by Luke Brown
They also had two wonderful young boys, Fern and Neil. They had long since moved out of Essie’s house and had built a huge, splendid home of their own. They had everything that a young, striving couple should have except the blissful matrimonial title of man and wife.
One day Bunny was doing some work in his workshop, which was located at the back of the house, when Joyce came in. “When was the last time you called your sister?” she asked.
“Who? Gena?” Bunny asked.
“Yes, Gena. Who else would I be talking about? I don’t care about anybody else. Don’t get me wrong. I love all of your family, but I only care if you call your big sister Gena.” Joyce clarified what she had said, lest there be any misunderstanding, and Lord knows, there was plenty of that to go around.
“Does that mean that you care for Betty, too?”
“I don’t dislike her. It’s just that we don’t see eye to eye. I don’t have a problem with anyone in your family. It’s you who have problems with them. After all, Betty is your sister, not mine. You’re the one who has problems with her. I’m staying out of it, my dear love.”
“So does that mean that I was the only one she kicked out of Momma’s house?”
Joyce began to get a little irritated at Bunny’s round-the-woods evasion of her question. “Bunny, as I said, I’m staying out of it. I only wanted to know if you called Gena in New York anytime recently. That was all I asked. Why yuh chose to give me a hard time, I don’t know. It’s just a simple question, with a simple answer: yes or no.”
“No, if recently means yesterday, and yes, if recently means in the past six months. You see, my dear love, it depends.” Bunny continued to dance around Joyce’s question.
“I told yuh that yuh should go into politics. I swear, that’s where you belong.” Joyce was now convinced that Bunny was hiding something and that was the reason he was avoiding giving her a straightforward answer. She knew him too well. “Why yuh don’t want to call yuh sister Gena? She’s always so good to you.”
“I got tired of her saying the same old thing every time I called,” Bunny confessed.
“And what is that?” Joyce asked, as if she didn’t already know the answer.
“You know, the same old thing.” Bunny refused to say what exactly it was that he considered to be “the same old thing.”
“So what’s wrong with that?” Joyce asked. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“Wrong with what? I didn’t say what the same old thing was, so now I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Joyce was tired of the games, so she spoke clearly about what was on her mind. “Don’t play Mr. Wise Guy with me, Bunny. Let’s just lay it all out on the table. What’s wrong with us getting married?”
“Haaaw! See, that’s why you’re so concerned about me calling Gena. You know that every time I call, she asks when we’re getting married. She always says that it’s time to make it official and that it’s never too late. She always insists that we do it soon. She keeps saying that she’ll help us with the wedding, and so on and so on. I’m tired of hearing that. Our life is perfect the way it is; we don’t need a ring or any certificate to seal our love for each other.”
“Speak for yourself. My life is not perfect. I do, and I repeat, I do. As a matter of fact, it sounds so good, I’ll repeat it again: I do need a ring and a certificate to seal this love.” Joyce was very firm on the topic of marriage for the first time in the twelve years they had been together.
He stopped what he was doing, put his tools away, and looked up into Joyce’s face. “You sound fired up. When was the last time you called my sister Gena? Now I’m concerned.”
She grinned from ear to ear.
“Oh! That’s what this whole thing is about? Gena’s on my case again? I see. When did she call?”
“Yesterday,” Joyce confessed, with a big sigh of relief. A bucketload of stress fell from her shoulders, now that it was all out there in the open. The release of tension could be seen on her face. “She said that she’ll help us with the wedding expenses if we need her help. She already has a lovely wedding gift for us.”
“We don’t need her help with any wedding expenses, but we’ll be happy to accept her wedding gift—” Joyce interrupted him. “What are you saying?” she asked, holding her breath, with both hands over her mouth. She felt lightheaded, as if about to faint. She hardly felt her feet on the ground and was barely holding up against the cruel force of gravity. Her two feet were not enough to keep her standing in an upright position. She needed at least two more pairs.
