“No. I can’t explain it, Christy, but when I met Matt, I thought he was awesome. The only other guy I’ve ever felt that way about was Michael.” Katie turned to Todd and included him in their conversation. “Do you think love at first sight is a big lie?”
Todd rubbed his hand across his jaw. It looked as if he was trying to hide a smile.
“What’s so funny?” Christy asked.
Todd looked at Katie and said, “All I can tell you is that the first time I saw Christy I knew.” He glanced at Christy.
“Knew what?” Katie asked.
Todd’s voice lowered and became deep and dramatic. “I knew that she was God’s gift to me and I would never consider anyone else.”
For a moment Christy felt overwhelmed by Todd’s romantic words. Words he had never before expressed to her. Then she doubted his words and thought he must be teasing or even mocking her.
“You did not!” Christy said, reaching over and whacking Todd on the leg. “The first time you saw me I had just been tumbled by a huge wave and was spit up on the shore covered with seaweed.”
“My little mermaid,” Todd said, his grin returning. “God’s gift to me from out of the sea.”
“That reminds me.” Christy turned to Katie, eager to change the subject before Todd had a chance to tease her any more. “Todd found out from the tour book that in Copenhagen they have a statue of the Little Mermaid. We definitely will have to go see it.”
“Okay,” Katie agreed.
“Anyone for a game of chess?” Todd asked.
“Are you interested, Katie?” Christy said. “Because I’d like to go back to reading the tour book.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to keep you from your precious tour book,” Katie teased.
Todd unpacked the chessboard and set it up. Christy had just turned to the Denmark section of the tour book when Katie leaned over and quietly said, “Thanks, Chris.”
“For what?”
“If the Big Artist upstairs isn’t ready to paint a boyfriend into my life, thanks for letting me share yours.”
14
Their train rolled into the Oslo station at 10:00 Monday morning. They had been riding trains for more than twenty-four hours. And Christy had decided that Katie’s idea of “sharing” Todd no longer felt like a comfortable, friendly arrangement.
The reality was that Katie hadn’t shared Todd at all. She hogged him. When they changed trains in Hamburg and rode through the night in a sleeper car, Christy had stretched out on one of the bunks and managed to fall asleep.
She woke up sometime around 6:00 in the morning and found herself alone. Todd and Katie showed up an hour later, laughing and carrying on about what a great time they had had staying up all night drinking coffee and talking. Todd had helped Katie memorize the verses in Isaiah he had told her about. In every way, the two of them seemed to have shared a wonderful time together while Christy slept.
The worst part was that now Christy was the one who found angry bats, poisoned with jealousy, flapping around in her belfry. “Get outa here,” Christy muttered to the evil bats.
“What did you say?” Katie asked as they exited the station. “Which way is it out of here?”
“This way.” Todd led them into the brilliant light of the new day. “We should find a place to stay first, then do some exploring. What do you think?”
“Do you have a place picked out, Christy?” Katie asked. “You were the one who studied that tour book.”
“I marked a couple of places.” Christy pulled out the book. “This one sounded the best to me, but if you guys want to go someplace else, that’s fine, too.” She was surprised at how calm she felt now. Maybe Todd’s theory of stopping a sin in midair really worked. “This place is a guesthouse like the one we stayed at in Salzburg. It says it’s near the train station.”
“Sounds perfect,” Katie said. “Which way?”
Christy read the map and led them to the pensjonater, as their hotel was called. A three-story, square building, it was adorned with a gorgeous stained-glass window above the front door. Christy liked the winding staircase that led them to their third-floor rooms. The first thing she did was open the window’s shutters, which unlatched in the middle. Both sides opened outward, letting the sunlight stream into their room. Bright red geraniums spilled over the edge of the window’s flower box. Christy drew in a deep breath. Clean air filled her lungs and made her feel invigorated and ready to see the sights.
Katie flopped on the poofy bed and said, “The power of a real bed should never be underestimated.”
“You’re not thinking of going to sleep now, are you? We’re in Oslo! Finally! Fjords are waiting to be visited and folk museums to be explored.”
“You and your folks can visit all the museums you want. I’ll be here. You can come back and tell me all about it.”
Christy pulled on her friend’s foot. “We’re in Norway. This is the home of your ancestors and all that. Aren’t you even a little bit excited about exploring? What happened to your ‘We’re on an adventure’ motto?”
“I’ve traded in that motto for a new one, ‘Sleep is sweet.’ ”
Christy gave up. She knew in a few minutes Katie would sink into slumberland, so Christy quietly unpacked and made herself at home in the quaint room with the painted wooden furniture. The small desk in the corner was white with tiny red and blue flowers painted along the edge. The matching chair had a high back with a woven straw seat. The wooden bedposts were also painted white with red and blue flowers. A small vase of blue glass held a handful of yellow, white, and blue wild flowers.
After pulling out all her dirty clothes from her backpack, Christy decided to go down the hall to the shared bathroom and wash what she could in the sink. With the sunshine and fresh air pouring through the window, her clothes would dry quickly.
