IT DON’T MATTER Chapter 12 A Wedding is for the Ladies

Wedding Day
courtesy photobucket.com

I don’t understand why all the fuss about getting married. The women in my family act like it was them getting hitched. I never saw so much sewing and their making me talk to the pastor and make the church arraignments.

I just want to make our union legal and the one thing I have already started is the adoption of Matt and Bessie.  

Little Bessie has been caught up with all what’s going on and is going around saying she is going to marry her a daddy.  I’m kinda glad most of what she says isn’t understood except by Nan.

I decided to just stay in town for every time I got close to Nan the girls would shame me and say things I never heard before especially by them.

Just one example of what they were saying was, “Nan we hope you are a good teacher for the bride groom has limited or no experience in the area of romance.”

They would keep it up until I couldn’t handle it any longer and would leave. What made it worse was their laughing at me after I left.

I would like to say “It don’t matter” but it does.

There is this other thing that I don’t like to talk about and that is all the men folks I know are as bad or worse about educating me about married life.  I’m not talking about making a living and things of that nature.

I hate them for it and at the same time I took in every word and rehearsed them over and again.  Time was going so slow the days must have fifty hours in them instead of twenty four.  

I went and got Bessie and took her for a pony ride.  She was scared at first but after a bit I couldn’t get her off the undersized animal.  We had a good time and she really liked the general store.  It might have had something with the stick candy I bought her.  

 

She liked to talk incessantly and the one word she could say very clearly was, “Daddy.”  Every time she said it someone would turn and look at me.

The reason was they all knew me and that I wasn’t married.  All kinds of rumors were started that day.  Most of the revolved around:  “So that’s the reason why he wouldn’t marry my daughter, he has an illegitimate child.”

It took some time for that to die down.  Nan asked me if the story was true about me having an out of wedlock child.  All she got was a hard look as I left the room.

When the truth came out that I married a widow with two kids everyone denied that they ever thought that of me but the damage was done and while people knew the truth they still felt or wished it had been true.

Today was the day and it was nigh unto the time.  Since her first marriage was before the clerk at the city hall the girls insisted that Nan have a formal wedding.  I was forced to put on this ridiculous suit and have a best man and ushers.  I didn’t even know what an usher was or what he did.

I refused to go to a practice because once was going to be enough for me.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing but Sammie the best man led me through it.  I had to give him the wedding ring.  She had managed to get the engagement ring out of the box and put it on her finger.

Here I was standing down in front of the church with the pastor, best man and some ushers.  The music starts and everyone looks to the back of the church.

Here come all the women that planned the wedding with Bessie all decked out in pink and lace.  The song Sammie whispered is “Here comes the bride” so get ready.

I first see Pa all decked in an outfit kinda like mine.  I’ll never know how they got him to put those clothes on.  But on his arm was the prettiest woman I have ever seen.  It was Nan; I couldn’t believe she could look so nice.

She looked so different I felt like introducing myself to her.  When she got to the front Pa let her go and she came over to me.  

Bessie said, I am
Marrying me a Daddy
courtesy photobucket

The pastor started talking while Bessie was holding on to my leg.  I knew she wanted me to pick her up but I only took her hand.  

I’m not sure what all the preacher said, but I agreed with what ever he asked me, and then he said we were man and wife, and you may kiss your bride.

Finally he got to something I knew how to do.  Afterward we had a party called a reception.  I didn’t understand why they called it that but figured it was something someone started way back when.

Everybody shook hands with me and Nan with several of the women giving me a hard look and didn’t seem too friendly toward Nan either.

I was tired of them acting like that but Nan thought it was funny.  She said, “They will never forgive you.  No matter what you did they would have felt that way for you couldn’t marry them all.”

At the hotel we finally changed our clothes which was for me a case of being pleasantly embarrassed.  Suddenly I was sleepy or so I told her.

Then with a slightly revealing gown my sisters had bought her she said, “Come here lover.”  

I was so nervous I got weak in the knees.  After sometime has passed I still blush thinking about how I felt at that moment.  Once she kissed me my strength returned and some serious passion was about to take place when some fun lovers decided to have a Chivaree at our expense.

The noise woke up several other people in the hotel and when the sheriff came the fun was over but it was hard to recapture the mood we felt earlier.

Ada insisted that she take the kids and finally Nan gave in for she had not been without them since they were born.  Once we got away from the hotel and began to concentrate on each other the honeymoon became what it was supposed to be.

The fact she had been married before sped up the problem of getting adjusted to one another and by the end of the first week we were totally into each other.

Even though we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves by the end of the two weeks we were glad to be on the way home.  Upon arrival Ada met us with Bessie and Matt. Bessie couldn’t stop saying Mommy and Daddy while Matt looked at his Mommy and tears began to flow.

Nan spent some time thanking Ada for taking care of the kids.  Ada genuinely said any time you need to leave them bring them straight to me for we are real friends now.  

My house was very adequate for me but with the new additions it was a little small.  I told Nan to start thinking about how she wanted our new house to look like both inside and out.

She said “I’ve seen a lot of designs for houses I liked so it won’t be any trouble for me to sketch out what I want.”  

When I got back to the things that needed to be caught up with I told everybody don’t ask any questions about anything.  I wasn’t on the mood to stimulate their imagination and besides I was still mad about the chivaree.

Some may say it was all in fun and “It don’t matter”

But I’m here to tell you it did matter.