Double Wedding

by Patricia Scanlan

  ‘Stop, Liz, I don’t want a shower,’ Nancy protested drunkenly.

  ‘Nadine, get me some towels and a tracksuit for your mother,’ Liz ordered.

  ‘OK.’ Nadine scuttled off, glad to have someone else take charge of the situation, embarrassed yet strangely relieved that she had confided in Liz.

  Liz, being far fitter and stronger than Nancy, had no trouble bundling the other woman into the shower, having managed to remove her dressing-gown but not her nightdress.

  Nancy yelled as the cold water cascaded over her, but Liz kept a firm hold of her even though she was getting drenched herself. She kept her under the cold shower for a couple of minutes before turning on the hot water and withdrawing.

  ‘Take off your nightdress and wash yourself, Nancy,’ she ordered in a tone that brooked no nonsense, handing her neighbour a bar of soap.

  Five minutes later she opened the door of the shower cubicle and handed in a bath towel that Nadine had given her. ‘Get dressed, quick,’ she said brusquely.

  The brusque tone got through to Nancy. ‘I’m sorry, Liz. I just lost my nerve,’ she muttered, ashamed.

  ‘Well, you’re going to get it back again.’ Liz softened. ‘Come on, quick, before Carol gets home. You don’t want her to see you like this.’

  ‘Where is she?’ Nancy asked, perplexed, trying hard to concentrate.

  ‘Gone for a jog. Come on now, Nancy, we’ve to sober you up and get ourselves to the hairdresser’s.’

  Liz badly needed a shower herself – she was drenched to the skin.

  ‘Finish getting dressed, I just want to have a word with Nadine,’ she instructed, slipping out of the bathroom. Nadine was hovering around anxiously.

  ‘Do us a favour, Nadine. When I take your mother over to my house, have a look around for that bottle she was drinking from and get rid of it, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ Nadine said, subdued.

  ‘She’s much better already – stop worrying.’ Liz smiled kindly at her. ‘These things happen on the road to recovery. After all, it’s a big day and a lot of pressure and your mam’s been doing very well.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ the teenager sighed.

  Ten minutes later Nancy was sitting in Liz’s kitchen drinking a mug of strong black coffee. Liz was in the shower and Tara was making more coffee.

  ‘Just get it down you, Nancy, and have some of those sandwiches I made up for you. They’ll soak up the alcohol, and anyway it’s not good for you to be going around on an empty stomach,’ Tara said matter-of-factly, trying to make the other woman feel less ill at ease.

  ‘I’ve let everyone down,’ Nancy muttered.

  ‘No, you haven’t,’ Tara said stoutly. ‘Just put it behind you now and best foot forward for the rest of the day. Right.’

  ‘Right,’ Nancy agreed, ashamed and disgusted with herself.

  * * *

  ‘Nancy’s plastered!’ Jessica whispered, opening the door to Katie.

  ‘Oh shit!’ Katie groaned.

  ‘Don’t go into the kitchen, Tara’s sobering her up. Let’s go up to the bedroom.’

  ‘OK, is Carol in bits?’

  ‘I don’t know. Poor Nadine was bawling her eyes out.’

  ‘Aw, the poor kid,’ Katie said sympathetically as she followed Jessica into her bedroom.

  ‘At least it’s a lovely day. Are you organized?’

  ‘Yeah, everything was going fine until this happened,’ Jessica said dolefully.

  ‘Is she very pissed?’ Katie made a face.

  ‘I don’t know – I kept out of the kitchen. I was afraid I’d give her a puck in the jaw.’ Jessica scowled.

  ‘Stay calm, breathe deeply.’ Katie flung herself onto the bed. ‘I can tell you one thing. I’m going to pig out for the rest of the week once this wedding’s over. If I never see a Ryvita and cottage cheese again I won’t be sorry.’

  ‘You’ve done great,’ Jessica praised. ‘Your dress is going to look stunning on you.’

  ‘Pity Sean won’t see it. I’d like him to see me looking my best,’ Katie said regretfully. ‘Still, I’ve lost ten pounds at least – when we do the biz I won’t be worrying about my spare tyre.’

  ‘When are you going to do it?’ Jessie asked eagerly.

