PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Forty-Eight
Jack and Rose began making arrangements for
their wedding that weekend. At Rose’s request, Jack designed the invitations
and sent them out to all of the friends and family members they wanted to
invite—even Jack’s cousin, Emmaline, whose father wouldn’t allow her to visit
him, Rose’s paternal grandparents, who wouldn’t be able to attend, and Ruth,
who had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with her daughter’s
wedding, though Rose secretly hoped that she would change her mind.
They walked into the hills together late on Saturday
to select the spot for the wedding, finally choosing a place near enough to the
road that it would be easy to get to but which wasn’t visible to everyone
passing by. Unfortunately, a number of people considered the hills to be the
town garbage dump, and while they liked the wide open land with its sea of
golden grass and fall flowers, Jack and Rose had no wish to be married amongst
the trash. On Sunday afternoon, all four of the members of the household worked
to clear away the garbage, finding a number of salvageable items that they
chose to keep or bring in for recycling. Everything else was left at the real
town dump.
Rose began work on her wedding dress,
discovering that chiffon was indeed difficult to work with, but she was
determined to have the dress she had chosen, even if Helga did give her
long-suffering looks when Rose asked her repeatedly for help.
While they worked on their dresses, Rose and
Helga discussed wedding decorations, concluding that not many would be needed.
The rich natural setting of the hilltop that the engaged couple had chosen for
their wedding place required no decorating, and the backyard of the house,
where the reception would be held, would still be green from summer with late
season flowers in bloom in early October.
Rose mentioned that she wanted to try to
prepare the food for the wedding reception herself, but Helga, knowing that
Rose’s cooking often still left something to be desired, especially when she
attempted to prepare fancy dishes, convinced the man who lived across the
street to help cook for the wedding. He was a short-order cook, and while this was
different from catering, he still knew how to cook very well and how to present
food in an attractive way. He agreed to help for a much lower price than a
professional caterer, as his family and the four roommates were on friendly
terms, and in return he and his family were invited to the wedding.
On Sunday morning, Rose dragged a reluctant
Jack along shopping with her, pointing out that there were things that they
needed to buy to make it feasible for them to share one room. They would be
sharing the master bedroom that Rose currently slept alone in, since Jack’s
smaller room was not really large enough. However, there were things that Rose
insisted they needed, such as closet organizers so that they could store
everything without it spilling out of the closet. Jack didn’t quite see the
need for this, but Rose brushed his half-hearted complaints aside, teasing him
about not understanding neatness because he was a guy. In truth, he usually
kept his space fairly clean, and it was sometimes neater than Rose’s, but she
couldn’t resist teasing him good-naturedly.
One item that they both agreed they needed
was a bed large enough for both of them to sleep comfortably. They each had
their own twin bed, but they didn’t want to sleep separately, and pushing the
two beds together seemed inconvenient. So, after they had found a closet
organizer that suited Rose, they wandered through the furniture department,
looking at prices and testing out mattresses. Jack amused Rose and irritated
the saleswoman by dramatically throwing himself down on a couple of mattresses
to see how firm they were. Once Rose had stopped laughing and the saleswoman
had stopped scowling, they finally selected an inexpensive queen-sized bed,
asking that it be delivered the day before their wedding. Rose would dismantle
her bed and put the parts in storage, while Helga had already claimed Jack’s
room as a nursery for her coming baby—as soon as he moved out of it.
In spite of the short length of time available
to plan the wedding, things were going smoothly. Jack and Rose were looking
forward to being joined in marriage.