Lynette, the ever protective mother, banned more than two people in the laundry room at one time to see and pet the puppies. Suzie Q had to be kept outside because she was none to fond of all those strangers handling “her babies.” Gentle though she was, she’d growl menacingly.
The mood turned a bit somber when someone asked how the puppies’ mother died. Blaze stepped into that question right away, protecting Lynn, but he turned it into a hilarious story by concentrating on the killing, burning and dispatching of the snake’s thousand pieces. People screamed in raucous laughter as he detailed the many ways she killed and burned the snake. After he’d regain his composure and stopped coughing in laughter himself, he’d start again, “And then, once she poured more cooking oil on it and struck the match………” And for the first time it seemed that something was redeemable about that sad event. Ordered in from a pizza parlor in Crystal Bend, boxes of pizza, green salad, bread sticks, soda and beer was the fare of the evening. An awesome peach cobbler sat cooling on the kitchen counter, which Lynette, somehow, had found time to make.
Around 10 p.m., it was time for all the “chillins’” old and young, to head for their designated hotels, condo, or bedrooms. “We have a busy day tomorrow, and morning will come real quickly,” Blaze announced.
“I want my beautiful bride to have a full nights sleep before we jump the broom,” he added, smiling lovingly at Lynette.
Hawk stayed for a while, ostensibly to help Janette clean up so there wouldn’t be as much mess to deal with in the morning. Maurice volunteered to take some of the other ladies to the condo, and hotel, especially since he got to drive the big white Cadillac. He made sure that Dena, Janette’s best friend, got in the front seat and a second lady sat next to her. That meant Dena had to sit right up against him. Clare watched the departing actions with amusement and nudged Aaron.
“These boys here don’t have a chance at any of those educated, live wire, career women,” Aaron posited.
“You never know,” Clare replied, “you just never know.”
CHAPTER 24
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The Wedding
Neither Blaze nor Lynette slept much that night, despite their fatigue from the day before. Lynette kept running lists in her head. What all still needs to be done? At one point, she rolled over in the dark and scribbled something on an empty page in her yellow tablet. She didn’t think she disturbed Blaze, but he wasn’t sleep.
Blaze spent the night looking back at where he’d come from, and then to the future, where he hoped they would go as a couple. He saw them in their old age, holding hands as they walked slowly, and possibly with halted gait, but always together. He saw his grandchildren, yet to be born, riding their horses across their land. He saw happiness in their two, joined, lives. He was grateful for the love and friendship of his brother, Aaron, who had always been there for him. When there was precious little other family, Aaron was his rock. He wished that his mother could be at the ceremony to welcome Lynette into the family. He hoped that she would be with him in spirit on his special day.
Lynette had kept her wedding dress a monumental secret. He had no idea what she would wear. Only two people knew - Clare and Janette, and she had jokingly sworn to cut their tongues from their mouths if they uttered so much as a hint of what it looked like. After seeing the work she did on the snake, he thought she could probably do it, and he chuckled in the dark.
“What are you laughing at?” Lynette asked, rolling over to him.
“Just something that came across my mind,” he answered, now laughing full out.
She started to laugh too. She didn’t know what she was laughing at, but it was funny to be lying and laughing in the dark, in the middle of the night. They rolled over together, hugging each other, and they laughed, and laughed until tears rolled down the sides of their faces and into their ears. When they regained their composure, they lay on their backs looking up at the invisible ceiling. They talked for a little while about the few loose ends still to be taken care of. Blaze had his list of “to dos.” She had hers. Everyone else had been thoroughly briefed on what each needed to do on this very special morning. Lynette had given each a short, typed list so nothing important would fall through the cracks. Again, he marveled at her organizational skills, and in fact, had complimented her several times on how easy she had made a potentially complicated and stressful event.
