“That’s a great idea. Have your people talk to my people.” Jet grinned again and I rolled my eyes. Neither of us had people. If we were going to make the field trips a reality, Jet and I were going to have to do the hard work.
For someone who had spent all day traipsing around the countryside and city, Jet was in an exceptionally good mood. It instantly made me suspicious.
“Did anything else happen today?” I asked, going fishing for information.
“Yeah, something else did happen today.”
I arched an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. Most of the kids had been lost in their own conversations but were now all staring in our direction.
Anticipation and impatience hung in the air.
He still didn’t speak.
“Well?” I prompted. “Are you going to tell us or keep it a secret for the rest of your life?”
His lips quirked into a huge grin. He certainly had all our attention. “Perry thinks she’s worked out how to officiate a wedding.”
There were so many parts of that sentence I didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
“It means she knows how to marry people.”
“I know what it means, but why was Perry even trying to work it out?”
“I asked her to.”
O-kay.
Perry was in charge of the manufacturing factory, reveling in the way she could boss people around and make the big decisions. We still didn’t get along very well but we were civil to each other, at least.
She was also completely in love with one of my school’s principals so she didn’t even care that Jet and I were together anymore.
Which was a relief.
It was rough going there for a long time.
“Why would you ask her to find out about weddings?” I asked, still completely perplexed by Jet’s actions sometimes. Most of the time, actually.
“I don’t know, I thought we might want to be a test case.”
“A test case?”
Jet suddenly stood up before dropping down onto one knee. Some of the girls clapped and gasped. He pulled my hands into his and looked up into my eyes.
My face flushed with embarrassment.
“Everly Anne Hilton,” Jet started. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Go on, do it,” Bea called out. Which started all the kids off.
“Yeah! Say yes!”
“You have to marry him.”
“You’ll be Mrs. Jet.”
“We can all go to the wedding!”
“I want to catch the bouquet.”
“Can we get dressed up?”
It was almost like living in my old house on the hill with the forty-three ghosts.
I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
My eyes remained fixed on Jet, looking into his deep brown eyes and getting lost there. Really, as if I would ever say no to him. “Of course I will marry you.”
A collective cheer and round of applause came from the table. Jet stood and pulled me up into his arms, smothering me with kisses. The stomach butterflies still fluttered like crazy even after two years together.
I thought they still would in twenty years, too.
Fifty, even.
Forever.
We settled back at the table and resumed our dinner. The kids lost interest in us and returned to their own discussions.
“So how did she work it out?” I asked, curious more than anything. It wasn’t like any of the few adults from the underground could help. They had been able to leave the tunnels after Kostucha was killed but it was still impossible to get anything sensible out of them. Their brains were too fried and beyond repair. They were cared for in the city now.
“She found an old manual for celebrants in the library,” Jet explained. “It referred to a bunch of old government forms that no longer exist but it had all the wording and stuff.”
Good enough, I guess.
“Oh, I forgot this,” Jet said as his fork clinked onto his plate while he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small ring made of gold. “Give me your hand.”
“Where did you get that?” I asked. It wasn’t like we had jewelry stores anymore. The ones that had existed at the time of the Event had long since been raided and the exquisite jewelry all disbursed.
He took my hand and slid the ring onto my left hand. The small ruby sparkled even in the dark lighting. “There, now it’s official. You can’t back out.”
“I wouldn’t want to. But you didn’t answer my question.”
A sigh escaped his lips. “I traded for it. Someone had it and they were more than willing to trade it for a bicycle. Okay?”
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about. Just let me do nice things for you, don’t be so difficult about it.” He smiled so I didn’t feel so bad about my interrogation.
I wiggled my finger and watched the light catch the red stone. It shone brilliantly against the yellow gold band. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever owned.
“I love it, thank you.”
He leaned over and gave me another kiss. “And I love you. Thank you for agreeing to be my wife.”
“So Perry’s going to marry us? Voluntarily?” Because, really, if there was someone that didn’t want Jet and I to be married, it was Perry.
“She’s happy for us,” Jet said, managing to keep a straight face for each of the four words.
“Right.”
“I’m serious. She’s excited about it.”
Somehow I doubted that.
But Jet wasn’t going to change his story now so I let it rest.
“When can we do it?” I asked instead. We had already waited two years to make our relationship official because nobody knew how to get married anymore. It wasn’t like the adults left us with an instruction manual. We didn’t even have a registry anymore. An informal council on a region-by-region basis was the most organized we could arrange.
“How does tomorrow sound?”
My gaze snapped to his, making sure he wasn’t joking. “Tomorrow? Really? That soon?”
