Until Tomorrow (5 page)

The man moved closer to where Christy sat by the fire pit and spoke to her again, with longer sentences and more hand gestures.

“Ich verstehe nicht,” Christy said quickly.

Undaunted, the man continued to speak. He removed two of the fish from his line, then pulled at his sweater and laid the fish in the clean frying pan.

“I don't understand you,” Christy said.

With more hand gestures, the man removed another fish, laid it in the pan, and patted his chest. He looked at her as if waiting for an answer.

“
Danke
” was all Christy could think to say, assuming, hopefully, that he was just being a kind person and sharing his daily catch with her since it was obvious she had no dinner cooking in her pot. Then, because she remembered how to say thank you in Italian, she added, “Grazie.”

“
Prego
,” the man said with a nod of his head. He said something else, patted the sweater again, and was on his way.

Christy sat frozen. Only her eyes moved from the man's
retreating back to the fish in the pan. The distinct odor of fish guts hovered over her. It was more than fish guts, though. It was the strong scent of fish guts mixed with lining from the bottom of a bird cage and the bottom of a farmer's boot.

Oh no!
Christy jumped up and dashed around to the back of the tent by the trail's opening. She looked around where she had hung Tonio's smelly sweater. It was gone.

4

Before Christy could run after the fisherman and demand that he return Antonio's stinky sweater, Todd's voice called to her from the woods, “Hey, Christy! You awake yet?”

She ran down the trail, met him halfway, and flew into his arms. But her hug lasted less than two seconds. With a frustrated push against his chest, she said, “Where were you guys? You left me here alone! Some guy came and traded me fish for Antonio's sweater, and I didn't know what was going on!”

Todd seemed to be looking at her hair, which hung straight down over her shoulders and was tousled wildly from her running about. “You smell good,” he said.

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“Yes. He left you with three fish. Have you started to clean them yet?”

Christy looked at Todd incredulously. “No.”

“Come on, I'll help you. Tonio and Katie are going to be here in a few minutes.”

“Where were you guys?”

Todd grinned. “We got turned around on our hike.”

“You were lost?”

“A little.”

“How can you be a little lost, Todd? Either you're lost or you're not.”

Todd slipped his arm around Christy's shoulder. He seemed amused by her raving comments and acted as if nothing were wrong.

Christy became acutely aware of how good she smelled in contrast to how Todd smelled. And when the other two arrived and gathered around the fire pit while Todd cleaned the fish, Christy realized how pointless and rather agonizing it was to be the only clean, sweet-smelling person in a group.

She apologetically told Antonio what had happened with the fish and the sweater.

He laughed. “You should have held out for five fish, minimum. My grandmother made that sweater. Next time, hold up your fingers like this and say, ‘
Cinque
.' ”

“Your grandmother made it? Antonio, I feel so bad.”

“No, don't. It was an old sweater. She makes me one every Christmas.”

“It's actually a God-thing, Christy,” Katie said. “Can you imagine how long it would take us to catch some fish for dinner? This is perfect. We get back, and dinner is waiting. Well, almost waiting. Provided, at least.”

Katie continued to talk, bubbling over with stories of their beautiful hike, how she was certain they must have walked at least thirty miles, and that she would never agree to go anywhere with those two again.

“Believe me, Christy, you made the right choice to stay here and sleep all day. I'm exhausted. And starving. This living off the bounty of the land takes time, doesn't it? Is there any beef jerky left?”

“No, I ate it.”

“How long before the fish is ready?” Katie asked.

“Not long,” Tonio said, fanning the fire and feeding it more of the twigs Christy had collected.

“You know, you guys, we could just find something to eat along the way,” Christy suggested. “The raccoons would be happy if we left the fish for them.”

“Along the way where?” Katie asked.

“Along the way to wherever we're going to stay tonight.”

Christy's three friends stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She scanned their expressions and said, “Or were you guys thinking we would stay here another night?”

“Of course,” Antonio said decidedly. “I don't have to be to work until Saturday. We will stay here four more nights.”

When neither Katie nor Todd balked at the possibility of spending the rest of the week here, Christy kept her mouth shut, more from shock than anything else. She remained quiet the whole time they ate their fish. Todd let her borrow his navy blue hooded sweat shirt. She sat huddled next to him by the fire with the hood up, hiding her face from him and only halfheartedly joining in the singing with the others. She couldn't imagine spending five more days of their three-week vacation here with the masked midnight prowlers dining on fish guts while she tossed and turned on the hard ground, shivering like crazy.

Christy went to bed wearing Todd's sweat shirt pulled over her head, which at least helped to keep some of her body heat in. But without the smelly knit sweater, the hard ground poked her and chilled her more miserably than the night before.

Christy listened to Katie's steady breathing. Then a band of scavenging cats got into a fight with the raccoons over their midnight helping of fish guts. Christy cried tiny, silent tears. This wasn't the vacation she had dreamed of with her friends. How could she say anything to them, when obviously she was the only one who thought continuing to camp was a bad idea?

Christy shifted uncomfortably on the tent's floor and
rubbed her stockinged feet together.
I'm not much of a nature woman after all, am I?

A wind picked up, and the canvas tent's sides began to billow. With the wind came a sudden downpour of rain. A leak in the tent's corner next to Christy's head caused the rain to come flying in with the wild wind. Within a few minutes, the sweat shirt's hood was soaked.

“That does it!” Christy shouted, jumping up and vigorously unzipping the tent.

