Something Borrowed - Something Blue
Something Stolen – Something New
Saturday morning Uncle Jim and Suzie
took the family for a walk along Karl Johans Gate; a street that runs from the
train station, Oslo-S, all the way to the king’s castle. Much of it is closed
to vehicle traffic. On the way to do some shopping, site seeing and people
watching, Uncle Jim warned them that numerous pickpockets throughout the city
congregated there and” You need to be careful with your belongings,
particularly wallets and purses.”
“If we see any pickpockets, Uncle Jim,”
Robert replied, “we’ll let you know.”
“You do that.”
The kids decided to take their
walkie-talkies with them and a small digital camera. Robert also had a cell
phone he could use to take pictures if he needed to.
As they journeyed along Karl Johans
Gate, Suzie informed them that Norway’s Independence Day was recently
celebrated on May seventeenth and, “The parade of schools, bands, and
communities from around the country, dressed in their traditional Folk Dress,
was very nice to watch.” She and Uncle Jim enjoyed the parade from the front of
the castle area just below where the Royal Family had stood on the castle’s
balcony.
“What’s a Folk Dress?” Robert asked
Suzie.
“It is a special set of clothes that
are designed to signify a specific geographical area, but can also indicate
marital, social and even religious status sometimes. They are called a ‘Bunad’
and are very beautiful.”
“Do boys wear them too?”
“Yes, Robert, they do.”
“I think it is really nice,” Kelly
remarked, slowing her pace just a bit, “I’ve looked at pictures on the
Internet.”
“It is also very practical,” Suzie
continued, “Imagine already knowing what you will wear for special occasions.”
Jonothan Dance commented, “And not
needing to buy new dresses all of the time.”
“Now that saves not only money, but all
that time used shopping for those new dresses,” added Uncle Jim.
Mrs. Dance jested, “We women know how
much boys and men hate shopping for clothes, but we enjoy it a lot and that is
all that really matters anyway.”
“Ha, ha, dear,” replied Jonothan to his
wife.
The Dance kids asked if they could stay
in the courtyard area outside while the adults shopped inside one of the
stores. A man with marionettes entertained the tourists there. The parents
agreed and instructed Robert to phone them when done.
“Thanks, dad, mom,” Kelly said.
Mrs. Dance said to her children, “Be
good.”
Robert, Rebecca and Kelly decided to do
some pickpocket investigating. They made a plan to split up in the surrounding
area where the marionette show occurred and to keep in touch via their
walkie-talkies. Rebecca took the camera and Robert had his cell phone camera.
“Robert,” Kelly said, “see if the cell
phone is on silent or not and if the ringer-tone is turned off.”
“Ok. Any reason why?”
“You can pretend to talk on the phone
and use it to take pictures at the same time if we spot someone. They will
never know you are photographing them that way.”
“Great idea, sis.”
“Many pickpockets operate in groups of
two or three, sometimes more,” Kelly commented, “so, that may help us spot them
easier.”
“So we are looking for a duo or trio
that doesn’t look like shoppers, are not watching the puppet show, but are
watching the people in an unusual way,” Rebecca stated, confirming the
strategy.
“Yes, Becca,” answered Kelly, “People
who look suspicious and sort of out of place.”
Robert stood across from a small café
near the marionette show, Kelly walked about fifty yards away while Rebecca
remained in-between her brother and sister on the other side of the marionette
show near an underground ‘T-Bane’ subway entrance.
Fifteen minutes later Kelly spotted a
blonde woman passing a dark haired man numerous times. Robert observed the same
man turning around and greeting another man with a backpack just beyond where
he stood. Rebecca watched the blonde woman bumping into people along the route.
Robert took cell phone pictures, pretending to talk on his phone, while the
trio of suspects continued their process of going back and forth in the area.
“The blonde lady is coming your way,
Robert,” Rebecca acknowledged over the walkie-talkie.”
“Copy,” he replied. “I’ve also observed
another man meeting up over here where I am with the same man with the
back-pack.”
“Is he in this area also?” Kelly
transmitted.
“Negative,” Robert answered, “He is
coming from the opposite direction.”
“Copy,” Kelly affirmed, “The
back-pack man must be the central drop of person.”
“I have a photo of this man also,”
Robert informed his sisters.”
“Copy. I also have photos of the other
two,” Rebecca added.
“Copy.”
Observing the blonde lady walk away,
Kelly said, “It looks like they are leaving now.”
“Copy,” said Robert, “Same here. The man
with the back-pack just left too.”
“Time to enjoy the puppets,” Kelly
said. She loves marionettes in action.”
“Copy, sis,” replied Robert.
“Let’s meet where Rebecca is.”
“Ok, I mean, copy.”
After their parents, Suzie and Uncle
Jim returned from shopping, the youths informed them of the suspicious people
who looked like a pickpocket team.
“We took photos,” Robert informed his
uncle.
Uncle Jim asked them to download the
camera onto his computer once they returned home and requested that Robert SMS
him the cell phone photos so he could turn them over to the Oslo police
investigators.
Straight to his computer when the group
arrived home, Uncle Jim downloaded the SMS photos. “Good pictures, Robert, I
hope you three were very careful while doing this.”
“We were, Uncle Jim,” assured Kelly.
“Don’t ever do anything that is even
remotely dangerous or risky, ok,” their father instructed.
“Ok, dad.”
