Until Tomorrow (21 page)

“I can't believe we waited this late to eat dinner,” Katie said. “Although it hasn't exactly felt late. But I am starving.”

Christy saw a vendor across the street and said, “Do you want a pretzel or whatever he's selling?”

“No, I don't want to waste hunger like this on a pretzel. I'd rather save it until I can have a real, full, long-anticipated dinner. Are we almost to that restaurant you and Todd liked so much?”

“One more block this way,” Christy said. Her mind was spinning with Katie's words. She wanted to remember them and write them in her diary. It made so much sense. She did have a hunger in her life for passion. So did Todd. It was a natural, wonderful gift from God to feel that way about someone you loved.

What was it Katie just said about not wasting such hunger on a pretzel? She wanted to save her hunger for the real, full meal. That's exactly what I want. I don't want to waste my physical longing on some incomplete expression of affection that could never be satisfying. I want to wait for the real, full expression that can only come in marriage
.

As they loaded up their plates at the koldtbord, Christy kept formulating her purity plan. Her parents had never talked about this with her, and they had never given her a purity ring, like her friend Sierra had received from her parents. It was up to Christy to make a plan, and Christy liked plans. She always felt more secure when she had a plan.

I'm going to save my really big kisses for Todd and tuck them away, safe and warm, in the secret place in my heart. When we're together and I feel like kissing him, I'll just tell myself to save that kiss. It will be like saving pennies in a piggy bank. One day I'll give that piggy bank to my future husband, whoever he is. And I'm quite sure that piggy bank will be full!
Christy smiled.

The huge dinner and the short but good sleep they had that night prepared Christy and Katie for the ten-and-a-half-hour train ride to Copenhagen. They left on the 7:30 morning train, which arrived in Copenhagen at 5:30 that evening. The scenery of endless green forests and of lakes with huge floating lily pads was beautiful and refreshing. Katie and Christy rode comfortably in the modern train. They wondered aloud about Todd and how he was enjoying being on top of the world.

Then, about four hours into their journey, Katie surprised Christy. She asked if she could see Christy's tour book.

“I don't know . . .” Christy said.

“Why not?”

“I'm afraid you're going to throw it out the window or something.”

“No, I just want to see it.”

For the next several hours, Katie became an even bigger tour book maniac than Todd. She read everything about Denmark aloud to Christy and even made Christy repeat Danish phrases back to her.

“Okay, now, this is how you say, ‘Where is the bathroom?' ‘
Hvor er toilettet?
' Try it, Christy.”

“Hvor er toilettet,” Christy repeated. “You do know, don't you, that we have no idea where the accent should be, so we could be saying these phrases completely wrong.”

“At least we're trying to say them. Now say, ‘
Tager de kreditkort?
' ”

“What does that mean?”

“Do you take credit cards?”

Christy laughed. “We don't have any credit cards.”

“Okay, fine, if you're going to be that picky, try this: ‘
Er der nogen her der taler engelsk?
' ”

Christy felt reasonably certain that Katie had slaughtered the pronunciation of that sentence. “And what was that supposed to mean?”

“That means, ‘Does anyone here speak English?' ”

Christy burst out laughing.

“What? That's a useful expression.”

“But, Katie, if anyone speaks English, couldn't you just ask in English and that person would understand you?”

“Oh.” Katie buried her nose in the book and muttered, “Never mind.”

“Let's decide where we're going to go after we drop off our luggage. I'm glad Todd had us call the hostel and make reservations before he left. This is the first time we've actually known where we were going to stay before we arrived in a city.”

“The
Little Mermaid
statue is a must-see, in my opinion,” Katie said. “And this Tivoli Gardens sounds fun. They have rides, free concerts, puppet shows, fireworks, and get this—
they even have ballet performances. Oh, and I definitely would like to go to this one palace or whatever it is that holds the Danish crown jewels. I love that kind of thing. Remember when we saw the British crown jewels at the Tower of London?”

Christy remembered the cold, old tower and that they had climbed lots of stairs. She didn't remember much about the jewels. But she said, “Crown jewels would be fun to see. Where should we go first?”

“Either to see the
Little Mermaid
or Tivoli Gardens.”

“Let's check out the mermaid,” Christy suggested. “I think Todd will want to see Tivoli Gardens when he gets here, but I don't think the mermaid is at the top of his list.”

Christy was feeling pretty confident as the two of them set out from their youth hostel in search of the
Little Mermaid
. She had worried a bit earlier that the two of them traveling together might attract a few drunken hobos like the one Christy had seen in Naples or the guy on the train who had bothered Katie a few days earlier.

But traveling, just the two of them, had been fantastic so far. They were getting along wonderfully. No one had tried to harass them. The youth hostel was easy to find, and they hadn't gotten lost yet.

Katie led them down the clean, darkly paved streets of Copenhagen, reading the tour book aloud as she walked. “It says the statue of the
Little Mermaid
, or the
Lille Havfrue
, as they call it, is at the Langelinie Harbor.”

“Katie,” Christy said with a finger to her lips. “You don't have to announce where we're going to the whole world.”

“They don't care,” Katie said, glancing around. “It's obvious we're tourists. Hey, that's the bus we're supposed to take. Come on!”

They dashed to catch the bus, and Katie asked the driver, “You are going to the harbor, right?”

“Yes, the harbor.”

“Great.”