Blaze started rubbing her softly. He didn’t mean his actions to be a prelude to love making. He just liked to feel her naked body. He liked the way she felt when she had on something slinky. He liked taking the slinky thing off of her, too. He liked the way she smelled. She always bathed with some sort of exotic fragrance that lingered on her skin. He could tell when she was in her bath, because the whole wing of the house was permeated with sweet, sensual aromas. And when they were in the throws of passionate lovemaking, when her skin was slick with moisture, the smell that came from her wafted into his nostrils, heightening his arousal. He would sometimes lick her skin, to taste her, to sample her from the outside as he took her from within. She was surely the love of his life. If they had been young lovers, he thought, he would have put babies into her body and watched his seed grow inside this wonderful nest. She was a full woman, possessed of pure, unadulterated passion. And she was his. She draped her arm over his shoulder. She rubbed the back of his neck and pulled his long locks forward so she could bury her face in them and smell his hair. She found his lips in the dark and kissed them softly. She loved the feel of his lips. Sometimes he didn’t kiss her back. He just let his mouth go soft so she could explore the full smoothness of his lips. She licked the bottom, then the top. She bit gently at the lower one, and stuck her tongue under the top one. She smeared her lips back and forth on his. Sometimes she would make darting motions in and out of his mouth, like a lizard testing the temperature; at other times she would slowly insert her whole tongue into his mouth, moving it back and forth like a sexual organ. She would do this without an expectation of intercourse. She would do this when they were in the kitchen and he’d take her in his arms. She would do this when they showered together, with rivulets of water running into both of their mouths. His passion, and his total acceptance of her passionate being, reached to the realm of the spiritual.
“This is the last time we can practice living in sin,” she teased lovingly, pinching his cheek.
“We’ve never lived in sin,” he replied huskily. “There can be no sin in the kind of love we have. What we do together is a sacrament, not a sin,” he said, and he breathed her in through his nostrils. “Tonight,” he whispered, “tonight.”
They were awakened from a very short sleep by the alarm clock. Stretching and yawning, they rose for their special day. When they walked down the hallway, there were already voices in the living area. The aromatic smell of freshly brewing coffee filled the air, and Aaron, Janette, Dena, Clare and Aaron’s son, Brian, hung limply over the kitchen island, with cups in hand, waiting for the coffee maker to drip its last drop.
“This is a pitiful sight,” Blaze laughed.
They all said “Good mornin’,” in various tones and conditions of wakefulness. It sounded like a drunken choir.
At 10:15 the truck from the wedding rental store rolled into the circular drive. Aaron directed them around to the rear of the house to begin setting up the tents, tables and chairs. The delivery men were at first confused. They tried to set the chairs around the long tables. Hawk explained that they were to be in semi-circular rows with a narrow aisle in the center. They didn’t understand, but did as they were directed. Hawk informed them that after the ceremony, some of the guys would move the chairs to the tables for the reception.
Maurice busied himself, placing cases of beer into two large galvanized tubs, over which he would pour ice about an hour before the ceremony began. On the other side of the serving area, he loaded cans of sodas into two other tubs. There was only a faint breeze on that day, so the table clothes and skirts were affixed to the
serving tables without jeopardy. At 11:00 the florist arrived with an assistant, and began placing the long sprigs of pines down the center of the tables with the center pieces of wild flowers. The circular ceremonial table was dressed in red. Lynette did not know at the time she purchased the red napkins, that Blaze would wear red, but it was all falling together. The colors of the day were red and white. The crystal clear glass serving plates and racks of drinking glasses shimmered in the morning light. Though they cost much more than the plastic plates and cups, she originally intended to get, she thought about the amount of trash all that plastic would make. She was not being pretentious, she was doing what she thought was right. So, she opted for glass, which could be washed, creating much less pollution. What kind of example would she be showing if she was not trying to be a responsible steward of the earth. When Blaze asked about the crystal, she told him why. It made sense.
By one o’clock, everything was in place except the food. She had arranged for it to arrive no later than 1:30. With the ceremony to begin at 2:00, and both she and Blaze believing in importance of timeliness, she did not want the food to sit out too long before the serving began.
Lucinda offered to work during the wedding, which Lynette refused.