“Did you know that in the old days
pick-pockets were hung for the crime,” Uncle Jim commented, “and that public
hangings were a favorite place for the pickpockets to operate?”
“Crazy, I think,” Rebecca said,
“Risking one’s life for a handful of cash isn’t worth it.”
“I agree, Becca,” Uncle Jim responded,
“I agree.”
Early that evening the kids also
downloaded the camera’s photographs for Uncle Jim. He forwarded all photographs
to his PST police contact via email. He hoped the photos would help with the
ongoing police investigations.
Suzie’s parents arrived late that
night. The group visited and talked about the wedding, the future, and how much
the Dance children would enjoy calling Suzie ‘Aunt Suzie’ soon. Suzie and her
parents departed around midnight.
Kelly commented, “The groom is not
supposed to see the bride on the wedding day before the wedding, so they needed
to be gone by midnight.”
Sunday morning brought with it the
excitement of preparing for the wedding. Most people in Norway marry in a
typical Church wedding, but Uncle Jim and Suzie had decided to get married at
an historic location; a beautiful café that opened for business in the early
1890’s and overlooked the city of Oslo.
Mr. Chow joined the Dance family,
leaving his wife with Suzie to help her prepare for the wedding ceremony. Uncle
Jim met with friends to finish decorating the café and add the finishing touches
for the wedding.
"Something old, something new,
something borrowed, something blue," said Mrs. Dance.
Rebecca asked, “What does that really
mean?”
“The ‘Old’ represents something you
wish to leave behind or something that is being passed down to the bride,” Mrs.
Dance answered, “and the ‘New’ is something unique and new for the couple’s
marriage; the ‘Borrowed’ is anything special borrowed from someone close to the
bride; and the ‘Blue’ typically represents love, purity, fidelity and modesty.”
“The saying also says,” Mr. Chow
continued, “And a silver sixpence in her shoe.”
“That sixpence represented financial
security and good luck,” informed Mrs. Dance.
“Traditions are sort of fun,” Kelly
commented, “I like that saying.”
“Suzie will be wearing a white wedding
gown with veil; an antique locket that belonged to her great-grandmother with a
new photo of her and Jim inside; a pair of shoes borrowed from yours truly; and
her toenails are painted blue,” Mr. Chow detailed to the Dance children.
“What about the sixpence?” Kelly
questioned, “Will she also have that in her shoe?”
“Yes, that too. Her mother and I picked
up a silver sixpence a number of years ago at an antique store and saved it for
this very occasion.”
Robert interjected, “Weddings sure are
complicated.”
“But so romantic,” Rebecca responded to
her practical thinking brother.
“Romance, girls.”
“Someday you may be getting ready for
your wedding day, Robert,” Mr. Chow said, “so you better take notes.”
“I have a few years left I think, maybe
decades!”
Everyone laughed.
On the road up to the café and the
Frognerseteren area, as it is called, Mr. Dance pointed out numerous sites of
interest, including the Holmenkollen ski jump.
Kelly commented, “The hill itself is
called Holmenkollbakken and is where the yearly Holmenkollen Ski Festival began
way back in 1892.”
“Skiing is such a cold sport,” Robert
said, pretending to shiver.
Seeing the café in the distance,
Rebecca stated, “It looks more like a mountain lodge than a café.”
“It’s fantastic,” Kelly said, rolling
her window down to see it more clearly.
“I was wondering why they wanted to get
married at a café,” Rebecca said, “Now I see why. It’s like an old mansion
lodge or something.”
Inside, Suzie’s mother helped her
daughter put on her wedding gown while Uncle Jim stood patiently outside on the
front entrance patio gazing out over the entire Oslo area and its Fjord. A
number of guests from the American Embassy chattered in the background.
The wedding party entered the café
briefly to admire the ornate features of the building before taking their
places out on the patio for the wedding. A trio of musicians played softly on
the right side of the large patio area. A few curious onlookers stood in the
background. Once the musicians began playing the Processional, the thrill and
excitement of this special day escalated.
A Lutheran State Church priest from
Bredtvet church performed the ceremony.
The couple exchanged their ‘I do’s’ and
were pronounced man and wife. A special dinner prepared by the café staff,
complete with a beautifully decorated wedding cake, helped make the event
unforgettable.
The family and guests particularly
enjoyed the cake cutting and bouquet toss, but the highlight came with the
garter belt catch that Robert executed so successfully, grabbing it high in the
air before any of the other single males could.
Robert remarked to the group after, “I
guess basketball isn’t one of you fellows’ stronger sports here in Norway.”
Jim and Suzie headed off for their
honeymoon a couple of hours after the ceremony. They would travel to Svalbard’s
capitol city of Longyearbyen on the main island of Spitsbergen for one week
before returning to Oslo and settling in to their new lives together. Svalbard
is an archipelago, a group of islands, north of Norway. The couple commented
that they planned to rent snowmobiles and travel about thirty-one miles to an
abandoned Russian settlement called Pyramiden.
Monday, the Dance family and Suzie’s
parents continued touring Oslo, sightseeing, eating lunch out and having a generally
great time together. Tuesday morning, while the Dance family prepared to head
for the airport to travel home, they received a call from Uncle Jim and Aunt
Suzie. Uncle Jim informed them that Oslo police had identified the pickpocket
suspects from the photos the kids had taken and would investigate the matter
further.
“I can hardly wait to come back to
Norway this summer,” Kelly remarked.
Everyone felt exactly
the same.
Next Chapter
