by Linda Ellen
Without thinking, she murmured, “It’s a heck of a lot prettier than the one I wore when I married old TJ…” Moments later, she turned her eyes to meet Vic’s and saw that familiar shadow lurking within before he quickly masked it. She swallowed nervously, thinking, Oh stupid me, why’d I say that?
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room changed. Louise held her breath, berating herself harshly as she saw the emotion in Vic’s eyes. She wasn’t sure what it was…jealousy? Aggravation? Anger? Heartache? Then, for once each one was grateful for the timely interruption of a small pair of feet as a certain little someone came running, Lilly hurrying right after him fussing for him to slow down and be quiet.
Louise watched as Vic smiled and turned on the chair, catching the little boy as he flung himself into Misser Vic’s arms. With a thoughtful expression on her lovely face, Louise retreated back into the bedroom to put her dress away. However, Vic’s words about showing him the dress before their wedding day being bad luck resurfaced, and she couldn’t help a tiny shiver from running down her spine.
*
The next day was Saturday, and Vic came over early to pick up Louise, intending to run some wedding-preparation errands. The first stop was the church to talk to Doc about performing the ceremony. Vic parked out front and whistled merrily as he sprinted around to Louise’s door. Then, with her hand nestled in the crook of his arm, they walked together to the large double stained glass doors as they chatted excitedly about their plans.
Inside, the quiet atmosphere of the foyer helped to soothe some of the couple’s nervousness and they walked on into the sanctuary. Vic was just about to say he wondered where Doc was when they both heard noises coming from a door to the left of the pulpit area.
“I think he’s in his office,” Vic mumbled, and they made their way down the aisle and over to the left as Vic called out, “Hey Doc?”
Within moments, Doc appeared at the doorway, a big smile lighting his face.
“Vic! Louise! Hello! Come on in. I was just going over my sermon for tomorrow. I trust I’ll see your two smiling faces out in the congregation, hm?” he teased.
“Sure will, Doc,” Vic answered for them both as Louise smilingly nodded.
“Hey, so how’s the job coming? Irene tells me that you’re working in insurance sales. That’s great, son,” Vic’s mentor congratulated him. Vic swallowed uncomfortably and gave a vague nod.
“Um…actually, we’re here to talk to you about somethin’,” Vic began, pausing to seat Louise in a chair in front of Doc’s desk before lowering himself into the other.
Doc took a seat behind his desk with a smile. “Alright. What can I do for you?”
Vic glanced toward Louise with a loving smile and reached for her hand as she beamed at him, while trying to figure out why she felt so nervous. She figured it was perhaps Doc’s boisterous personality. With his large build, that shock of red hair only slightly beginning to turn gray at the edges, and his booming voice, he could be quite overwhelming.
Vic turned back to Doc. “Louise finally got her freedom papers, and so we’re here to talk to you about presidin’ over our wedding.”
Doc’s smile faltered a bit and he leaned back, clearing his throat uncomfortably. Both Vic and Louise felt their hearts speed up in alarm at their friend’s reaction, which was totally opposite of what they had expected.
“Oh son…I had assumed you would merely go down to the courthouse or to a Justice of the Peace…I hadn’t anticipated that you would ask…” he paused, clearly striving for words.
Vic stared at him, fighting against the old familiar feelings of rejection. The thought came that perhaps Doc had found out what he was doing every day in that smoky back room behind Benbey’s Cigars… “What’re you tryin’ to say, Doc?”
Doc took in a deep breath, obviously hating what he was about to do. Leaning forward, he said in a gentle tone, “I’m sorry Vic…Louise…as much as I would love to…be honored to…officiate your vows…I’m afraid I simply cannot.”
Wounded and shocked, Vic gasped. He had never expected rejection from Doc, of all people. Louise squeezed his hand and he turned his head numbly, seeing tears in her eyes.
