by Tj Reeder
I told them both I was going to just let them deal with it and I would show up at the proper time and place, which was greeted with laughter and a nudge from Sing who said it was good that I was already becoming properly trained.
We had 2 weeks before the full moon and lots to do, I just leaped head first into the work around the place, on the following Monday the crews that would be building the Mall arrived along with the plans that we had drawn up, the only real change was that after talking to John and hearing how he wanted the gun shop to have a basement we decided to build the entire Mall with basements with heavy steel fire doors between each building and each would have a complete air filtering system …just in case. Each would hold the tons of prep storage we would have stock piled, most of which would rotate into the grocery store as replacement stock, allowing a constant fresh supply of stock for the program.
After talking with the Construction Boss of the crew they got right to it, of course it would be in stages, earth work first, then the concrete work, with the plumbing in place before the floors were poured, never having been involved in this kind of an operation I found it very interesting to watch…for about two hours, then boredom settled in so I went to the café for a cup of coffee and a chat with Ellie.
I believe there was also a piece of pie involved which I had one bite of before the bride to be bounced thru the door all breathless and excited, she sat right down, took my pie and attacked it like she was starved, then asked for seconds !! I constantly found myself amazed that this small lady could and did eat more then Jody and I combined and while doing so helped herself to any choice tidbits we might have that caught her eye,
I could see life with her was going to be very interesting, I wondered if Jody was trying to marry her off or just needed somebody to help feed her!
She and Ellie started jabbering wedding talk so I may as well have been elsewhere, in fact I started to get up, but without missing a word of her conversation Sing said “SIT “. Well hell I might as well be a damn dog for all the respect I was getting, but she was just so damn cute and glowing that I just sat and watched her.
When she had eaten half the pie in the place and drank my coffee and had finished whatever it was she came to say to Ellie she smiled and said ok lets go!
Ellie laughed out loud and I felt like I could feel something getting tight around my neck, in fact I wanted to feel and see if there was a collar there but I’d be damned if I would, outside I asked her what she was doing now, she said she had come to get me because Jody wanted to have a talk about other ideas that needed starting, so off we went, her babbling a mile a minute and me just nodding and smiling like the obedient husband I was about to become, happily I wish to add.
The Wedding was rushing at me like a run away train, with less then a week before the full Moon I wondered how it would all come together.
This morning Jody had come to me and said I needed to give him 200 bucks, cash, it was for the wedding, so I gave it to him and watched him walk away chuckling out loud, I, it would seem was the only one that had no clue to what was going to happen at this little get together, but I refused to worry about it.
I did ask Jody if I needed a suit or whatever, he just gave that infuriating smile and said don’t worry it’s all being taken care of and went on about his business.
The construction crews were working like beaver, with all kinds of digging and earth moving, we had to set up a parking area for the side walk engineers who came to watch the work, it was after all a big doing for little ol Dog Trot TX.
Time was up, the moon would be full in two days or maybe that should be “Nights”, this morning several Vans arrived with Sings Tribal family or Clan whichever it was as nobody was telling me a whole lot, but Sing was floating 3 feet above the earth when she ran out to greet them, I was told I had to remain away as was the custom for the groom.
I did find out that “MY” Clan would be well represented by Miss Ellie, the brothers Jonas and John Quirk along with most of Dog Trot who would of course be there, it seems one must have a clan or one was a lost spirit.
Well hell that’s what I was told more or less over a few drinks with Jody and John who had arrived with a 5 wheel trailer behind a big truck and who had moved right in and hooked up to the power at the mall site and was hovering over the job site like a mother hen.
Sing and her people had gone into the wooded area behind the house and opened up a clearing a bit bigger, all of course under the watchful eye of a man so old he looked like he might have been on the Ark with Noah.. I kept that one to myself as he seemed to be somebody very important.
All the women were also marked like Sing not exactly but marked with tribal Tattoos, the men who averaged a few inch’s taller then their women were also marked, but in a different pattern and mostly black colors, they had all adapted to life in Texas as all wore blue jeans and work shirts with lace up boots which looked a lot like the jungle boots of the Nam era.
The women went to work using the brush and small saplings removed to enlarge the clearing to build arbors around the area while in the middle of the clearing several men dug a fire pit under the direction of the old guy.
I thought it seemed strange that these men , many of whom had fought for us in that war needed a supervisor to dig a hole, but as I wasn’t allowed to be there I had to watch from afar.
Today is the day! The Moon will be full tonight, I’ve not seen the bride to be for 2 days and little has been said to me, but Jody told me to be in the basement by dark, so I am.