  ‘The sooner the better. I just didn’t want him to think I was too easy, you know, after the way Carol went on about me being manless.’ Katie frowned. ‘He’s gorgeous. I’m mad about him and I think I’ve waited long enough. Carol was an awful eejit to let him slip through her fingers.’

  ‘I know. There’s no contest between him and Gary,’ Jessica said caustically.

  Katie glanced at her watch. ‘We’d want to be getting a move on – are we supposed to be collecting Carol and Amanda?’

  ‘Yeah, I expect we’d better get going,’ Jessica said reluctantly. ‘I wonder how’s Nancy?’

  ‘Forget Nancy – Mam and Liz are on the case. Just concentrate on yourself. Let’s go and get the girls.’ Katie hopped up off the bed and gave her cousin a comforting hug.

  * * *

  ‘Is Ma gone to the hairdresser’s?’ Carol wiped her brow with her towel as she marched into the kitchen. The run had steadied her nerves and she felt physically better, if not mentally so.

  ‘Yeah,’ Nadine fibbed.

  ‘Amanda phoned me, she’s in Rathnew, she won’t be long. I’d better get my ass into the shower.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Nadine said tiredly. She was wrecked. She’d found a half-empty bottle of vodka in Nancy’s bedroom and had stashed it at the back of her wardrobe. She needed to have a shower herself, and she was supposed to be going to get her hair done with the girls.

  She tidied up the kitchen, not wanting Amanda to think the house was a tip. After her trip to Dublin she’d been quite looking forward to the wedding, but so far it was turning out to be a complete disaster. Not only was Carol pregnant and Nancy pissed but she’d had a row with her friend Lynn over money the other girl had borrowed from her weeks ago and hadn’t paid back. She wanted the money for Carol’s wedding present.

  She’d told Lynn over and over that she needed her cash but the other girl had ignored her pleas. Nadine was really bugged about it. Lynn was much better off than she was. She was only a user, she’d decided, and had sent her a text telling her to get lost and not bother coming to the wedding. Lynn hadn’t even responded. That was infuriating. There was nothing worse than being ignored.

  She knew Carol had a wedding list but she didn’t possess a credit card, and although there was an internet café on the main street she hadn’t even tried to open the site. Instead she’d gone into a jeweller’s and bought Carol a gorgeous little Waterford Crystal clock.

  Now would be a good time to give it to her while they had the house to themselves, she decided. She waited until she heard Carol come out of the shower and knocked on her door.

  ‘Here’s your wedding present,’ she said gruffly, thrusting the wrapped gift into her hands.

  ‘Oh! Nadine, thanks, I wasn’t expecting one. You didn’t have to.’ Carol was taken aback.

  ‘I am your sister,’ Nadine said indignantly. ‘Of course I’d get you a present.’

  ‘Can I open it?’ Carol asked, sitting on the side of the bed.

  ‘Sure. I hope you like it.’ Nadine shrugged.

  ‘Oh, Nadine, it’s gorgeous. Aw, thanks very much,’ Carol said, clearly touched as she looked at the delicately designed clock nestling in its velvet resting-place. ‘I’ll treasure it,’ she said quietly, reaching out to give her sister a hug. Nadine managed a hug back; hugging was not something she was used to, but for that brief moment she felt a kinship with her sister that she had never felt before. It felt good.

  * * *

  Bill took one final look at himself in the mirror and was satisfied with the image he saw reflected back at him. He looked very smart, he approved, flicking a piece of lint off his freshly cleaned, charcoal-grey, fine-wool suit. His hair was neatly cut; he’d bought a new white shirt and a tasteful
maroon tie.

  He planned to take his time, stop in Chester Beatty’s in Ashford for lunch and be at the church by one forty-five. The fact that Nancy had given her imprimatur to his attendance at the church gave him confidence. At last bygones were going to be bygones and he had to give his wife all credit for that. He’d make sure to thank her sincerely, he decided magnanimously, as he checked his wallet to make sure he had cash for the trip.

  He felt bad going behind Brona’s back but he didn’t want to upset their uneasy truce. Maybe in time he might be able to tell her of the day’s happy events.

  With nervous but happy anticipation, Bill Logan left the house and set out on the journey to his daughter’s wedding.

  40

  ‘She did a lovely job on your hair, Jessie. The rose is gorgeous,’ Amanda enthused. ‘And I love yours swept to the side, Carol.’