On her way to the bathroom, she knocked on the door to Todd’s room. She wondered if he had discovered his bed the way Katie had and had also taken on her “sleep is sweet” motto. Christy hoped he was still awake. She felt ready to explore with him for a few hours. They could let the sleeping redhead get her beauty rest.
Todd didn’t answer. But the door to the shared bathroom opened, and he emerged, freshly showered and shaven, wearing a crumpled but clean T-shirt and shorts.
“You shaved!” Christy said.
“Too itchy.”
“You look good.”
“Hope I didn’t keep you guys waiting. A shower sounded too wonderful to pass up.”
“A nap sounded too wonderful for Katie to pass up. She’ll be out for at least a couple of hours. Do you want to go exploring and then come back and get her?”
“Sure. As long as food is included in that exploring.” Todd glanced at the mound of clothes Christy held. “Were you going to wash those?”
“Yes, I thought they would dry in the fresh air that’s coming through our window.”
“That’s a good idea. Why don’t we plan to leave in about ten or fifteen minutes? I’ll take my stuff to the bathroom on the second floor.”
Christy decided to wash more than her clothes. In twelve minutes flat she showered, shaved, washed her hair, changed, and washed her clothes and hung them on a collapsible rack in her bedroom’s sunshine. She was just finishing her note to Katie when Todd appeared at her open door. He smiled when he saw Katie asleep with her shoes on.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” he whispered.
“I think so. I’m leaving her a note.”
As they walked out, quietly closing the door behind them, Todd slipped his arm around Christy’s shoulders and pulled her close. He planted a tender kiss on her temple, halfway on her still-wet hair and halfway on her skin.
Christy was surprised and about to ask, “What was that for?” But when she turned and looked into Todd’s clear blue eyes, she knew the answer. He was happy. Happy to be with her, happy to be in Norway, happy to be alive. She decided it was a kiss of contentment and would only retain its magical
happiness if she didn’t ask to have it explained.
Reaching her arm around his waist, Christy leaned close as they tried to walk down the narrow, winding stairs side by side. She giggled when the curve made them bump into the railing. The owner of the pensjonater met them at the bottom of the stairs and smiled.
“Can you tell us a good place to eat?” Todd asked the cheerful woman. She gave them directions to a place nearby that served what she said was the best koldtbord on this side of town.
The restaurant offered outdoor seating. That made Christy happy. She was eager to soak up all the pure air and sunshine. The day felt so fresh to her. The koldtbord turned out to be an abundant buffet. Todd went back twice and ate more salmon than Christy could imagine eating in a lifetime. She tried a stew that the waiter later told her was made from lamb and cabbage. She never would have ordered it if she had known what it was, but she found she liked it.
Lunch wasn’t cheap, but Christy felt they had gotten their money’s worth. She had eaten so much she felt uncomfortable as they walked hand in hand to the bus stop. The waiter had told them this bus would take them to the Kon-Tiki Museum, which Todd was so eager to visit.
They sat close on the bus, holding hands and talking about what they would see after the museum. Christy pulled her tour book from her day pack and noticed how worn it was beginning to look. Todd pointed out a couple of places of interest. The one that intrigued him the most was the Norske Folke Museet because on the map it appeared that the Kon-Tiki Museum was part of it.
“You know,” Todd said, “I was going to tell you, Katie and I looked up a bunch of stuff in our Bibles last night when we were talking, and I found out that Paul didn’t write the letter to the Philippians from the Mamertine Prison. He was in Rome when he wrote it, but under house arrest. Apparently he could come and go from the house, and people could visit him.”
“So he didn’t write anything while in that dungeon?”
“Yes, he wrote his second letter to Timothy. Nero was the emperor at the time.”
“Didn’t Marcos say Nero was the ruler who used Christians as human torches to light his garden parties?”
Todd nodded.
“That overwhelms me,” Christy said. “I mean, to be tortured and killed like that because of what you believe.”
“I know,” Todd said. “I read the whole book of Second Timothy last night and tried to picture Paul in that dismal cell, within view and earshot of the Colosseum, where other Christians were being fed to the lions. And there he was, in chains, writing stuff like, ‘For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline.’ ”
Christy felt like crying.
“At the end of the last chapter,” Todd added, “Paul even said, ‘But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.’ And he wrote about how he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
“When we were at the Colosseum, the whole idea of persecution really hit me,” Christy said. “I stood there and felt as if I could see that arena come alive with spectators watching as the lions were let loose on the Christians.”
Todd looked at her intensely. “I felt that way, too.”
“I prayed that if I ever was in that situation, I would be able to stand firm in my commitment to the Lord.”
A gentle smile came across Todd’s lips. “You know what I want? I want to be confident like Paul so that no matter what the circumstances, I’m willing to give my life for Christ. Because the truth is, we all die. And once we’ve stepped into eternity, all that will matter is if we remained faithful to the Lord through this short life on earth.”
Christy felt a tear roll down her cheek. “I agree,” she said in a whisper.
“Do you know what, Kilikina?” Todd caught her tear with his finger and then pressed his finger to his chest, directly over his heart. “This is where I save all your tears. Right here, where I hold you in my heart.”
