“I’ll do it,” Ricky had announced enthusiastically.
“Okay, here is a walkie-talkie. Have you used one before?”
Now Sasha and Horace were waiting. They’d set up their display well before the wedding during the early morning hours. The wedding itself was beautiful, though not what anyone had expected, but still the two of them couldn’t wait to run down to the lake to be with their precious creations until nightfall. Now it was beginning to get dark, the perfect time to start the display, but they had yet to receive the go-ahead from their young MC. The walkie-talkie finally crackled to life.
“Squad Leader to Gunnery Officer,” a young voice chimed.
“Squad Leader? Gunnery Officer?” Horace questioned Sasha. “Did you work this all out with the Kid beforehand?”
“Preparation is the key.” Sasha scowled at Horace and picked up the walkie-talkie. “Gunnery Officer Ivanovitch-Jones to Squad Leader, all is ready and waiting your command.”
“Begin ignition on my count,” the Squad Leader snapped quite authoritatively. Then the countdown began. “Three, two, one, ignition.”
* * *
The Mountie and I had barely ended our dance when the first explosion happened over the lake. We all filed outside to watch. This time there were oohs and ahs of wonder instead of yelling and threats of dismemberment.
“I wondered where Dad had gotten to,” Chuck muttered.
Ricky came running through the crowd and skidded to a stop in front of us. He had a walkie-talkie in his tiny hand.
“Squad Leader reporting for duty. Butterstotch, you and the Mountie are supposed to come with me.”
I looked over at the Flowers to see if she was upset at Ricky’s role in the fireworks. Though pale, she had come away from Big John’s bed to rejoin the festivities.
She smiled and said to her stepson, “Lead on, Squad Leader.”
* * *
Horace and Sasha had consolidated and timed their fuses such that they only needed to light ten bundles at key times for the entire display to go off without a hitch. They lit the first four fuses in a prescribed order. Then they waited some more.
It didn’t take long before the pinwheels ignited, all ten of them. The night sky lit up. Then the firecrackers began to explode, producing brilliant flashes and concussive sound waves. The fountains came next spraying their colored sparks into the sky.
Horace and Sasha began dancing, alternately linking opposing arms so they could spin in a circle. They hooted and hollered as they danced, sparks landing all around them. Then the time came to set off the next batch of fireworks. They ran in opposite directions but rejoined each other after their fuses were lit. More sparks flew. The shore of the lake had now become such a chaotic display of sparks that neither of the men could distinguish the sparks coming from one display from that of another. The night was on fire.
And out of the night, Ricky came running, straight toward Sasha, his new father figure. The Kid pulled up short as Sasha stopped dancing. They considered one another carefully. Then Sasha crouched down to address the boy.
“Come. We have rockets to launch,” Sasha said with a smile. He had been waiting all day for this moment.
Horace watched the entire scene in wonderment. Sasha whisked Ricky up onto his shoulders as if the boy weighed nothing. He stopped to smile off into the night and wave. Horace followed the direction of this gesture and saw the Flowers standing just out of spark range. Horace was afraid she was going to kick their asses. Instead she smiled and waved back. Sasha turned and ran into the world of raining sparks with Ricky riding on his back. Eventually they came dancing back out of the sparks with Ricky laughing. Horace had not witnessed the actual lighting of the rocket fuses, but he didn’t mind. Some things should be shared only by a son and his father.
As the sparks began to die down and the rockets were away into the sky, the three triumphant aeronautics engineers turned and walked toward town, arms flung high in a sign of victory. The Flowers appeared out of the dark and joined them, linking arms with Sasha and kissing his cheek. The beach and most of the town was alight as if it was daytime when the rockets exploded into huge blossoms of color in the night sky. People were streaming down from town toward the beach, cheering and hollering, rushing to greet the makers at the conclusion of one of the most spectacular fireworks displays anyone had ever seen.
“I hope someone warned Seven Forks about this, or I’ll be getting a call,” the Mountie said to Anatoli.
In the last of the light from the exploding rockets, the crowd had stopped thinking the display over and thought they’d better get back to the light of town before the last of the sparks gave out. Sasha and Horace cautioned them to hold their places.
“Do not go yet!” Sasha called. “There is climax.”
The crowd hushed.
“Wait for it,” Horace instructed, extending and arm and twisting to point back toward the lake.
The massive explosion that followed produced a large orange and red fireball that lit up the night sky, but it did more than that. The concussion from the blast knocked the hats off men and women alike. It singed the eyebrows off those closest to the shore and sent them staggering backward. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, not even Ricky who was hidden by Sasha’s bulk.
“It wasn’t supposed to do that,” Horace commented, scrubbing his face.
“No, that was not planned,” Sasha agreed. “We fix next time.”
* * *
“Dad!” Chuck exclaimed. “Are you guys alright?”
“We’re fine, son. Practice has made us almost perfect.”
“And almost burned down the town,” I muttered, but with no real anger. There was too much joy in my heart. Chuck was here, whole and happy. Big John was going to be fine. My adoptive family was all together. I asked for nothing more.
“There is just one more thing we need to do,” said Fiddling Thomas. “I just wish Big John was here to officiate.”
The women exchanged glances and began to leave but the men stayed behind, and I had a sudden premonition of what was going to happen.
“Guys, not tonight!” I protested.
“It has to be done,” Fiddling Thomas said. “It should have happened before the wedding.”
“Yeah, we’ll take him up to the Moose so Big John can watch,” the Wings said.
“No! Not tonight!”
“What? What is it?” the Mountie asked as he was hoisted onto the shoulders of the Wings and Fiddling Thomas with a grinning Anatoli bringing up the rear.
“I have heard of this ceremony,” the Russian said.
“What ceremony?” Chuck asked.
“Don’t worry, son,” Horace answered. “It’s nothing. And the dye will wash out in a few weeks.”
About the Author
Melanie Jackson is the author of over 50 novels. If you enjoyed this story, please visit Melanie’s author web site at www.melaniejackson.com.
eBooks by Melanie Jackson:
The Chloe Boston Mystery Series:
Moving Violation
The Pumpkin Thief
Death in a Turkey Town
Murder on Parade
Cupid’s Revenge
Viva Lost Vegas
Death of a Dumb Bunny
Red, White and a Dog Named Blue
Haunted
The Great Pumpkin Caper
Beast of a Feast
Snow Angel
Lucky Thirteen
The Sham
The Butterscotch Jones Mystery Series
Due North
Big Bones
Gone South
Home Fires
Points West
The Wedding
The Wendover House Mystery Series
The Secret Staircase
Twelfth Night
On Deadly Tides
Wildside Series
Outsiders
Courier
Still Life
The Book of Dreams Series:
The First Book of Dreams: Metropolis
The Second Book of Dreams: Meridian
The Third Book of Dreams: Destiny
Medicine Trilogy
Bad Medicine
Medicine Man
Knave of Hearts
Club Valhalla
Devil of Bodmin Moor
Devil of the Highlands
Devil in a Red Coat
Halloween
The Curiosity Shoppe (Sequel to A Curious Affair)
Timeless
Nevermore: The Last Divine Book
6 The Wedding Page 9