Narrator’s Note: This is the last story from our ‘epic’ adventures in Norway. This series started on my blog on June 6th, the first day of our trip, and the original plan was to write the last story on June 25th, the day we came back. But as a wise old man keeps saying- Stories have a life of their own. So stories kept on pestering me to write them, and I happily kept on obliging. So thanks a lot for reading (those who did), appreciating (those who did), encouraging (those who did) and dhikkaar hai to those ‘friends’ who didn’t even bother to read any story. Dekh loonga sabko, hmmmmphhhh!
While the Norway trip stories are ending today, the blog will continue with lots more original stories of magic, monsters and mayhem from Monday onwards, you all are cordially invited to read as much and as frequently as you can, after all, its’s one story a day, and it’s FREE!
To Catch A Ship
“We are going to miss the ship, we are going to miss the ship, we are going to miss the ship,” I kept on muttering to myself as I ran (OK ran, is slight creative liberty and massaging of the facts for those who know me in real life, but let’s live with it please). Next to me, my wife was an oasis of calm in the middle of this hectic, mad race, for there was nothing more that she would have loved more than for us to be left behind on this picturesque town so pretty that it instilled an inferiority complex in rainbows.
We had been so caught up in clicking pictures of a bird here, a flower there, a snowflake here, a waterfall there, that we’d completely lost track of time. And we were jolted awake from this beauty-induced haze only when we heard the shrill blast of our ship’s horn, warning, nay threatening any laggard passengers in town that it was about to leave for good.
So here we were, running as if our lives depended on it. Which it kind of did, because apart from our phones, we did not have any of our worldly possessions on us. Even our wallets were in the safe in our cabin in the ship. So getting stuck here, romantic though it may be, was not really that great an idea.
We reached the town finally, but realized that the port was still at least a couple of kilometers away, and the ship was already in the process of pulling up its socks…I mean anchor. So we did the only logical thing that we could do. We stole a tractor.
The tractor was parked by the side of the road, and a troll family was just getting down from it to go shopping for their weekly supplies. I had no time for niceties, so I screamed at them to hand over the keys to their vehicle.
They jumped out of their boots, and clothes, on hearing my dreadful scream and seeing my even more dreadful visage, and hid in three barrels of beer kept outside a neighbouring bar, shivering in fright.
Being a MAN, I started getting on the driver’s seat when my wife pulled me down (literally as well as figuratively) by pointing out two important facts to me:
- I did not have a Driving License, while she did; and slightly more significantly
- I had no idea how to drive even a bicycle, let alone a giant tractor.
So she got on to the driver’s seat instead, switched on the ignition, and we were off with a loud VRRROOOOOOM.
We hurtled down the small road, honking at people, shouting at cars (or was it the other way round? Anyways, same difference!) and somehow reached the pier in one piece in exactly two minutes. But we were two minutes too late, the chidiya had already chugoed the khet (Old Indian Saying, loosely translated equivalent of- The bird had already flown the coop)! Our ship had already sailed, and we had failed.
So we sat by the pier, dejected and glum, berating ourselves nonstop for our idiocy, when suddenly…we heard a loud splash. We looked towards the water, and saw a strange and wondrous sight. It was our old friend- Mickey Moose (See: https://jagahdilmein.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/mickey-moose-on-the-loose-on-the-cruise-ship/ and https://jagahdilmein.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/the-return-of-the-moose/).
Mickey Moose was swimming like a maniac towards our ship, each stroke of his arm creating giant waves, and within no time, he had reached the ship. He then quickly climbed right on top of the ship, and TURNED the nose of the ship towards us as horrified passengers and crew looked on.
The captain saw us waving from the port, and decided to come back and take us back on board. Not that he had much of a choice anyways, Mickey was not allowing the ship to go in any other direction!
We thanked Mickey profusely for saving us. he replied, “Don’t thank me, thank Neptune, it was he who sent me out here to help you guys out. After all, you’d taken his blessings in person, and what would be the value of his blessings if you still get marooned in a foreign town?”
And so it was, that we found ourselves back on the ship, leaving the scenic shores of Norway behind us. We’d seen sights which had opened our eyes to the real beauty of nature, discovered that the grass IS always greener on the other side, met fascinating people and even more fascinating creatures, experienced all the moods of the majestic sea, but above all, we had collected a bucketful of stories that will keep reminding us till eternity that magic is real, as real as you or me, we only have to open our hearts to let it into our lives!
So till we meet again (on Monday for more exciting stories, and from August 25th for more travel-based stories he he), open yourself to the magic people!
Arrivederci! Auf Wiedersehen! Au Revoir! Adios! Good Night Seattle!
jagahdilmein 