Doc quickly went on, “It isn’t that I don’t wish to, but as the pastor of this church, I must abide by the written by-laws set forth in the original charter, and I’m afraid it clearly states that the minister will not perform the wedding of any couple where one or both are…divorced,” he said the word gently, and with much apology in his voice. “If there is a surviving spouse,” he clarified. It was obvious that it hurt him greatly to have to tell this precious couple that he couldn’t perform their wedding. “I’m sorry. Truly I am. Please don’t take this as a judgment against your union on my part. Personally, I believe you were always meant to be together…”
Vic’s mouth had gone dry and he tried to moisten his lips as he turned back and met the eyes of the man he considered to be his friend and mentor. He opened his mouth to speak, but dumbfounded, no words would come.
Quickly, Doc left his chair and circled the desk, dropping down on one knee behind their chairs. They turned slowly to face him. “This doesn’t mean that I won’t bless your union. And I want to do that right now…if you’ll allow me.” He looked from one to the other and they both responded with a small nod.
So, the big minister reached out, gripping their joined hands as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back to address Heaven. He prayed over them, asking God to bless them with good health, prosperity, wisdom, and fruitfulness. He asked for much success in their endeavors, and for their union to be one of joy and contentment for as long as they both shall live. He prayed that misunderstandings would be resolved quickly, that divorce would never be a part of their vocabulary, and that God would bless their union with many children that they would raise together in a loving home.
When he finished, tears spilled over onto Louise’s cheeks, but Vic still seemed slightly numb. They thanked their minister friend rather mechanically, and he nodded, leaning to give Louise a hug and shake Vic’s hand, before helplessly watching them leave.
When they reached the car, both of them sat inside, staring blankly straight ahead and wondering if that were an omen for things to come. The blow had come out of left field.
In spite of the wonderful prayer their preacher friend had prayed for them, his words before that still caused feelings of rejection and hurt, and had truly taken away some of the joy of their pending union.
Finally, after several minutes, Vic drew in a deep breath and started the car. “Well, come on. Let’s finish the other things we’d planned.”
Louise nodded wordlessly. At that moment, she felt more ashamed of her misguided decision to marry TJ than she ever had before. It brought home to her how other people viewed her willing ‘union’ with another man when she had loved Vic with all her heart. Thinking about it made her feel sick to her stomach.
She stared out the window as they continued on with the errands they had planned, her amethyst necklace gripped firmly in one hand – so firmly that the imprint of the stone pressed into her palm, but she didn’t notice. The rest of the afternoon, they were both subdued, and talked very little as they went about their day. They went to a shop on Fourth Street where Louise purchased a new tie, shirt, and socks as a wedding present for Vic. Vic got himself a pair of shoes and slacks to go with the jacket he had bought for the dance at Fontaine Ferry, to be his wedding outfit. He even splurged and purchased a new wallet and belt, but could only muster up a small amount of joy for the items. They grocery shopped together, and ran several other errands. But, Doc’s words ate away at Vic, although he told himself over and over that his long time friend hadn’t meant to hurt them.
Finally making their way back to Louise’s apartment, they saw Sonny’s car parked out front. When they walked inside, they found Sonny, Sara, and the baby there in the midst of a conversation with Lilly.
Sonny turned toward them and then rose to give Lou
ise a hug and shake Vic’s hand.
“Hey guys. I was just telling Mama that we’re gonna be gone for a while, as Sara’s dad is in the hospital in Owensboro. He might not live,” he paused to reach for his wife’s hand and Louise realized her sister-in-law had tears in her eyes. “Caufield’s said it was okay for me to take off, since Billy started with them last week.” He chanced a glance over at Lilly, but she didn’t react, having gotten used to the idea of her sixteen-year-old son quitting school to go to work full-time. In truth, she had reasoned, with Louise’s impending marriage, she and Billy would soon need to find their own place to live.
“But…how long will you be gone, Sonny? Me and Vic are going to get married soon…our wedding…” Louise asked softly.