The following I’m writing after the facts of the event…
Jody walked in with a man who could only have been Sings brother, He was about 5’6” which was quite tall for these people, after shaking hands we all sat down to a cold beer and he and Jody explained to me what was going to happen.
First of all, the $200.00 Jody had asked me for went to buy the pigs and other things that the Groom provided for the feast.
Jody also said that as Sings Father, I would be giving him a Water Buffalo and 2 dozen chickens and several baskets of things of value which would be passed out to her Clan women as thanks for raising her in the proper ways of the tribe / Clan, none of this mattered between us, but on the face of it was required for the sake of traditions going back into the ages.
Sing was a valuable “property” for the Family and the village and one that I would be “Buying”, uh huh… this was not a wedding the National org. of Women “ie” feminist movement would be going for!! I would have laughed at the thought but these two were very serious so I respected their words.
I asked when I had to have the water buffalo delivered which did earn a laugh from both, Jody waved it off. The other gifts had been taken care of by my bride to be… in my name of course
Sings brother talked kind of like her as if the Boarding school English class’s didn’t take too good, I also found out he had gone to a couple of very uptown collages, getting degrees In computer science which I had already figured out, when I asked where he lived and worked he laughed and said “I can tell you but“….you guessed it, he did say he lived back east, I was willing to bet it was maybe Virginia?? Somewhere around there…
It was now time for me to dress, which I found out meant undress! Jody handed me a bundle he had brought along and picking up his said come on “son”…Song headed for Sings former room.
The first thing Jody said was Strip! Well two could play this cool guy game so I took off everything down to my jockeys, he smiled and said, all of it Tex,
How often have you heard of the groom being striped by the bride’s father? Fine, I could play this game too, so there I stood in my first suit, watching Jody start striping, he then opened the bundles and took out two white rags…. Then it dawned on me, Loin Cloths!! Now I was really ready to bolt, but watching Jody as he put his on and how it worked I thought ok I can do this.
I didn’t feel stupid, I felt naked!! We then went back into the sitting room where I was greeted by a w
ild painted Mountain Tribesman from a time gone by, Song had dressed as we had and was applying thin lines of paint to his face and body.
A knock on the door brought 2 middle aged women who were wearing about what we were but also a wrap around the breast.
Jody and I stood still while they went to work with paint on our faces and then upper body’s and down the sides of the legs where the lion cloth left them bare, when they were finished they stood back and looked us over and the one who painted me said in only slightly accented English “ She’s a wonderful woman, please make her happy with many strong sons” after they left I looked in the full sized mirror in the bed room, I would never have known it was me looking back, I saw a white skinned taller version of what I saw when I looked at Song.
Song came in and put a wide head band on me and stepping back looked me over and said “well for a white boy you dress out pretty good!!”
Wonderful my new soon to be brother in Law was a smart ass!!! But we were all laughing.
When I got a closer look at Jody thru the paint I was very surprised to see the same upper body tattoos that song had, while none on the face the rest were the same, I raised an eyebrow and he said it was the only way the tribe would allow the kids to be taken when Jody left, he had to become a member of the clan.
Now I was worried, would I have to have this done too??? Jody saw my look and said no, you don’t have to. But it would please your bride to be… Some reprieve, like she never got anything she wanted including my pie and coffee!
It was time; Song led the way, Jody bringing up the rear, as if I might run for it. We walked out the door into something out of a movie set, there was a big fire burning in the middle of the front yard, there was some quiet drumming sounds coming from the night, the people were all gathered quietly waiting, for me it turned out, all of the locals who had come for the event to be my family and clan, without a word Song and Jody had disappeared and up walked John, dressed just like me!! Followed by two wild eyed African Warriors dressed as Asian Mountain tribesmen, it was the Brothers Jonas!! Now my family and clan… This was really turning into a Hollywierd movie.
With John leading me following and the Zulu kingdom behind me and followed by the locals we walked into the forest down a large new path toward the drumming sounds, I could hear some kind of flute sounding noise also.
We emerged into the clearing lit only by a fire, not a big one like at the house, it lit the clearing leaving the edges in shadow, John had stopped and the crowd behind us had quietly moved into the shadows around half the circle.
Across the way there was a ripple of motion in the darkness and Sing walked out wearing a sarong which I now realized was what the paint ladies were wearing, she too had a wrap around her breast and was painted as I was, the same design as mine. This was a clue I was sure, my heart was pounding so loud the drums were drowned out.
She looked so wild! And so beautiful at the same time. Who would look at her right now and expect to hear perfect English to come from her mouth? She was thousands of miles away from her native Mountains but right here, right now, she had never left them.
A voice sounded from the night in a language I did not understand and with her head held high Sing walked into the full fire light and stopped about 6 feet from the fire.