“You are a friend of the family. You will be an honored guest on our wedding day,” she told her lovingly.
One thing, of the many, that her mother and grandmother had taught her was respect, and showing respect for every person, no matter their status in life. “But, for the Grace of God, goes you,” she had been drilled all her growing up years. Lucinda might be a housekeeper during the week, but on this day, she was a guest and she would not soil her pretty dress with work.
The DJ hustled to get his equipment set up around 1:15. He was running a little later than expected, but he made it within the fifteen minute leeway time he and Lynette discussed. He set aside his CDs in some sort of order; tested the speakers and started playing a variety of music. For the reception, he’d been asked to play classical music while people were being served and eating. It was good for digestion. After most everyone had eaten, he could cut loose with some country and western, pop, a little bit of cajun, even one – only one –rap song, just for fun. Because so many of the attendees would be older than 40, Lynette asked for some songs of the 60’s, especially the 70’s and 80’s. One special request – Kenny Rogers’ Lady.
At 1:20 the food arrived, and the servers, wearing crisp white shirts under black vests, (a small extra fee to the caterer), and black slacks, set out the enormous pans of food, keeping them covered, of course, until after the ceremony. After she signed her contract with the caterer, she realized that she had neglected to add “fry bread” to her order. He did not make any, as it was a Native staple, but he agreed to pick it up from the Indian shop out on the highway, and deliver it with the rest of the food, (for an extra fee, of course).
The hairdresser had arrived with a flourish around eleven with an announcement that he was there to turn pretty into fabulous! His only requirement was that the ladies have their hair washed, so all he had to do was style them. His ladies would be the stars of the event, he assured! Janette, Dena, Clare, Merrilynn and a few others drew straws to see who would go first. Lynette would, of course, be last. Aaron did everything he could to stay outside and away from all the “female fuss” as he called it. He took his grandchildren down to visit the horses, and offered to do anything Blaze, Lynette, or anyone else wanted, as long as he didn’t have to traverse the estrogen explosion in the house.
One by one, right on time at 1:30, the buses and vans pulled slowly into the driveway and the happy guests, in their party finery, exited their conveyances and walked around to the rear of the home where the ceremony would be held.
Blaze sat, fully attired, on the side of the bed with Lynette. Her hair was done up just the way she wanted it. He touched it gently, careful not to unseat a single hair. It wouldn’t have moved anyway, as her soft, angel-fine hair was sprayed to hold!
“Any regrets?” he asked lovingly.
“Yes,” she replied with a smile, “that I didn’t meet you thirty years ago.”
“You weren’t ready for me. I wasn’t ready for you,” he replied.
“I know. It took everything we’ve been through, all the painful lessons, to bring us to this day,” she said, knowing it was the truth.
“Wherever we are…” he started to say.
“Is where we’re supposed to be,” she finished the concept, lifted his hand, kissing deeply into his palm. She looked up at him smiling, her face shining with love. He touched her lips softly with the very tips of his fingers. She slipped the tip of her tongue across them as he closed his eyes.
“Now, out damned nave,” she directed emphatically, with a phony English accent, gesticulating dramatically toward the bedroom door. “Milady must dress. Send in my ladies-in-waiting” she demanded, laughing that joyfully wicked laugh he had come to know.
Hawk, maurice, and the rental delivery men had the white chairs arranged in three-fourths of a circle so that once the officiants, and others chosen to participate in the ceremony took their places facing the guests, there was a virtual completed circle This symbolized the circle of life, and the unbreakable bond into which these two people were about to enter. They would literally be within a circle of friends and loved ones, once they took their positions. The elders of the tribe were seated in the first row among the guests. There were five chairs facing the guests and a round table, covered in a red cloth in the center of the five chairs. The same color red as Blaze’s tunic. Lynette had peeked at it and found the identical color at the fabric store. On the ceremonial table sat a painted bowl, and an unpainted pottery jar filled with water. There was a folded white hand towel. A square of what appeared to be corn bread lay on a small, unpainted pottery dish. Standing next to that dish were three candles: two tall white tapers and one thick, white, decorated candle about three inches in diameter. Behind all of this stood a tall, silver crucifix. When all the guests were seated, Clare gave a nod to the disc jockey, and the pre-wedding music ceased. There was a hush and then the music of Nakai, the famous Native-American flutist, began to play its haunting melody. One by one the officiants and participants moved from the right side of the group to the five chairs and seated themselves. The first to sit was the Chief Elder, then Father Gibbons, then the family members who would speak: Trapper, Merrilynn and Janette.