Her brother turned to her, clearly regretful. “Oh sis…I don’t know; I guess it all depends on what happens with Sara’s father. Couldn’t you guys wait until we get back?” he asked, although he knew that was an unfair request.
The rest of the conversation went quickly, and then the small family got up to go on their way with customary hugs of farewell.
Lilly walked them to the door. The mailman was just arriving with the mail, which he handed directly to her with a smile and a tip of his hat.
She carried the mail back inside, joining the others in the living room as Louise flopped dispiritedly down on the settee. Vic lowered himself down beside her, taking her hand in both of his in an effort to comfort, although he needed a boost as well.
Sifting through the few bills, Lilly came to a letter with a New York return address. The others were talking quietly, wondering how long Sonny and Sara would be gone as Lilly read the letter. Finally looking up, she met Louise’s eyes.
“This is from Edna. She’s sick and her husband is away on business. And with the new baby…she wants me to come…” then holding up a small card, she added, “She sent a train ticket.”
Louise drew in a breath as she felt everything in her formerly happy world crumbling under her feet. With a sob, she burst into tears. Vic immediately turned and took her in his arms, trying to comfort her as she sobbed, “What next? Oh Vic! Everything is working against us!”
Lilly immediately stood to her feet and headed toward the bedroom with a mumbled, “I must pack.” Glancing down at Louise ensconced in Vic’s arms, she admonished, “Now Mary Louise, you stop that and quit thinking only of yourself. There are others with bigger problems than you. You should be thankful.”
Eyes wide, Vic stared after her for a moment as she moved on into the bedroom before closing his eyes and rocking Louise gently in his arms. “Sshhh baby, it’ll be okay. Everything’s gonna work out. Sshhh now…” he whispered as she continued to sob, although he, too, wondered what else was going to go wrong.
*
The week crawled by as Louise went through the motions at work, patching cigars, carrying boxes, eating lunch, and barely speaking to anyone. She kept thinking that now that she was totally divorced from TJ, she should be jumping for joy, but it seemed as if the deck was stacked against her happiness. More than once, she wondered if the adage of it being bad luck for the groom to see his bride’s dress before the wedding was not just an old wives’ tale after all.
Vic went to work each day, fighting to concentrate on the details of the phone calls he had to take, while wondering if he had somehow slipped back under the black cloud that had followed him most of his life. They had made arrangements with Irene for her to watch Tommy during the days that Lilly was away so that Louise could keep her job, and since she had to be at work so early, he picked Tommy up and drove him to Irene’s each morning. The first morning he had dropped him off, Irene had taken one look at Vic’s gloomy persona and promptly given him a pep talk that things weren’t always as bleak as they seemed and, much like Lilly, had admonished him to be grateful for the blessings and shoulder the disappointments. She had added as a reminder that he was enjoying a good paying job, to which Vic had silently grimaced.
Each evening, he and Louise sat together playing cards or listening to the radio while Tommy ran and played, both of them feeling as if they were in perpetual limbo. It seemed they took turns, one feeling down and depressed while the other was upbeat, and the next moment they switched places.
Finally, on Thursday, Vic had had enough. As Louise sat on the floor staring at her hand of playing cards and griping about “Doc refusing to marry them,” Vic tossed his cards down and sat back with a huff.
“The heck with this,” he growled, adding a few not so nice words about the situation. “The heck with all of them. We’ll just go do it. Saturday morning.”
Louise looked at him across the coffee table as Tommy flopped down on her lap. “But…we can’t. We haven’t applied for the license yet…”
“We won’t need a license from downtown if we go to that place out in E-town. It’s a one stop-shop.” He paused, liking the idea more the more he thought about it. Leaning close again, he reached out for her left hand and brought it to his lips, the ring sparkling in the lamplight. “You put on your new dress, I’ll wear my new duds, and we’ll just get it done. The most important thing is you and me bein’ together. It don’t matter how we get married, or where, just that we get married. All I care about is makin’ you my wife…”
He waited, his gaze holding hers, as he watched various emotions chase one another behind her eyes, until confidence began to form.
