Until Tomorrow (23 page)

They walked to the lobby close beside each other. Todd was sitting on the long, wooden bench that ran along the left wall of the lobby entrance. He grinned at them as they approached.

“I'm so sorry, Todd,” Katie began. “It was my fault. Christy thought it was Jade, and believe me, she didn't want Jade to kiss her.”

Todd raised his eyebrows. Christy could see a big red swollen splotch across his forehead. It looked bad but not awful.

“Jade, huh?” Todd said.

Katie quickly explained who Jade was.

Christy sat down next to Todd. She gave him a sympathetic look. “I'm sorry I reacted like that without seeing who it was.”

Todd brushed a long strand of hair from her cheek. “I guess I don't have to worry about you knowing how to take care of yourself. You have quick reactions, Christy. That's good.”

“Except it's not good when you get hurt.”

“It'll heal. So what have you guys been doing, besides turning down invitations to dance clubs?”

Christy could tell Todd was okay. He wasn't mad, and he wasn't seriously injured. Katie must have come to the same conclusion, too, because she sat down on the other side of Todd and plunged right in with a proposed itinerary of what they should do that day, as well as a long list of all the other sights they should see.

Todd looked at Christy with surprise as Katie continued to spout her knowledge of all the hot tourist spots.

“She's been reading the book,” Christy told him.

Todd laughed.

Christy felt good hearing his laugh again. And good being close to him and knowing that everything was okay.

“Before we go anywhere, I want to hear about your adventure,” Christy said.

“Right,” Katie agreed. “And then we'll tell you about our little adventure with the
Lille Havfrue
.”

Todd leaned back, stretched out his legs, and folded his hands behind his neck. “I saw a polar bear,” he said proudly.

“No!” Katie said. “Not really.”

“Yep. Really. Not up close, but it was a real polar bear. Lots of reindeer. Met some cool people. It was great.”

Christy had insisted that he take her camera with him since he didn't have one. She asked, “And you did get a picture of you at the marker when the train stopped and let you off at the Arctic Circle, didn't you?”

“Took two pictures,” he said. “Just in case one didn't turn out.”

Christy smiled at him and said, “So you're glad you went, right?”

He nodded. Then, looking in Christy's eyes, he leaned closer and whispered so only she could hear, “Except I wish you had been with me.”

17

The three reunited travelers spent the day playing like kids at Tivoli Gardens in the glorious sunshine. They ate ice cream that was served in cones with whipped cream, a dollop of jam on top, and a thin cookie tucked on the side. They knew they had to try one when the sign said
Amerikan Cones
. They decided nothing was especially American about them.

By evening, even though it was still light, the air felt cool and sweet. They rested on one of the many benches within the garden, having gone on all the rides and then complained that they were kiddie rides. The roller coaster was, in Katie's words, “like going over speed bumps at Kelley High School.”

“I think we're spoiled by all the amusement parks in California,” Christy said. “Weren't you the one reading to me about how this park was built more than one hundred and fifty years ago?”

“Yeah, but I still had higher hopes,” Katie said.

“It's really a beautiful park,” Christy said. “Look at these trees. Their trunks are almost black, and the leaves are minty green. What kind of trees do you suppose they are?”

“Danish trees,” Katie said. “Can we go see something else?”

“Sure,” Todd agreed. “What do you have marked there in
the book?” He broke off a triangle wedge from a Toblerone candy bar and handed it to Christy.

“I want a piece,” Katie said.

“I thought you would.” Todd handed Katie a piece of the honey-sweetened chocolate bar.

“I planned to eat a candy bar in each country we went to, but I blew it in Norway,” Katie said. “I think I'll have to get double the bars here in Denmark. How did we end up not buying any chocolate there?”

“It's because I took you to all the bakeries, and we bought pastries instead,” Christy said.

“Those haven't been too bad,” Katie admitted.

“They've been fantastic!” Christy said. “I really can't wait to take both of you to my favorite little Konditorei in Basel.” She turned to Todd. “Do you remember me telling you how I go there every Saturday morning? It's where I get my sanity back.”

“I remember.” Todd munched on the chocolate bar. “You order a coffee with cream and sit at the back corner table. Then Margie, or whatever her name is—”

“Marguerite,” Christy corrected him.

“Marguerite brings you whatever they've just pulled out of the oven. Is that right?”

“Exactly.” Christy felt warm inside as she realized how much Todd paid attention to her emails and how he did take notes on what was important to her. “I want to take you there. I want you to meet Marguerite and taste the delicacies she creates.”

“We can do that.” Todd stretched his legs out in front of him. He offered Christy and Katie another hunk of chocolate. “We'll plan our itinerary so that we get back to Basel on Sunday before you start classes, and we'll go to your bakery.”

“Then the question is,” Katie said, “what do we want to
see between here and Basel? I, for one, must see the Eiffel Tower.”

Christy thought,
If you end up with the same feeling about the Eiffel Tower that you had about the fjords, Paris will be a really short stay
.

“Okay, we'll swing by Paris. I wouldn't mind seeing Notre Dame,” Todd said.

“And the
Mona Lisa
,” Christy added.

“Is she there?” Todd asked.

“Yes,” Christy said. “We have to go to the Louvre. That's mandatory.”

“How many more days do we have?” Todd asked.

It took the three of them a while before they could decide what day it was and how many more they had. The consensus was that this was, in fact, Thursday, and they had to be in Basel by a week from Monday. Or actually, they had to be back by Sunday so they could visit Christy's bakery.

“We have plenty of time,” Todd said.