The bus pulled up at their stop for the folk museum. Christy pulled herself together, blinking quickly as she followed Todd out onto the street. She felt as if she had been conversing with him in a different realm, another world beyond the stars. Yet here they stood, with both feet on solid earth, and the blue sky spread above them like a sealed dome, locking out that other realm’s secrets.
Holding hands and not speaking much, Todd and Christy toured the Norwegian Folk Museum. More than one hundred antique Norwegian buildings were reconstructed and set up like a village under a grove of large trees. A dirt path linked the houses. Some of the houses had sod roofs and faded, stencil-like paintings over the fireplaces and doorframes. One of the houses seemed especially small, and Todd joked about the Vikings actually being a race of short people who wore really tall hats with pointed horns to make them look ferocious.
Christy liked the simple, reconstructed church that originally was built almost eight hundred years ago. “Just a little different from Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, don’t you think?” It intrigued her to see how people through the ages built special places to worship God. The inborn longing to make a meeting place where humans could connect with the eternal God carried on from generation to generation. She was even more amazed to see something this humble stand after eight hundred years.
Todd wasn’t overly impressed with the ancient church, but he came alive when they toured the Kon-Tiki Museum. They stood side by side, staring at a very small raft constructed of logs that had been intricately roped together.
“Can you believe six men spent one hundred and one days floating on this raft in the Pacific?” Todd studied the raft from every angle. “That’s unbelievable. Don’t you think that’s incredible?”
“Yes,” Christy agreed.
“They must have driven each other crazy. There’s barely enough room for six people to sit on that raft, let alone sleep and carry supplies. But, man, what an adventure!”
Christy didn’t want to admit it to Todd, but she knew if she were sent to sea on such a small raft with Todd and Katie for one hundred days, she would go crazy. She was challenged enough to be with them twenty-four-seven for just three weeks. This little break alone with Todd was refreshing to her.
They also viewed the Ra II, which was the second craft Thor Heyerdahl built. This one he constructed in Egypt out of reeds to test the theory that such a boat could have reached the Americas before Columbus did. For whatever reason, the Ra II didn’t astound Todd as much as the Kon-Tiki.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about getting a new surfboard,” Todd said.
“What happened to old Naranja?” Christy asked. Todd’s orange surfboard had been a part of his life long before Christy had entered it. She couldn’t imagine him giving up Naranja.
“I’ll keep Naranja around, but I’ve been looking at this really sweet board that was made by a guy I know in San Clemente. If I buy this new board, I’m going to name it Kon-Tiki.”
Christy smiled as they strolled back to the bus stop. The afternoon seemed to grow only more beautiful under the clear skies. She knew that at this time of year, in this land of the midnight sun, they could expect more than eighteen hours of daylight. The light felt different to her, even at 2:00 in the afternoon, because the sun came at them from a different angle than she had ever experienced. Norway felt like a crisp, clear, completely different world than the one she had spent her life in.
Christy tried to express those thoughts to Todd as they took the bus back to their lodgings. The more she tried to describe it, the more Todd nodded, and the wider his grin became.
“Do you realize how close we are to the Arctic Circle?” he asked.
“How close?”
“We could take a train out of here tomorrow morning at 8:00 and cross the Arctic Circle at 4:00 that afternoon.”
“Wouldn’t it be all frozen?” Christy hadn’t missed her jacket since their camping trip. A visit to the Arctic Circle didn’t seem like a good idea unless a person had at least a jacket for the journey.
“I
t’s not the North Pole,” Todd said. “The Arctic Circle is basically the line where the Atlantic Ocean stops and the Arctic Ocean begins. A dozen or more Norwegian towns are above the Arctic Circle.”
“It sounds like the end of the world.”
“I know.” Todd’s expression lit up. “So how about it, Kilikina, do you want to go to the ends of the Earth with me?”
15
As adventuresome and appealing as Todd’s invitation sounded to Christy, they had only one problem with going together to the ends of the Earth: Katie.
“I can’t explain it,” Katie said during dinner that night in downtown Oslo. Even at 8:00 the city was as bright and warm as it had been at 3:00 that afternoon. “I just don’t want to go to the ends of the Earth with you guys.”
“We can’t go without you,” Christy said, remembering her parents’ restriction that she and Todd should never travel alone.
Katie looked at Todd and then back at Christy. “It sounds boring to spend all that time on a train just to see some marker in the ground and herds of reindeer. Sorry.”
They had been discussing their options for more than an hour, and clearly Katie wasn’t about to budge. As much as Christy hated it, she knew what she needed to say. “Todd, why don’t you go by yourself? You really wanted to go to Pompeii, and we didn’t make it there. I think you should go to the Arctic Circle. Katie and I can take a boat ride around the fjords tomorrow. If you decide to fly back, like you were saying earlier, then maybe you could fly into Copenhagen instead of here. Katie and I would take the train to meet you there.”
Todd studied Christy’s expression. “Are you sure?”
In truth, Christy liked the idea of traveling north to the ends of the Earth with Todd, but she still was bothered about not having a jacket. And it did sound a little boring. With their limited travel time, she wanted to see Copenhagen more than she wanted to see an Arctic Circle marker and herds of reindeer.
“I’m sure,” she said.
Until Tomorrow Page 14