“Oh, now I feel like the toad of the week,” Katie said.
“Don’t,” Christy said. “I think this will work out fine. We’ll stay here tomorrow night and then take the train down to Copenhagen to meet Todd. You said there were openings on the flight out of Narvik, right?”
“Right. That would work out perfectly,” Todd said.
Christy couldn’t tell if he was sounding calm because he was disappointed she wasn’t going with him or if he was just being his easygoing self.
The next morning, when Christy and Katie walked Todd to the train station and sent him off for what Katie called his “male bonding with the polar bears,” Todd appeared much more enthusiastic about his solo journey. Just before he boarded the train, he reviewed the details of where and when they were to meet in Copenhagen.
“We’ll be there,” Christy said. “Have a great time.”
“Say hi to Santa Claus for us,” Katie said.
The conductor called out something, which Christy guessed meant “All aboard” in Norwegian. Todd grabbed her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her soundly. Then he leaped onto the train and waved good-bye as if he were a soldier going off to war.
“Well!” Katie said. “Good thing I’m along on this excursion to chaperone you two. When did Mr. Casual turn into Captain Passion?”
Christy smiled. Her lips still tingled from Todd’s kiss. She remembered when he had kissed her that way once before. They were in Maui, and he was about to jump off a high bridge. Her heart had cried out with fear that he might not surface from the water below. But he had. Now she had confidence he would return from this “leap,” as well.
“Do you want to find a little Konditorei and have a morning pastry with me?” Christy asked, changing the subject as they left the train station.
“You’re going to put food past those lips while they’re still sizzling?” Katie teased. “Man, if I were you, I wouldn’t be able to use my lips for a week.”
“Katie, come on. It wasn’t that wild.”
“You should have had the view I did. It was wild. In all the years I’ve been around you guys, that was about the most intense outward flash of emotion I’ve seen from Mr. Cool. Or does he kiss you like that all the time, and I just never see it?”
“No, he doesn’t kiss me like that all the time. He doesn’t kiss me very often, actually.”
“That must be hard.”
“No, I think it’s just right. It would be hard if we were more expressive.” They entered a café, and Christy tried to change the subject. “Do you want to sit here, or should we buy something to take with us and go on down to the harbor? I think the next tour boat of the fjords leaves in an hour.”
“Let’s take it with us,” Katie said. “I don’t want to miss the boat.”
They bought several delicious-looking pastries and decided to take a cab to the harbor. Katie found it humorous that the taxicab they rode in was a Mercedes. “Only a slightly different experience from our taxi rides in Rome, wouldn’t you say?”
About two hours into their relaxing boat tour, Katie brought up the subject of Todd again. “How do you guys keep your kisses to a minimum?”
“What?”
“I want to know how you and Todd have stayed so pure and controlled for five years. I think it’s hard. It was hard for me when I was going with Michael. I mean, you want to be close; yet the closer you become, the more you want to be even closer. Do you know what I mean?”
Christy nodded. She knew exactly what Katie meant.
“So what’s your limit? Where do you guys draw the line?”
Christy had to think a moment. “Light kisses, I guess.”
“And you’re going to tell me what I witnessed at the train station was a ‘light’ kiss? I don’t think so, honey.”
“He doesn’t usually kiss me like that,” Christy said quickly, although she did remember that his kiss when he arrived at the train station in Basel had pretty much taken her breath away. And then the kiss on the boat to Capri hadn’t been light.
“Have you guys ever talked about it?” Katie asked.
“Not exactly. It hasn’t been a problem.”
“I’m sure it’s helped that you haven’t been on the same side of the globe for half of your relationship, whether Todd was leaving or you were.” Katie leaned back in her seat on the deck of the tour boat. She closed her eyes and took the sun’s full force on her face. “I’m going to have so many new freckles by tonight, but doesn’t this feel incredible?”
“I love it.” Christy looked over at an inlet their boat was about to enter. Dramatic, sharp cliffs shot straight up from the water and towered above them like a great stone ogre with a gnarled face. “Look, we’re entering another fjord.”
Katie only opened one eye and glanced, unimpressed, at the magnificent sight. “Yeah, it’s gorgeous. Just like the last twenty-five fjords we’ve visited. You see one fjord, you’ve seen ’em all.”
Christy thought it was funny that there they were, finally in Norway, Katie’s destination of choice, and they were on a tour of the one thing she wanted to see, fjords, but she was about to take a nap.
The silent time Christy now had to herself was a precious gift. She basked in the sun’s warmth and felt comforted by the boat’s peaceful motion as it motored through crystal water. The quietness gave her a chance to reflect on what Katie had said about kissing.
Christy wondered if she should draw up some guidelines and standards for herself. She never had to consider that before because over the years Todd had been so slow and sparing in expressing his feelings for her. She had broken up with Rick before kissing had become a problem. It never had been an issue when she went out with Doug because he had made a personal vow never to kiss a girl until his wedding day, and he had succeeded. A special sense of celebration had filled the air at Doug and Tracy’s wedding because of their intense purity.
I’m glad Todd has given me his kisses over the years. Each one has meant something different. If Todd saves my tears in his heart, I save his kisses. And I’m saving thousands of kisses to give back to him if we get married.
Christy allowed herself a few moments to consider the possibility that she and Todd wouldn’t get married. She had no regrets about the kisses and tears she had bestowed on him over the years. But she also knew that she didn’t want to give him a whole lot more, just in case it would be too hard to stop. The full expression of her dreams of passion was wrapped in innocence, and she wanted that delicate wrapping to stay on those dreams until her wedding night.
Pulling her new diary from her day pack, Christy wrote her thoughts out as quickly as they came to her. Part of what she wrote was,
I have so much saved up inside my soul that I’m sure it will take me a lifetime to fully express physically my love to my husband. I want to save all of that until we enter into “holy matrimony.” I think that’s part of what makes it holy. I think God honors virginity in a special way. When He chose to send His Son to earth, He did it through the body of a virgin. I want my marriage to be holy before God. For the first time I’ve begun to think that maybe I need a plan instead of just assuming that’s how everything will go. At this point in my life, I assume I’ll marry Todd. But I don’t know that for sure. It’s as if I need to save myself from him to save myself for him.
The concluding thought on the topic came to Christy that night as she and Katie walked through Oslo’s streets at 9:30 in what felt like broad daylight. The sky carried only a tinge of tangerine-shaded dusk as they strolled past a row of shops. Dozens of people were out, walking or sitting in open-air cafés, talking as if it were lunchtime.
“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 c
an 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.”