The voice once again called from the night and I felt a small nudge from behind so I walked forward and stopped the same distance from the fire.
The voice once again called from the night and talked on for a few minutes then when he stopped there was a pause and many voices from the dark area behind Sing made a sound not unlike the days in the army when we all went Hooraa !
He then talked some more and when he paused from behind me came the same sound, somebody had been instructing my Clan it seems, I wanted to laugh with the humor of it thinking about Miss Ellie and the whole bunch of East Texans all going Hooraa in the night and wondered what the staunch Baptists were thinking, if any had come.
The voice sounded again and a mans voice answered and Song walked into the clearing to the right of me stopping as Sing and I had, the voice called out again and another voice answered but I did not understand the word he spoke, and John Quick walked out and stopped, we were now at the four directions, one at each North, South, East and west as near as I could figure.
The voice again called out and when he stopped Song walked to Sing and John walked to me they then led us in opposite directions until I was standing where Sing had been and she was in my former spot, the voice called out again and the people behind me once again sounded out the Hooraa call and it was followed by the same words and voices from the other side of the fire.
Song now came to me and led me to a spot several feet to the side and John led Sing to my side.
Once again the voice called out and Jody walked into the clearing and stopped where Sing had first been, another call and John walked to the place where I had stood.
Then there was quiet, only the breeze in the trees and the moon shadows dancing around the clearing…
The drums stopped and it was so quiet you could hear the night, Then from the shadows walked the old man who was the tribal elder, he walked to Sing and I and stopped and looking into our eyes then said something and taking her hand he placed it in mine, he said some more stuff then separated our hands, he produced a small knife and gently took Sings hand and made a small cut, taking my hand he did the same, then he pressed the hands together and made a long speech, then he looked at Sing and asked her something, she said a word and then the English word yes, he looked at me and said the same speech or I think it was, when he stopped I said the word yes.
He then turned away and looking into the dark across the fire he raised his arms and said a few words and lowered his hands, and waited for something. When he didn’t hear it he turned to us and bowed three times, Sing with a tug at my hand returned the bow with me half a beat behind.
When we straightened up there was a loud yelling sound and everybody rushed into the clearing and congratulated us.
I quietly asked Sing if I got to kiss the bride, she leaned over and said oh yes, later!
I was married!! I never thought it would happen again, but I was as happy as I had ever been, I took a moment to look up at the moon and sent a thought to my wife and son, and I know I could feel their joy that I had come back to life.
What is there to say now, a wedding party is a wedding party, no matter where in the world it is, too much food, too much to drink and too much fun!
We were not allowed to leave as tradition allowed in our society, Oh no, we had to stay until the last bit of pig was eaten, the last drops of booze was drank, and people were staggering off to wherever they would sleep, the locals it turned out had come in cars driven by non drinkers who became the “DD” for the event.
Sing and I were at last allowed to leave and go to our room, the house was empty, thanks to Jody and Song giving us the privacy newly weds seemed to need even when we had been living in ”sin” for weeks.
The night was short, the paint washed off in the shower together, the rest you will have to Imagine.
Well about 3 in the after noon we decided we might live, got up, showered, went back to bed, go up showered again, then my little darlin informed me she was starving so we headed up and out, and I discovered the wedding was still going on, most of the folks who were here last night had either not left or were back, most looked like death warmed over…
Sing stopped dead in her tracks and said Shit!!…So I said SHIT????? What means this bad word from the mouth of my sweet wife? She said “I forgot the naming ceremony!!! Damn!!”
Ah I said, so, when were you going to tell me about this one? She just gave out that 50 K watt smile and still smiling said come on, we have to do this…and walked toward the old man who married us, all her Clan and most of mine were there.
The Old guy started babbling along and shaking some kind of stick with feathers on it, Sing answered him then he talked some more, the
n looked at me. Well hell, I had no idea what he wanted but nodded and said yes, so he stood there and just looked at me, Sing spoke to him and turned to me and said “ You must now rename me ! BANG, just like that, I looked at her then him then Jody and Song both were standing there nodding, I was stunned, finely Song stepped in and spoke to the old man who looked put out and then nodded and walked away a short distance, Song and Jody joined Sing and me, Song then told me I had to rename Sing, I said hell no, I like her name,
All three tried to talk at once, but it was my lovely bride who said, “Sam my love, you have to give me my married name or we aren’t married” I just stood there and rocked back and forth on my heels and at last said, “Honey is this something you really want?” She said “oh yes Sam, I want my new name from you to me for all time…” Both the guys were nodding, so I asked for a few minutes and took Sing away a ways and said “ok baby, what you want it to be?” She teared up and said “Sam, “YOU” must give it to me, what you want for me to have.”