“Don’t sound so scared about it. You just said yes.”
“I know. I mean, tomorrow sounds great.” I quickly backtracked. I was just surprised, that’s all. I would have married him in twenty minutes if he asked.
His hand covered mine, spreading warmth through every piece of my body. “Tomorrow it is then. I can’t wait.”
Neither could I.
I barely slept at all that night. I wasn’t nervous about getting married, I was more excited about the prospect. I had always thought marriages were dead and buried, that we would never be able to have that kind of sentimental ritual anymore.
But I wanted to marry Jet.
I wanted to stand up in front of everyone we loved and publicly declare that I loved him and always would. I wanted everyone to know our dedication to one another.
It was like taking back some of the life we used to have before the Event. It felt like shoving our happiness in Kostucha’s face so he would know he hadn’t destroyed everything. That he couldn’t kill something as wonderful as love.
Getting married was an act of rebellion against everything he tried to do to us.
And I was going to enjoy every minute of it.
I made Jet sleep in the boys’ room, insisting he couldn’t see the bride before the wedding. He only grumbled a little before conceding. Especially when I reminded him that a honeymoon was supposed to follow a wedding.
In the morning I changed into the nicest dress I owned – a pale yellow sundress that fell just below my knees. One of the girls insisted on doing my hair into a loose bun and Bea picked flowers from the garden to create a tiara of daisies.
It may not have been a proper or fancy wedding dress but I felt like a bride anyway.
I was going to be married!
We travelled into the city in separate vehicles. Jet had fixed two cars so they ran on solar power, letting us get around
the place without having to rely on fuel. Since they worked so well, they were going to start converting old cars in a new factory in a couple of months – once they’d worked out how to make new solar panels.
As I drove to the address Jet gave me, I couldn’t help but notice all the people around. There were dozens more than usual, all out enjoying the sunny warm weather.
I pulled up and the kids automatically skittered away. Jet was already there, waiting at the doors to the oldest church that was still standing. One wall had half-collapsed and the old roof had caved, but three and a half walls were still better than the other churches in the city.
Jet was wearing a navy suit – God only knew where he got it – with a red tie. His dark hair was neatly cut, only a few stray strands hanging around his face.
I had never seen him so dressed up before.
My knees acted like they didn’t know how to be knees anymore. They wanted to collapse and send me flying toward the floor. The last thing I needed was to make a fool out of myself when I was supposed to be marrying that gorgeous man.
Jet ran down the few steps to reach me and linked my arm with his. “Are you ready to be my wife?”
“So ready,” I replied. “But what’s everyone doing here today? Is there something going on?”
“Our wedding. It’s kind of a big deal.” He smiled a mile, showing all his teeth and dimples.
“They’re here for us?”
“Of course.” He laughed, like it shouldn’t have been the big deal I thought it was. I didn’t realize we’d have an audience, let alone such a big one.
I guess weddings were kind of a big event now.
It being the first one in three years and all.
“Okay,” I said, swallowing down the jolts of fear creeping up on me. “Let’s get married and make this thing official.”
It took all my concentration to make it up the stairs. Jet pushed the door open and we stepped inside. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the change in light from the brightness outside.
The church may not have had a roof or complete walls, but it was still magnificent inside. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to clean it up. All the rubble from the ground had been cleared away, the windows either removed all together or cleaned up if they were intact.
All the pews were lined up in perfect rows, the ends strung with small bouquets of flowers.
And fairy lights.
Fairy lights were everywhere.
The frivolous use of electricity – that was still rationed – concerned me but I let it go. This was my wedding day. I could turn off the lights of our house for a week to make up for it later.
The kids from our home – our family – were all seated in the front pews. The rest were occupied by those lucky enough to arrive early and get good seats. Every other available space was taken up in the church by those that had to stand.
Jet waved at someone I couldn’t see and everyone in the church started humming the wedding march.
“Almost as good as having real music,” he whispered in my ear.
“It’s better,” I replied, meaning it.
Jet may have acted all casual last night when he broached the subject but this wedding was not an occasion that was quickly put together. He had to have been working on it for a while. Just to get a hundred people humming the same tune would have taken a month.
“Let’s do this,” Jet said, getting a few cheers and pats on the back as we started moving.
I was so grateful for Jet walking with me down the aisle. I would have been too overwhelmed by it all to do it alone. And if I started thinking about the way my father should have been bestowed that honor…
There was still a lot of healing that needed to take place. Not just with me but with everyone. We put on a good show about moving on from those we lost, but there were still moments when we could drown in that despair.
But not today.
Today was a day to celebrate.