Finally, she nodded, and setting Tommy to the side, she quickly scrambled onto Vic’s lap and into his arms where she proceeded to give him a kiss that left no doubt what she thought of his plan. When she finally pulled back, her hands ruffling through his hair, she purred, “You’re right. You and me, that’s what matters. Heck with all of them.” Then touching her forehead to his, she added softly, “But…we’ll need somebody to stand up with us…”
He nodded and gently pushed her up off his lap, rising after her as he instructed, “Get your shoes and coat on. We’ll go round us up a few witnesses.”
So, that’s exactly what they did.
‡
CHAPTER 16
Married at Last
Friday dragged by for the couple, each one feeling as if the minute hands on their watches were moving one click per hour.
At a table in the lunchroom at noon, Louise shared with her co-workers that she was getting married the next day, and having been told before that it would happen soon, each of them presented her with a small gift. Stella gave her a fancy garter, which she said she’d been given for her wedding, but in the excitement of the day she had forgotten to put it on, so it had never been worn. Agnes gave her a pair of charming antique clip-on earrings that her mother had worn but she never had, since her own earlobes were pierced.
Wanda chipped in with a lovely bracelet of tiny pearls, which she declared to be the ‘borrowed’ item and, therefore, she wanted it back. “Now, you’ve got your something old, something new, and something borrowed – you just need something blue.”
Louise gratefully hugged her three cigar-making cronies, feeling a lifting of a little bit of the melancholy that had attached itself to her heart on the Saturday before.
That night, as agreed, Vic didn’t come over, and Louise spent the evening taking a luxuriously long bubble bath and washing and drying her hair, and packing a small overnight case for their one night honeymoon – at the Brown! The thought of her precious daddy being gone and therefore not around to give her away, just as he had been absent the first time, was pressing on her mind. Lamenting the fact that her mother wouldn’t be there to watch her marry the love of her life, nor would she bake her a cake or do anything else that the mother of the bride usually did, she steadfastly pushed those thoughts away. Well…she didn’t go to the first one, so… she shrugged fatalistically.
Yet another set back happened, however, when Billy apologetically informed her that his new job wouldn’t let him off to attend the wedding, as they needed him to help with the yearly inventory that suddenly became more i
mportant than anything. Louise assured her brother that it was all right and she understood. However…she tried and failed to squelch the bees swarming in her stomach. Deep down, she wondered how she would feel being married in the same place where TJ had taken her on that awful, rainy day five years before, and she was afraid that something would come up to stop the longed for, dreamed about, and much anticipated moment from happening with Vic.
Multiple times during the evening, she prayed to God that nothing would happen to spoil their wedding day…and night. A good omen seemed to come after one such prayer, when the radio in the living room began to play her and Vic’s new song, Glenn Miller’s You and I. With a dreamy smile, she paused in her packing and with her eyes closed, listened to the beautiful words.
When she finally laid down to try and get some sleep, her little boy slumbering across the room in his baby bed, Louise allowed herself a shiver of anticipation that by that time the next night, she would be lying in bed in the arms of her new husband. Much later she turned on her side with a smile on her lips, her left hand resting on the other pillow, and drifted off to sleep.
*
Across town in his lonely room above the Louis Ellis Café, Vic was also preparing for the most important day of his life. He would finally…FINALLY…marry the girl he had loved for five long years. He, too, was experiencing unease in the pit of his gut as he wondered if everything would work in their favor the following day, or if another setback would somehow hurl itself at them like a wrench tossed in the gears. But as he packed clean clothes and other necessities in his duffle bag for the hoped for magical night and morning at the elegant Brown Hotel, a nagging thought from the far reaches of his mind decided to blast into the forefront of his thoughts…he was about to marry, and make love with, a girl who had willingly given herself to another man. A man Vic felt burning animosity toward, and who had taken the gift he rightly should have had…the gift of her innocence.