  ‘I hope the blinking thing stays in, I keep wanting to fiddle with it—’

  ‘Don’t!’ Amanda, Katie, Carol and Nadine said in unison.

  Jessie laughed. ‘I won’t, I won’t.’

  ‘We all scrub up well, don’t we?’ Katie declared, delighted with her shining copper tresses. ‘Nadine, you look a million dollars. Mono’ll be mightily impressed.’

  Nadine blushed. She wasn’t used to compliments. ‘Give over,’ she said gruffly, but she was pleased. Her hair was sleek and shiny and the rat’s tails at the end had been cut and tidied. It was quite sophisticated, she thought, secretly pleased. It was a pity Lynn wasn’t coming to the wedding to see how well she looked in her new gear.

  ‘God, isn’t he a fine thing?’ Amanda declared, as they overtook a cyclist who was booting along the slip road from Arklow heading for Dublin. He had his shirt tied at his waist, and was drinking from a bottle of water as he pedalled furiously. He looked foreign. Sallow-skinned, tanned, hard-muscled, hairy-chested, he was a fine specimen of manhood and they all ogled him unashamedly. He grinned and waved at them, showing even white teeth.

  ‘Ooh, he’s gorgeous! I wish he was riding me, not his bicycle,’ Amanda sighed as the others guffawed. ‘I love hairy chests.’

  ‘Sean’s got a hairy chest,’ Katie said dreamily, the sight of the fit, lean cyclist putting a longing on her.

  ‘Sean Ryan?’ Carol demanded from the front seat. ‘My Sean?’

  ‘Er . . . umm—’ Katie came to with a start. What a blabbermouth she was, she thought in dismay, as she caught Jessie’s horrified gaze in the mirror.

  ‘Are you dating Sean?’ Carol turned to look at her. And Katie knew that the old saying ‘If looks could kill you’d be dead’ described perfectly the expression on the other girl’s face.

  ‘As it happens, yes, actually.’ Katie decided to go for broke. Carol would know about it some time; there was no point in lying.

  ‘I never thought you’d take my leavings. You’re welcome to him,’ Carol said coolly, and a tense silence descended on the car.

  ‘What time are the beauticians coming?’ Amanda babbled hastily when she saw the flush of temper rise to Katie’s cheeks.

  ‘Soon,’ Jessica said, putting her foot down on the accelerator, not caring whether she got points for speeding or not.

  Katie sat in the back seat, incandescent with rage. Carol Logan was a wagon of the highest order. A walking bitch. If it wasn’t Jessie’s wedding day she’d pull the bloody head off her, she raged. How dare she speak of Sean like that. The unmitigated cheek of her. Once this wedding was over she was never having anything to do with that bitch again.

  Carol clenched her fists in her lap as waves of humiliation and nausea swept over her. That bastard Sean Ryan was dating that stupid cow! Had he no taste? How could he? She hated him. Why, oh, why had she made that totally mortifying phone call? She cursed herself. The pair of them had probably been sniggering at her behind her back. Bile rose to her throat.

  ‘Stop . . . stop the car, I’m going to be sick,’ she urged as beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.

  Jessie pulled onto the hard shoulder and stood on the brakes, earning herself an angry beep from the car behind. Carol hurled herself out the door and bent double into the ditch, retching. Jessie reluctantly got out to assist. She didn’t want to catch Carol’s bug.

  ‘Are you OK?’ she asked, handing her a tissue.

  ‘No, no, I’m not OK, Jessie. I’m pregnant!’ Carol retorted and burst into tears.

  * * *

  ‘It’s good enough for her, sarky cow.’ Katie was not to be pacified as she sat in her dressing-gown watching the beautician apply Jessica’s make-up.

  ‘Ah, don’t be like that. She’s in shock. Imagine finding out that you’re pregnant on your wedding day!’ Jessica retorted. She was still stunned at her friend’s news. ‘Carol of all people. She was always paranoid about getting pregnant. I just can’t believe it. I feel really sorry for her.’

  ‘Jessie, I’m sorry, you can say what you like, I’ ll never feel sorry for Carol Logan and I wish I’d asked Sean to the wedding so I could really rub her nose in it. How dare she refer to him as her “leavings”?’

  ‘Forget it, will ya?’ Jessica groaned.

