're following him. He left Rome on the 6:00 train, and we followed him here on the 8:30 train. That feels odd to me.”

“Okay, we don't have to call him,” Katie said. “We can find a place for tonight and then stop by his dad's jewelry store tomorrow. I'd like to see Marcos again.”

Christy tried to evaluate what was going on. Was Katie's real passion for the elusive gondolas? Or was she attracted to Marcos the way she had been attracted to Antonio last summer?
Their train ride to Venice was the first time only the three of them had been traveling, except when they went from Capri to Rome. Christy wondered if Katie had felt the loss of a counterpart when Todd and Christy went to the dining car. Maybe Katie didn't like the idea of being number three when Christy and Todd were a couple, and she was trying to delay the odd numbering by touring around with Marcos a few more days.

Todd took the adjustment to their plans in his easygoing stride. He suggested Katie and Christy wait with the luggage on a long, polished wooden bench in the center of the station while he did some research.

Christy tried to think of a delicate way to ask Katie about Marcos and if she was feeling brushed aside by Christy and Todd. But her mind grew foggier and foggier as she sat with the noises echoing off the high ceiling and reverberating inside her head. The cappuccino's caffeine seemed to wear off in a single, crashing moment, and Christy could barely keep her eyes open, let alone discuss Katie's psyche with her.

Christy was glad to see Todd returning. Once they were settled in a hotel, had slept a bit, and then ate a good breakfast, Christy thought she would feel a lot more optimistic about their sudden change of plans.

“I found a place we can stay,” Todd said. “And it was no small task since it's the middle of the night. But they only accept cash. How much do both of you have?”

Katie, Christy, and Todd pooled their money and found that between the three of them they didn't have half the cash needed since the hotel was pretty expensive.

“Why won't they take traveler's checks?” Christy asked.

“Don't know. It's their hotel. They answered the phone. They get to set the rules, I guess.”

“Isn't there a place here in the station where we can change our money?” Katie asked.

“I already tried that. They don't open until 6:00 in the morning. If we had a credit card or an ATM card, we could use the machine. Guess none of us thought of that ahead of time.”

“So what you're saying is that we have to wait here until 6:00, change some money, get ourselves into Venice by water taxi or whatever, and by around 7:00 we can check into the hotel,” Christy summarized.

“You got it,” Todd said. “And check-out time is noon.”

“I don't want to pay all that just for a place to sleep for five hours,” Katie said.

“We could sleep on these benches,” Christy suggested.

“Or take a train to Salzburg,” Katie said in a low voice. “I'm so sorry, you guys. I messed everything up.”

“No, you didn't.”

“Yes, I did. We had a plan, and now we've missed the train, and we didn't make arrangements ahead of time for here so we can't do anything. We're stuck.”

“I checked a couple of the train schedules,” Todd said. “A train leaves at 8:02 for Salzburg. It has only one stop in Villach at noon and has a three-hour layover before it leaves for Salzburg. We would be in Salzburg by 7:00 tomorrow night.”

“That's all day on the train,” Katie said. “Wasn't the night train we were going to take direct, without any stops?”

Todd nodded. “Yes, but we can't look back. We're here now. What do you guys want to do?”

“What time is it?” Christy wished she had a watch. Her old one had broken months ago, but she never had replaced it.

“It's 3:10.”

“No wonder I feel as if I've been run over by a truck,” Katie said. “I say let's get out of here.”

“And go where?” Christy asked. “Roam the streets of Venice?”

“They don't have streets. They have canals, remember?” Katie said. “No, let's just get on the next train and take it wherever it goes.”

“What about seeing a gondola?” Christy asked.

“Right now, I don't care. I made a bad decision when I insisted we stop and get off track after we had set up a schedule and everything. Let's go back to the schedule as much as we can. Only, can't we get to
Sound of Music
land without it taking all day?”

Todd consulted a small pamphlet of train schedules as Katie talked. “Because I'd kind of like to stop and see some of Salzburg. It's the only Austrian city I know anything about.”

Christy added, “That's because you've seen
The Sound of Music
a hundred times.” She thought of lyrics from one of that movie's songs, “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” and felt ready to sing her own version, “How do you solve a problem like Katie?”

“Looks like a 10:30 train out of Innsbruck gets into Salzburg at 2:30,” Todd said. “We could find a place to stay and then look around Salzburg that afternoon.”

“Does that mean we sleep here for the next two hours?” Christy asked.

Todd examined the four long benches placed back to back. “You know, I always wondered what a homeless person felt like. Now I'll get to find out.”

Christy had never wondered such a thing.
Only you, Todd
.

Todd and Katie had no trouble catching some Z's on the hard benches. Christy, on the other hand, couldn't fall asleep. She felt nervous about people walking by, seeing them asleep, and taking their gear, even though they had fastened their packs all together and anchored them to the benches. The train station wasn't full of people, but enough travelers were coming and going to make Christy nervous.

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she
became with Katie for the way she had thrown their plan off course. Christy tried to be understanding and forgiving. She reminded herself how everyone had been kind to her when she had melted down in the minivan on the camping trip. They all had agreed to alter their plans to accommodate her. She knew she wasn't being fair to begrudge Katie the same courtesy everyone had shown Christy.