“We have to get married in order to get the gift that Gena has already bought for us,” Bunny said in an ironic manner. “Besides, I got away with twelve years already, and our kids are now seven and eight years old. You guys have backed me into a corner, and I have nowhere left to run.”
Joyce ran and jumped into his arms with a loud scream. “So that’s a yes?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she started shouting for joy.
“Wait a minute! If I’m going to do this, I have to do it right.” Bunny hurriedly cleared away all the miscellaneous, stray pieces of junk that were in front of him on the floor. Then he quickly climbed up onto his worktable and hastily swept the vertical column that lined the inside of the roof of the workshop. With his hands stretched high, he retrieved a small black ring container, which he had secretly bought a few weeks back after speaking to Gena. He had conveniently left it there waiting for the right time to propose to his loyal lover and the loving mother of his two handsome boys, whom he loved so much. He was sure that he would know when it was the right time to propose to her. Today, the time was perfect.
He swiftly but carefully climbed down from his worktable and called out to his sons and to all of his six workers to stop whatever they were doing so they could hear what he had to say. Then he clumsily went down on one knee on the dirty industrial floor. “Joyce, my love, I’m so sorry that I’ve been such a pig-headed, stubborn person. I should’ve done this twelve years ago when I met you. Thank you for staying with me and loving me regardless during all these years. Joyce, will you marry me?”
Joyce was overcome with emotion. “Yes, my love,” she said through her tears. “Thank you, you stubborn fool. You know that I deserve this and that I’ve been very patient. We both know it was time to do this. Thank you.” Joyce shed more tears of joy as she embraced her fiancé and dreamed of an even brighter future together.
Joyce was an active member of the Glenworth SDA Church, so making arrangements for a wedding was not difficult for her. Strangely, she had organized countless weddings before, but had never gotten the opportunity to organize her own—until now. She jumped right into the flow of preparing for a medium-sized wedding. The very next day, she called all of her friends and family to let them know the good news. She and Bunny were getting married on May 21 of that same year, 1994.
“Hello, Christine, will you be my maid of honor?” Joyce asked her best friend in Canada, whom she hadn’t seen in more than five years.
“Noooo! Say what? Noooo! I can’t believe it. Wait a minute. I have to take a seat for this one. Are you kidding me, Joyce?”
“Would I kid you? Well, I kid you not. Bunny asked me to marry him—finally!”
“Finally! Oh my God! I don’t believe it. I gave up on him years ago. I thought that he would never do such a thing.” Christine bubbled with excitement.
“Well, you know what they say: ‘What nuh dead, nuh call doppy.’ If he’s not dead, don’t call him a ghost.”
“You can say that again, child,” Christine said.
“Never give up on a person as long as he or she is alive. Congratulations! I wouldn’t miss the wedding for the world. Let me have the date, dear Joyce, so I can make a request for my vacation at work. I’ll be there for sure.”
“So that’s a yes? You will be my maid of honor?”
“Well, let me put it this way. If you didn’t make me your maid of honor, there would be a bi
g fight at your wedding. I would personally come to Jamaica to rip off the dress of anybody else who would even try to take my place, anybody who thinks they’re more bad than I am or that they’ve known you longer than I have. How long have we been friends? From when our eyes were at our knees? Child, just pencil me—no, make that pen—just pen me into your lineup as your maid of honor before I have to perform badly at your wedding.”
“Thank you, Christine. I knew that I could depend on you. I’ll send you an official wedding invitation in the mail.”
“You better do that, girl, if you know what’s best for you.”
“I’ll also fill you in on all of the major happenings as time progresses.”
“Congratulations to you again, my friend. You deserve the honor. It’s about time Bunny realized what a good woman he has by his side. Keep me posted, okay, Joyce?”
“I will, mon. I will. As soon as we put everything together, I’ll let you know more, all right, girlfriend?”