“You know what that means?” Christy asked. “Today our trip is half over. We've been traveling for eleven days, and we have ten more to go.”

“Are you serious? We've only been traveling for eleven days?” Katie looked stunned. “It feels like a decade. Or at least a month. I hate it when I exaggerate so much.” Shaking her head, she added, “You guys, we have to make a plan! This last week and a half is going to go by like that.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

Todd and Christy looked at each other, and Christy burst out laughing. “That's what I've been trying to say for the past eleven days. We need a plan!”

“So I'm a slow learner. Be nice.” Katie pulled out the tour book from her day pack, where she now permanently kept it. “I say we find a night train and get ourselves to Paris. No, cancel
that. I wanted to try to talk you guys into going to Saint Petersburg first.”

“In Russia?” Christy asked.

“I was reading about it,” Katie said. “I think Moscow is too far to go. It takes something like three days by train from here. But Saint Petersburg isn't far from Helsinki, and Helsinki is only a day's train ride from here. Twenty-four hours. We could see those onion-dome churches, and they have a museum in Saint Petersburg that's supposed to be even better than the Louvre. It's the Heritage, or something like that.”

“I think it's called the Hermitage,” Todd said.

“Right.” Katie flipped through a few tattered pages. “Here it is. The Hermitage contains 2.8 million exhibits. They built the museum out of the czar's former Winter Palace. It says, ‘The staterooms in the Winter Palace, with their chandeliers and opulent marble and gold-leaf decoration, should not be missed.' See? ‘Should not be missed.' ” She pointed to the words in the tour book. “We should go to Saint Petersburg.”

“What do you think, Todd?” Christy asked.

“Whatever you guys want is fine with me.” With a grin he added, “I've been to Narvik and back. I'm happy.”

Christy was glad all over that she had suggested he go to the Arctic Circle. It had been a good choice. She hoped they could come up with some more good choices now.

After an hour discussing options on the bench at Tivoli Gardens, Todd suggested they find a place to eat. He said he hadn't eaten much on his journey to the “end of the world.” Today all he had eaten was an “Amerikan” ice cream and the Toblerone bar.

They went to a small restaurant off the main street at the recommendation of a distinguished gentleman Todd had stopped on the street once they were back in the main part of downtown Copenhagen. Christy ordered the special of the evening, which was listed on the menu as “
flaekesteg med
rodka
.” The waitress spoke perfect English, and she told Christy it was roast pork with red cabbage and browned potatoes. Katie looked as if she was having a hard time not bursting out laughing.

As soon as the waitress left, Christy gave her a what's-so-funny look. Katie laughed and said, “I'm sorry. It's just that the way you said it, Christy, the last word sounded like ‘road kill'! ‘I would like to order the road kill for dinner, please.' ” Katie kept laughing.

Christy realized how tired and hungry she was now that they were sitting in the quiet, dimly lit restaurant. Katie's laughter was fun while they were on the rides at Tivoli Gardens, but now it sounded loud and overdone to Christy. She knew Katie became punchy when she was tired and living on sugar. But the truth in Christy's heart was that she wanted to be alone with Todd. She wanted to hear all about his adventure to Narvik. She wanted to look into his eyes and listen to him without having to divide her attention between Todd and Katie.

Dinner was scrumptious, and they all mellowed after eating. A complimentary plate of various slices of cheese followed the meal. Todd ordered a coffee, and they went back to planning the next portion of their trip.

By the time the brightness in the sky had finally begun to soften into shades of tangerine and soft rosy pinks, the three of them had come up with a plan. Stockholm and Helsinki were off the list. Since they weren't headed for Helsinki, Saint Petersburg was also struck from the list.

They decided to travel to Paris with a one-day stop in Amsterdam so they could see a Dutch windmill. The train ride from Copenhagen to Amsterdam would take more than twelve hours.

Todd had been figuring out the train schedule with a book of Eurorail times. “It looks as if we can leave Copenhagen at
7:00 tomorrow morning and get to Hamburg around noon. We get on a different train at 1:00 and that takes us to Cologne, Germany. And that's as far as we can go, by my calculations. They don't list any night trains from Cologne to Amsterdam.”

“What are you saying?” Katie asked. “Do you want to skip Amsterdam and go directly to Paris?”

“No, I'd like to go to Amsterdam. I'll keep checking. A night train is probably available, but it's just not listed here. If there isn't one, we could stay in Cologne tomorrow night and take a morning train to Amsterdam. I know some people we could stay with in Amsterdam. They were in Spain when I was there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Katie said. With a smile to Christy, she said, “Looks like we have a plan.”

As they walked back to the youth hostel, Todd held Christy's hand, and she wondered how long it would be before she and Todd had a plan. He was so good at reviewing the tour book and figuring the train schedules.
Has he begun to review his school schedule to figure out when he'll finish? He's been trying to save money this past year. Was all that for college, or was he saving up for an engagement ring?

Christy told herself she was jumping too far ahead. She knew from previous seasons of wondering and waiting in her life that if she ran ahead and tried to predict the future, she inevitably ended up robbing herself of the joy of the present.

This is where she wanted to be. Right here. Holding hands with Todd, strolling along the streets of Copenhagen under the peach-tinted trail of the midnight sun. They could discuss their future another time, but not tonight. Tonight was for dreaming, not discussing.

About halfway through their train ride to Hamburg the next morning, the train chugged into the belly of a huge ferry like the one Katie and Christy had seen at the harbor. Christy
didn't know if they had been transported by a ferry on their way to Oslo because she had slept through most of that trip and wouldn't have noticed if the train was under the stars or under the sea.