Sid was still wearing a cast on his right wrist from an accident we’d been in late the previous August. Sid had helped Nick tie his bright green tie that morning. Nick had on a light-colored sport coat and dark slacks. Sid wore a perfectly tailored two-piece suit with a snowy white shirt and blue paisley silk tie. At first, I thought it was because they didn’t entirely fit in. Sid and Nick kept getting a lot of odd looks from the adults in the room. But I noticed a lot of the teens had wine coolers in their hands. There were sodas, too, for the younger kids, and pitchers of sweet tea on the tables. Tubs filled with ice, cans of beer, and wine coolers sat scattered around the room. There were a head table and a tiny dance floor and a buffet featuring fried chicken and gravy, wilted lettuce, creamy salads, and some gray green beans. The reception was at a nearby Elks lodge. But that’s where Sid and I live, so there wasn’t much to be done about that. Apparently, I’d outdone her with a fancy, rich fiancé, and a wedding in Beverly Hills. There was a receiving line at the end and Maggie gave me the stink eye as Sid and I greeted her. Mama’s family is Catholic, but most of her siblings and all the cousins have left the Church. It was a secular wedding in a park, which had Grandma Caulfield up in arms. With our own wedding on the horizon and a host of my fears about getting married, watching Maggie did not help. Sid put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me. As she walked up the aisle, she had such a look of desperation on her face that I shuddered. The rumor was that Maggie had pretended to be pregnant to get Jed Simons to marry her, then “lost the baby” after he agreed. Between Grandma’s declining health and her odd reaction, it was one quick visit. We had no idea why, although when we figured out about the big coincidence, it explained it some. But Grandma Wycherly took one look at Sid, opened her eyes wide, then refused to talk to him. It’s one of the reasons we don’t have too much contact with them. That side of the family is comfortable and has always looked down on my mama’s side of the family because they aren’t. We didn’t expect her to get too excited about Sid’s money. Grandma Wycherly surprised us that Friday evening. Thanks to an inheritance and some shrewd investing, Sid and I are independently wealthy, which, as far as Grandma Caulfield is concerned, makes me the golden girl of the family. Of course, Grandma Caulfield was in love with Sid even before she met him. Nick, I strongly suspected, would be taller than his dad. Sid is not a large man, only three inches taller than me, and I’m average. Already, the top of Nick’s head crested Sid’s shoulder. Nick wears glasses, Sid wears contact lenses. Sid and Nick look almost alike, with dark, wavy hair, bright blue eyes, and a sweet little dimple in their chins. Well, Nick, at twelve-years-old, was growing into his father’s charm, but still had a happy, boyish energy. Friday morning, we met Grandma Caulfield, who was bowled over by Nick. We’d gotten into Miami airport late Thursday night. Yet that is exactly what we ended up doing. We both made it clear that we did not want to go to the wedding. Sid agreed it was probably worth meeting the grandmothers. Then Daddy told me Grandma Wycherly wanted to meet Sid and Nick and wouldn’t the wedding be a good time to do it? We could come out a day or two early to visit with Grandma Wycherly, then Grandma Caulfield (Mama’s mother), then go to the Maggie and Jed’s wedding. But then Grandma Caulfield called and let me know she wanted to meet Sid and our son, Nick, and that the wedding would be the perfect time to do it. We weren’t going to because we had decided not to invite Maggie and Jed Simons to Sid’s and my wedding that coming spring. It started when Mama arm-twisted Sid and me into going to my cousin Maggie’s wedding. It’s just how things are in South Florida. Mama eventually said that she didn’t think our coincidence was that weird.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |