by V. M. Franck
Following a romantic dinner in a dining room with flickering firelight and soft music, we headed for the lounge in the center of the building.
"You ready?" Tad said.
"I hope so."
Taking my hand with the tenderness of a young lover, he hesitated on the threshold of the room built of huge timbers and thick boards. In the center a fire blazed just inside the rock-faced hearth. Around the room patrons were tucked onto couches and easy chairs. Some leaned against sections of wall and support pillars. Piano music drifted down from the bar on the mezzanine surrounding the room. Out the large windows on the uphill side of the building, night lights illuminated skiers gliding down the Magic Mile.
A microphone scratched and screamed. In the next second a voice said, "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, there's to be a wedding next to the fireplace in a few minutes. Everyone is invited."
There was murmuring from the crowd, that of delight as well as indifference.
"There he is," Tad said, pulling me toward a regal-looking guy. "Henry, I'd like you to meet the future Mrs....."
"Ah, no, not Mrs.," I said. "I didn't agree to become your property."
"Okay, sorry," Tad said, grinning sheepishly. "Correction. Henry, I'd like you to meet Raven, who has graciously agreed to marry me."
"Better." I tiptoed a kiss to his cheek and hugged him with exuberance.
Dressed in fitted ski pants, a Scandinavian sweater and turtleneck he was ripe with masculinity. The longing in his eyes seeped into my heart.
"I am very pleased to meet you, Raven. Sorry, my wife couldn't make it. She's feeling under the weather or at least that's what she said last week."
"Last week?" I said. "I thought you just decided to do this tonight, Tad."
Looking like a child caught eating the center out of a newly baked cake, Tad said, "I've been thinking about doing this for a while. I just I didn't know if I'd actually have the courage to ask."
Around us the crowd came together, laughing, conversing, nursing their drinks. A guitar player appeared and began strumming upbeat folk music, the kind I had always loved.
Tad said, "It was a tentative plan."
Henry stood with his back to the fire and said, "You ready?"
We nodded.
Thinking it odd to be married in ski pants and a sweater similar to Tad's, I dismissed it. A white wedding the first time had not resulted in happily-ever after. This one would be better I promised myself, a lot better.
The group quieted.
"Tonight," Henry said, "Raven and Tad begin anew, opening to a higher flow of love and happiness. Often as not, we delay love's consummation, and I'm not referring to sex. Sex is something else again. It's love I'm talking about. We choose to remain dense to its importance. Taking partners and liaisons to nurse our needs, we push obliviously through life and wonder why, when it is nearly over, we are unfulfilled.
"I can answer this with one simple word, love. Love is--the end, the beginning, as well as the middle. For those fortunate enough to embrace rather than deny that at the core, we are love, there comes a time for love--to be love, to uplift love, to make it all important. That is why Raven and Tad are before us--because of their devotion, their evolution, their desire to cement their oneness. One of the few perks of my job is to unite people who are this much in love.
"Raven, are you willing to commit yourself to Tad, to love him throughout time, throughout eternity? Are you willing to be his wife?"
"Yes, I am," I said, a smile reaching into my heart. It was warm and laced with a feeling of blessings. It surprised me. I hadn't expected getting married to ever feel good again.
"Tad, are you willing to commit yourself to Raven, to love her throughout time, throughout eternity? Are you willing to be her husband?"
"Yes, oh yes, I am." He squeezed my hand.
"Then by the power vested in me by the state of Oregon, I now pronounce your union legal and binding. It is time to seal it with a kiss."
The watchers cheered. The guitar player gave a rumbling strum. And Tad kissed me. It was a romantic kiss, fringed with minute energy pulses that tingled my lips.
When I looked up, there were tears in his eyes.
"Thank you," he said.
We spent the night wrapped in lovers' bliss, falling asleep just before dawn.
~~~***~~~