Christy and Katie took two seats near the front and disembarked when the driver turned and, pointing to the large Tuborg Beer factory, said, “The harbor.”

“Thanks,” both of them said as they headed toward the water. They were at a huge harbor. Sea gulls swooped down to snatch treats from the large fishing boats. Katie and Christy walked and walked all around, looking for a statue in the water but with no success.

“You'd think they would have a few signs up or something,” Katie said. “This is ridiculous.”

A huge ferry pulled in while Katie and Christy walked back to where they had started. As they stopped to rest for a moment, the monstrous craft released a long line of cars from its underbelly. Hundreds of people stood on the deck. A group of children all wearing bright yellow T-shirts lined up at the guardrail and called down to Katie and Christy.

“Wave,” Katie said. “They're being cute and friendly.”

Christy didn't feel very cute or friendly, but she waved. The children got excited and waved and yelled even more enthusiastically. It was as if they had been playing a game, trying to make someone notice them, and Christy and Katie were the first to play along.

A familiar pain brushed across Christy's heart. It was the hurt she felt whenever she worked with the children at the orphanage.
So many children in this world are crying out for love and attention
. She wondered how all the little ones were doing back in Basel.

“I see a bus coming,” Katie said. “Let's take it back to town. I've lost all interest in the missing mermaid.”

To their surprise, the driver was the same person who had dropped them off a half hour earlier.

“We didn't see any mermaids,” Katie told him, taking the
seat right behind him. “I suppose she was diving under the water, and that's why we couldn't see her.”

The driver turned the large steering wheel on the bus and smiled at Katie in the rearview mirror. Christy wondered if the poor man had any idea what Katie was rattling on about. He then looked at Christy in the rearview mirror. She felt obligated to try to translate for Katie.

“We were looking for the statue of the
Little Mermaid
,” she said slowly.

When he didn't respond, Katie pulled out the tour book and said, in a voice that Christy thought was way too loud, “
Lille Havfrue
. We're looking for the
Lille Havfrue
.”

Christy was certain Katie's accent was wrong. But the driver somehow still understood. “Ah,
Lille Havfrue
.” He broke into a deep, jolly laugh. “
Lille Havfrue
is not at the harbor.”

“So we discovered,” Katie said. “Where is she?”

“I will take you,” he said, still laughing. Then he added with his delightful accent, “She is not large like your Statue of Liberty.”

Christy glanced at Katie.

“Well? How was I supposed to know? It says here she's at the harbor.”

The driver stopped by a park and opened the door. “Here,” he said. “You will find the
Lille Havfrue
here.”

“Thanks.” Christy smiled at him as they got off. She couldn't help but feel that as soon as the door of the bus closed, the whole busload of Danish people would burst out laughing at the crazy American girls.

“Well,” Katie said, undaunted. “I guess we made his day a little brighter.”

“He did seem humored,” Christy said. “This place looks totally different from where we just were.”

“And look! There's a sign. ‘
Lille Havfrue
this way.' ” They followed the pathway through a garden area.

“It pays to consult the tour book and to learn the local lingo, doesn't it?” Katie asked.

Christy couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease her friend. “Oh, what's this about consulting the tour book? Does that mean we are no longer on a free-spirited adventure?”

“I know, I know. I deserved that. I'm a reformed traveler, though, remember? Don't be too hard on me. I didn't understand the power of the written word.”

“It sounds as if you're talking about the Bible.”

“Now, there's a good analogy for you,” Katie said. “We'll have to tell that one to Todd. The Bible is like our tour book for this journey through life.”

“And the part about adventures? How does that fit in?”

“In case you haven't noticed yet, Christy,” Katie said, “I think adventure tends to find you and me. We don't have to go looking for it.”

Christy smiled at Katie. “We always were a couple of peculiar treasures, weren't we?”

Katie tilted back her head and let loose her carefree laughter. “I haven't heard you use that term in such a long time! You're right, Chris. We are a couple of peculiar treasures. And so is this little Havfrue statue, if she actually exists.”

They walked a long distance before seeing the water, which appeared as flat and shallow as a pond. Then, suddenly, there she was. The
Little Mermaid
. A bronzed statue only about two feet high. She had taken on a weathered, green tinge, and she sat gracefully on a flat, reddish-colored boulder, gazing down at the water. Her back was turned toward Katie and Christy.

“Look at that, will you? We come all this way, and she won't even turn around.” Katie said.

“She's a lot smaller than I thought she would be,” Christy commented.

“Now I know why the bus driver thought we were so
funny,” Katie said. “Can you imagine this little statue being situated somewhere in that harbor? She would be run over in an instant by all the cargo ships and ferries.”

“So,” Christy said flatly, “this is the famous
Little Mermaid statue
.”

“Yep, that's her.”

They stood for a moment, staring at the statue. Then, turning to look at each other, Christy and Katie burst into the kind of laughter that could only come from two peculiar treasures caught in the midst of an adventure.

16

Christy wrote about their experience in her diary that night. She entitled her entry “In Search of the
Lille Havfrue
.” Her last paragraph read,

I hope I never forget the lesson I learned today. Some of the things I set out to find in life aren't as grand as I thought they would be. When those discoveries turn out to disappoint, may I always be blessed with what I had today: (1) a peculiar treasure of a friend to laugh wholeheartedly with me over the disillusionment and (2) enough money for bus fare to take me on to the next episode of the adventure
.