Nice Woolen Gloves

We bought tickets to the Northern Lights Tour for 3900 kr which is about $60 in the US. The brochure states that “The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular, beautiful and enchanting of nature’s phenomena. To look skywards on crisp, clear night and see these giant curtains of colored lights weaving and swaying, gliding and flowing gracefully across the northerly heavens is pure magic.” It sounded great and despite my trips to Vermont were the Northern Lights can sometimes be seen, I had never laid eyes of this heavenly wonder so we bought tickets.

We actually missed the bus at the hotel so the ticket agent at the hotel got us a cab to meet up with the bus at the main terminal. The bus was packed just like the other three. The previous nights tour had been canceled due to poor visibility so I’m sure the tour was more crowded than usual.

When ever seat was filled, the guide asked if everybody had a ticket and that if you didn’t have a ticket to go buy one.No one moved so I assumed everyone had a ticket so I thought he was wasting his time when he asked again and again no one moved. I just shook my head when he asked the third time but sure enough two jackasses in the back stood up and when inside to buy tickets. The guide started checking tickets once those guys got off the bus. I don’t know why he didn’t just start with checking for tickets to find out who didn’t have one but I don’t pretend to know everything.

Once it was confirmed that everyone at least had some sort of written proof of a ticket we drove out of the city and around various places looking towards the sky; and that when I realized that the Northern Lights are free for the looking at and that this ‘Tour’ must be a huge monetary windfall for the bus company.

The night was overcast a bit and there were also patches of fog in between snow showers but we did manage to find a spot where the sky was clear so they pulled the four buses over so everyone could get off and stare upwards. Before we left the bus, the guide told us that we would be staying there for about forty-five minutes and to make sure we got back on bus number 308.

There must have been close to two hundred people standing on the snow covered shoulder to some roadway right off of the highway trying to capture the Northern Lights but what they accomplished was a mini light show of their own because at least half of all the cameras had their flashes going off.

When I looked up what I saw looked like nothing stated in the brochure I guess sometimes the Northern Lights look a lot like cloud cover of a gray color that just sit there doing nothing.

I got back on the bus after fifteen minutes, most people didn’t last past twenty but we stayed the whole forty five minutes. The guide told us that what we had just witnessed was a pretty good display of the Northern Lights. I was skeptical of it being a good display.

Before we started moving the guide told us that someone had dropped a pair of gloves and he held them up for the whole bus to see.

“Someone dropped these woolen gloves, so if these are your gloves, please let me know.”

Nobody said anything.

“These are nice woolen gloves. They are gray woolen gloves which someone dropped before we got off the bus, please check to make sure you have your gloves.”

Again there was silence.

“These are very nice gloves. I don’t know why someone wouldn’t want them back. They are gray woolen gloves with black diamond shapes.”

Silence, again.

“I found them right about here,” he said as he walked to not quite half way down the bus holding one gray woolen glove in each of his hands. “Someone must have dropped them. They were not here before,” he said as he continued to walk with the glove to the back of the bus, to make certain everyone could see the nice woolen gloves.

He pleaded once again for the owner of the gloves to make themselves known once he got back to the front, so Annette leaned over to me and said “Please, just say that they are your gloves so we can get moving.”