The humming stopped when we met Perry at what would have been the altar once. Now it was little more than a larger pile of rocks that someone could stand on for some leverage.
Perry was wearing a blue dress, she had dressed up for the occasion too. I don’t think I’d ever seen her in anything other than jeans and a T-shirt before.
She flashed a smile as the crowd settled into silence. “Thank you for coming here today, everyone.”
I was glad Jet held both my hands as we faced each other because they were shaking so badly he had to have noticed. I didn’t like having so many people watching us. But, in a way, it felt right.
We had all gone through so much.
And we had survived.
Together, we would forge ahead and create a future we could have only dreamed about once. But we had to do it as a collective, as one, as a single unit. Otherwise, it would all fall apart.
Perry continued, speaking loudly to ensure everyone could hear. “We are gathered to witness the spiritual union of Jet Lucas and Everly Hilton as they choose to get married and commit themselves to one another.”
They weren’t exactly the words I remembered from marriage ceremonies but I didn’t care. They seemed even better to me.
“So let’s not beat around the bush. You guys have some vows you’d like to say?” She looked from Jet to me and back again. This was clearly a surprise to my husband-to-be too.
“I, uh, yeah,” Jet started. His hands were suddenly a little sweaty. “Okay, here goes. I think we’re supposed to vow to love, honor, and cherish but that doesn’t sound right to me. It’s not enough to cover how much I want to promise you.”
He looked into my eyes and the hundreds of kids fell away from my world. It was just Jet and I, talking in private like we’d done on so many other occasions.
Except this was far from normal.
It made my heart beat so fast it could power a whole factory.
“Everly, I promise that I will always listen to you. I promise that I will always respect your opinions, choices, and needs. I promise that I will never take you for granted and I will make your problems my own.” Jet paused as he let his thoughts catch up to his mouth.
His eyes were starting to dampen, he was speaking purely from the heart. “I will fiercely protect you, I will always make sure you have everything required to live a happy life. I will follow you wherever you go. I promise to make you and our family my number one priority. Always.”
Tears were welling in my eyes and a lump was making a home in my throat. I didn’t know what to say to his vows. How did I beat that?
What did I want to publicly vow to him?
I switched my brain off and let my heart take over.
“Jet, I promise to you that I will be the best person I can possibly be. I will do everything I can to make you proud and happy with your decision here today.” I took a moment to swallow, needing to compose myself before I could continue. “I promise that you will always feel loved and needed. That you will always be in my thoughts and priorities. I will kiss you every day and I will carry you in my heart when we’re apart. I promise that we will always be a team and always be partners in all aspects of our lives. I love you and I promise to honor that love in everything I do.”
We both stood in silence, looking at each other with teary eyes and star struck gazes. I felt so lucky to have Jet, to be able to call him mine now and for always. He told me he felt the same way in everything he did – he didn’t need to say the words because he showed me with his actions.
I was loved.
I was cherished.
And I was honored.
Today was going to mark the start of so much happiness we would be walking on air. Not just for us but for the whole city. Today we took back some normalcy and made it our own again.
Only three years after it had been robbed from us.
“Okay then,” Perry said, breaking our spell. When I glanced her way, she was crying too. Another thing I’d never seen Perry do.
But
she wasn’t alone. There was barely a dry eye in the entire church.
She continued once she realized we were waiting for her. “So, Jet, do you take Everly Hilton to be your wife forevermore?”
Jet smiled as he said the magic words. “I sure do.”
“Everly, do you take Jet Lucas to be your husband forevermore?”
“I do,” I said, never more sure of anything in my life.
“Okay. So… I now pronounce you husband and wife. I guess you can kiss and we’ll all cheer,” Perry finished. She gestured to the crowd but they didn’t need much encouragement to start whistling, clapping, and cheering.
Jet and I leaned into each other until our lips met. We sealed our marriage with the sweetest of kisses. We’d save the serious smooches for later, in private.
When we parted, Jet took my hand and held it up like I was the prize he had just won.
Really, it was me who had scored.
Big time.
It took us a long time to get through the crush of bodies in the church. My cheeks were sore from smiling and my ribs hurt from hugging.
And I loved every minute of it.
About the Author
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Jamie Campbell grew up in the New South Wales town of Port Macquarie as the youngest of six children. She now resides on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Writing since she could hold a pencil, Jamie’s passion for storytelling and wild imagination were often a cause for concern with her school teachers. Now that imagination is used for good instead of mischief.
Visit www.jamiecampbell.com.au now for exclusive website only content.
Also by the Author:
A Hairy Tail
The Fairy Tales Retold Series
The Star Kissed Series
We Are Always Forever Page 21