“Already, you’ve made my day,” Christine said. “Bye.”
Joyce hung up the phone and turned to Bunny. “Who will be your best man?”
“Well, at least we know it won’t be Mickey. We broke up our business partnership after he stole my client, and you know the whole story after that. It just wouldn’t seem right to have him as my best man. But he used to be a good friend, so maybe he could emcee the whole program. You know how he loves to talk. He would be a great host.”
“So who is left for best man?”
“Well, weddings are about the showcase, so it’s a matter of who has the best showmanship, as far as I’m concerned.”
“You’re right, Bunny. I’m with you on that one. That’s a great idea. We need to call him early so he can get enough time to apply for his vacation and make all the necessary preparations.”
“So I see that you got where I’m going with this one.”
“Yes, man, I got you long time. I was also thinking about him as the best option.”
“I’ll give him a call now while we’re contemplating it.” Bunny picked up the phone immediately and called his brother in Florida, Dr. Leonard Brown. “Hello, Doc. How’s it going?”
“Good so far. I can’t complain. Who’s going to listen anyway? I’m just here giving thanks for life and good health. How about you, Bunny?”
“I’m doing good. As you said, just giving thanks for life and good health. How is the family?”
“My wife is doing great. However, all we’re doing is working the shirt and blouse off our backs, and we still can’t really get our heads above water. I told you about the invention that I recently got a patent pending for. I sent it out to lots of companies, but it’s still not looking too good. None of them accepted my idea for a disposable dental floss holder. I was sure that it was the next big explosion on the market, but none of the companies are taking the bait.”
“Well, you just have to keep knocking on doors. One day, one will open for you. Just keep trying, my brother.”
“Thank you, bro. So what’s the latest? What’s going on?”
“Well, I have some bad news … Haa! That hurts.”
“What’s that?” Dr. Leonard asked. “Are you okay, bro?” It sounded as if Bunny had gotten hurt while talking to him on the phone.
“No, it’s Joyce here slapping me silly because I said that I have bad news.”
“What’s the bad news, bro?”
“I’m getting married.”
“Wow! Wow! Woooow! I’m sooo sorry to hear that, bro. How did you let that happen?”
“Long story, my brother, but your sister had a lot to do with it.”
“No, not Gena again,” Dr. Leonard joked. “I feel for you, my bro. I believe Gena is receiving some kind of commission for getting us all married. Obviously, she enjoys playing Cupid without wings. I remember introducing Dolcina to her, and before you know it, we were married. I’m sure she had something to do with it also. We’ve been married now for four years, and I must tell you, bro, it’s not as bad as it sounds. But I really expected you to talk your way out of tragic things like these. What happened?”
“I’ve been talking my way out of it for twelve years. Time has just caught up with me, my brother. I’m tired of running. I happily turned myself in for the penalty, whatever it may be.”
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about that now other than to warn your two boys not to take their girlfriends around Gena when they grow up, because the same thing could happen to them. What can I do to help in this dilemma?”
“Brother, I would love for you to be my best man. If you don’t mind.”
“Hey, I’ll be there, but only if you’re going to have bulla cake and pear and soda water. Just kidding, my bro. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. My little brother’s finally getting married after umpteen years. Even if I didn’t do it for you, I would have to do it for Joyce’s sake. I would be honored to be your best man. I’m going to start working on my speech. By the way, when is the wedding again?”
“May twenty-first of this year.”
“Let me jot it down so I can know what days to ask for at work. Don’t worry yourself, bro, my wife and I will be there. You know that we’ll use any excuse for a vacation.”
“Thank you, my brother.”
“It’s my pleasure. I’m very happy my little brother is stepping up to the plate. It’s about time.”
“It’s long overdue, if I say so myself.”
“Congratulations, and may you have a wonderful married life.”
“Thank you, my brother. I’ll talk with you soon.”
Bunny then decided that he would also call Gena in New York while he was at it and tell her the good news.