“What's going on?” Katie mumbled. “Can't you just ignore the raccoons tonight?”

“Katie, it's pouring rain! I'm soaked. I'm sleeping in the van.”

Running through the downpour, Christy yanked open the side door of the minivan and climbed in. She pulled the door shut and settled herself onto the back bench seat.
Why didn't I think of this last night? It's much warmer in here
.

The rain pelted the van's roof, but Christy was safe, dry, and almost warm. She pulled her scratchy blanket up to her chin and thought she might actually get some sleep now.

Just then the van's door slid open. “Make room, I'm coming in! Our tent is flooding.” Katie sprang inside, accidentally smashing Christy's index finger against the seat's underside metal frame.

“Ouch!” Christy yelled.

“What happened?”

Before Christy could answer, the van's side door opened again, and Todd hopped in. “Guess you two had the same idea.”

Antonio stood right behind him in the pouring rain and shouted, “Hey, come on! Make some room!”

“You guys are all wet,” Katie said.

Todd held a flashlight and turned it toward Christy. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pressed her lips together
and held her smashed finger tightly.

“You okay?” he asked.

Christy shook her head but couldn't speak. Todd motioned with a chin-up gesture and said, “Did you hurt your hand?”

She nodded, and he reached for her hand, shining the flashlight on it. Antonio moved in, and all four of them peered at Christy's finger. It throbbed like crazy, but there was nothing to see. It wasn't swollen, cut, or black-and-blue. It just hurt like everything. The way her three friends looked up at her made Christy feel again like a failed nature woman.

“It'll be all right,” Christy said quietly, pulling her hand out of the light.

“Well, then, since we are all together,” Antonio said, “what should we do?”

Christy leaned back on the bench seat and tried hard to keep from crying over her throbbing finger. Todd made himself comfortable on the van's floor, leaning against her legs. At that moment she didn't want anyone to touch her or to press against her. Not even Todd. The tight quarters were beginning to smell like wet wool socks and mildewed boots. She knew if she popped open one of the windows, the wind would bring in the rain.

“We could tell detective stories,” Katie said. “Or play chess. Have you ever played chess in teams? Guys against the girls. What do you think, Christy?”

Christy didn't feel like playing any kind of game. She didn't view this as the impromptu slumber party everyone else seemed to think it was.

“I have another flashlight somewhere,” Antonio said, fumbling through the cupboards.

Todd turned around and said to Christy, “Listen to the sound of that rain. Isn't it amazing? What does it remind you of?”

When Christy didn't answer, Todd added, “I'll give you a hint. Think of an open jeep and a sudden downpour.”

Antonio turned on a large flashlight, illuminating the enclosed area. Todd appeared surprised when he saw the expression on Christy's face in the light. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” Christy said, trying to change her aggravated expression.

“Then, what's wrong?” Todd looped his arm across her knees and looked at her with concern.

“It's nothing.”

“Oh, come on, Christy, it's obviously something,” Katie said. “We all know you too well for you to try to hide whatever it is. Just tell us.”

Christy hesitated. She hated the way she felt right now. Holding her still-screaming finger, she spouted, “I'm not particularly enjoying this downpour the way you guys are, and to be honest with you . . . I don't know if I can do this.”

“Do what?” Katie prodded.

“This!”

“Camping?” Antonio ventured.

“Yes, camping and all this. I mean, you guys love the adventure of roughing it, but this is the first time in my life I've ever been tent camping, and I hate to be the big baby of this group, but this is hard! I'm cold, wet, and hungry, but you guys all think this is great and want to live this way for the rest of the week. Or for the rest of your lives, for all I know!”

They all stared at her.

“I'm sorry, but this isn't what I had in mind when we said we were going to travel around Europe.”

Looking at Todd again, she decided she had better keep going while she was at full speed. “You guys, we only have three weeks to see everything in Europe. Three weeks! And if you want to spend the first week sitting here in the rain, eating
fish, I guess that's okay, but I have to tell you, it's not as easy for me as it is for you.”

Christy felt hot tears coming to her eyes. She forced them to back off. “I'm sorry I'm being like this, but I feel as if the three of you would have a much better time without me. I mean, you took off and went hiking without me. You could have just done this whole Italy camping thing without me, and I could have caught up with you on your way to Norway or something.”

“Is that what you want?” Katie asked. “You want to go to Norway?”

“I don't care about Norway. I thought
you
wanted to go to Norway.” Christy raised her voice. “Weren't you the one who sent the email about seeing a fjord and the country your great-grandmother came from?”

“Sure, I want to get to Norway eventually,” Katie said. “No rush.”

“But that's what you don't understand. You don't just say, ‘Oh, let's go to Norway today' and arrive in time for lunch. You have to find out when the trains are scheduled. Some trains require reservations. And what if we want to stop and see something else along the way? We need to have a plan. Why can't we have a plan?”

“We can,” Todd said. “We can make a plan.”

“Three weeks isn't as long as you guys think,” Christy said, calming down.

“So what's your plan?” Katie asked. “Give us a plan.”

“I don't have a plan.”

“Neither do we,” Katie said defensively. “That's why we were just letting things happen as they came along. This camping trip with Antonio is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“No.” Antonio held up his hand and shook his head. “Christy is right. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is more
than this camp, this lake, these trees. You must see the Sistine Chapel and the Eiffel Tower. Europe has much to offer you. More than what you are seeing here. Five days is too long in one place when there is so much to see. We will go in the morning, okay?”