The music stopped again. Then began another of Nakai’s melodic tunes. Aaron, in a dark, blue suit with white shirt and red tie, walked out onto the deck, down the stairs and entered the circle, moving over to the right of the circular table. Then Blaze opened the patio door and walked across the deck, down the steps and stood in front of Aaron, closer to the table. He was majestic in his Apache attire - a red tunic, slightly open at the neck, sashed by a segmented concho belt made of stamped silver ovals, with large turquoise insets. Several of the silver segments hung down from the side of his waist. The tunic hung over cream-colored cotton pants with silver conchos, bead work and fringe running down the side seams from the knee down to the hem. On his feet he wore light tan moccasins without socks. Around his waist and partially hidden by the tunic, was the traditional breechcloth or apron panel. It was black and beautifully decorated with hand embroidered symbols in white, turquoise and red. The panel ran between his legs and the other end of the panel hung from his waist in the back. His hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and held by a silver and turquoise stamped concho attached with a rawhide band. He was a majestic figure, standing tall and straight; a vision of the proud, virile warrior of old, and the amazing man of the present.
The music stopped again, then began. Clare, as maid-of-honor, stepped out onto the deck, attired in a lovely soft blue, tea-length organza print dress, white, mid-heel pumps, and carrying a small bouquet of wild flowers, with red streamers hanging from it. She walked down the steps, into the circle, and positioned herself to the left of the table. The musi
c stopped, then started again, and this time, both Spanish doors opened slowly and Lynette appeared in the darkened doorway of the house. She stepped forward, pausing for an instant, and let the bright sunlight reflect against the nearly white cloth of her fringed gown. Moving gracefully out onto the deck, there was a hushed gasp from the crowd. Blaze caught his breath; he could not believe what he was seeing. His eyes immediately rimmed with water. She walked across the deck slowly, aware of how the fringe moved and swayed on her authentically designed, off-white suede Indian wedding gown. Her hair glowed long and brown in the sunlight, almost as if there was a visible aura or halo around it. On her ears she wore Zuni drop earrings with five different colored natural stones, formed into a flowery circle. Her make-up was perfection, and her light-olive skin glowed with the radiance of a bride about to meet her groom. Around her neck, hung an authentic silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace which she had purchased, for an obscene price, from a Native artist in Flagstaff, Arizona many years before. On her right arm was the three-inch wide silver, hand-made bracelet with the large turquoise stone in its center. She wore her ruby and diamond engagement ring on her right hand, leaving her left hand free for the simple gold band they had chosen. The doe skin knee high boots made no sound as she walked. Blaze wiped his eyes with a handkerchief Aaron discretely produced from his coat pocket. He fought valiantly to keep back the tears, but what she had done – coming to him like this – overshadowed any manly pride, and he let a tear role down his golden face. She moved gracefully, looking only at him; her steps silent. In her upturned palms she carried a wedding vase, painted turquoise and tan, with the imprints of feathers around its base. It had two openings, one on either side with a small handle joining the two openings. In it was pure spring water captured at its source from high upon the mountain, from which they would both drink. Born of a different culture, she and everyone in attendance knew the gift she was giving to Blaze, and that she would, like Blaze, have feet in both worlds. She descended the steps, moving as though her feet barely touched the wood, and proceeded elegantly toward the circular table, never taking her eyes off Blaze. When she took her place in front of Clare, he looked at her and spoke softly.
Thunder In Her Body Page 26