Gena answered the phone. “Hello, who is this?”
“It’s your brother Bunny. How are you doing today, my sister?”
“Hey, Bunny! You have good news for me? Believe it or not, I had a dream last night about you. I dreamed that you were crazy happy, and you called me to tell me that you were getting married to Joyce. I was so happy, but the funny thing was, I was the one in the white wedding dress—a pretty, fitted white dress. It looked so beautiful. Oh, the wedding was wonderful! Bunny, you know that I don’t dream all the time, but when I do, that means something is up. You know that.”
“My sister, did you have that dream before or after Joyce called you yesterday and told you that we were getting married?”
“No, no, Joyce didn’t call me yesterday. I did not speak to Joyce yesterday, I swear. I dreamed it. I dreamed it.” She laughed. “Oh my God! I can’t believe it. My little brother is finally getting married. Congratulations, congratulations, my brother. I don’t know why it took you so long, but better now than never. Oh my Lord! That is good news. So when is the wedding?”
“It will be on May twenty-first of this year.”
“Good, get it over and done. I’ll be there. I have my outfit that I’m wearing down to Jamaica, but I have to go and shop for something for the wedding. I have to talk to Joyce to see how the planning is going. I want you guys to have a wonderful wedding. I know that it’s going to be good. Just leave it up to Joyce and me. I have to buy Momma a lovely dress to wear. I know Leonard will pay her fare to go to Jamaica. Maybe he could pay Myrtle’s fare also. I’m going to speak with him as soon as I get off the phone with you. Did you tell him about it yet?”
“Yes, I asked him to be my best man, and he said yes.”
“Good choice. We have to be proud of our doctor brother. Let people know that we have a doctor in our family. Don’t be afraid to list him in your program as a doctor, because we have something we can show off about. Our family is coming from afar, and we have to be proud of each other.”
“Yes, we do. I don’t travel to the United States much, but I did attend his graduation, so I know his credentials are authentic. Why would I not use them? I’m very proud of him.”
“I’m proud of you, too, my little brother. You’re doing well with your business,
and you have a nice big house to enjoy with your family. You have a lot of reasons to be proud. Congratulations, again. I’ll be dancing at your wedding in May.”
“Thank you. I must make some more calls to let everybody know about the date. It’s kind of short notice, but it was the best time for us to do it.”
“Don’t worry yourself. Do what’s best for you. I’ll let you go so you can call everyone. Don’t forget to call Junior in Los Angeles to see if he can get time off from his job. Okay, bye, my dear brother. Love you.” Gena ended the long-distance telephone call.
She was happy to see that her constant urging of the young couple had finally paid off and they’d be getting married soon. It pleased her heart to see couples take that vow. The good news that Bunny gave her really made her day.
Bunny then decided to call Junior in Los Angeles to see if he would be able to attend his wedding. “Hello Junior. This is Bunny. How are you and the family?”
“Hey, my brother, what’s going on? I was talking about you the other day, man. I was telling a friend that I have a brother still living in Jamaica, and he is doing much better than everyone I know here in L.A. Ya, man. It is a true thing. He couldn’t believe the story. Jah knows.”
“Really, which brother is that?” Bunny asked jokingly. “Do I know him?”
“You, man. Is you I’m talking about.”
“Okay, thank you for those kind words, although they’re not altogether true. I have your back on that one. If anybody calls me to double-check on your facts, I’ll cover for you.”
“Man, Bunny, you don’t know how good you’re doing compared to other friends that I have here in L.A. who’re suffering.”
“Well, that may be true. I must thank the Lord, as my brother Leonard would say, for keeping my head above the waters. I thank the Lord for being alive and well.”
“Yes, man.”
“Junior, your brother is getting married on May twenty-first of this year. Will you be able to come?”
“Which brother is that?” Junior asked. “You and I are the only lucky ones who aren’t married, that I know about. So who is getting married?”