  ‘If she said something like that about Mike, would you be able to forget it?’ Katie demanded.

  ‘Well, so far it’s just been the perfect bloody day,’ Jessica snapped. ‘What more could I ask for than for you pair to be fighting?’

  ‘Sorry.’ Katie had the grace to look ashamed. ‘At least Nancy’s sober again,’ she murmured, casting around for something positive.

  ‘Yeah, but for how long?’ Jessie sighed, sinking into gloom.

  ‘She’ll be fine,’ Katie declared, with more conviction than she felt. ‘Just think, in a few hours you’ll be Mrs Mike Keating and you won’t give a hoot about anyone or anything. And your dress is out of this world.’

  ‘Yeah, it is lovely, isn’t it?’ Jessica cheered up, looking at the creamy gold ensemble hanging on the back door. ‘Tara did a terrific job.’

  ‘I’m dying to see Carol’s designer gear,’ Katie said cattily. ‘And I’m dying to see her face when she sees you. She really looks down her nose at dressmaking. Or “home-made” dresses, as she so disparagingly refers to them.’

  ‘Will you forget her!’ Jessie growled.

  ‘Sorry, sorry, won’t mention her again,’ Katie said sourly.

  ‘Huh! And pigs will fly,’ came back the tart rejoinder.

  * * *

  ‘I’m only going to the loo, Nadine,’ Nancy snapped. ‘Will you stop following me around? Aren’t you supposed to be getting your make-up done with the girls?’

  ‘She’d not finished with Amanda yet,’ Nadine retorted sulkily.

  ‘I won’t drink, if that’s what you’re worried about. I promised Liz.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Nadine said doubtfully.

  ‘Yes, Nadine. I am,’ Nancy said quietly.

  ‘I took the bottle out of your locker,’ Nadine confessed. ‘Just so you wouldn’t be tempted.’

  ‘That was kind, Nadine. And I’m sorry you had to do it,’ Nancy said unhappily.

  ‘Look, why don’t you take this packet of Polo mints and if you feel shaky and want a drink, suck one,’ Nadine suggested agitatedly, pulling a packet out of her jeans pocket.

  ‘That’s a really good idea, Nadine. Thanks.’ Nancy took the sweets. ‘I’ll put them in my bag. Now go and get ready, the car will be here in another three-quarters of an hour.’

  ‘OK,’ her daughter agreed, and went to join Carol and Amanda. Nancy bit her lip as she looked at the packet of Polo mints. Poor Nadine, too old for her years and all because of her and Bill. Guilt engulfed her yet again. She’d let everybody down today. And her bottle was gone out of her drawer. The only crutch she had was her Polo mints, she thought wryly.

  A thought struck her, and she slipped into her bedroom and sat on the bed. Her little spiritual book lay on her locker. She picked it up, closed her eyes and said simply, ‘Help’. Slowly she opened a page and read the words that awa
ited her. I cast the burden on the Christ within, and I go free.

  Nancy read it again just to make sure.

  What a perfect message, she thought in amazement. And for the first time in her life she felt as though she was not alone and that some Divine Being was minding her. She sat quietly, repeating the words, letting them sink in, as the knots in her stomach loosened and the headache that had pounded her temples began to fade and a measure of calm descended on her.

  * * *

  ‘How are you feeling now?’ Amanda asked anxiously. The last thing she wanted was to be trotting up the aisle after a barfing bride.

  ‘How would you feel?’ Carol said miserably.

  ‘I know.’ Amanda frowned. ‘I meant physically. Your tummy?’

  ‘Once I was sick I felt better.’ Carol shrugged.

  ‘Would you have a drop of brandy and port?’ her bridesmaid suggested. ‘Just to keep it at bay.’

  ‘I’ll see how I’m getting on. It wouldn’t exactly be PC to be reeking of alcohol up at the altar.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be the first,’ Amanda scoffed, stepping into her lilac dress.

  ‘I wonder have my boobs got bigger?’ Carol murmured as she slipped her dress carefully over her head.

  ‘Ah, come on, Carol, it’s only two weeks.’ Amanda laughed at the notion.

  ‘I supposed it’s wishful thinking. I always wanted bigger boobs.’ Carol managed a wan smile. ‘Don’t tell any of the gang in the club, sure you won’t?’

  ‘Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of it. They’ll all think you got preggers on the honeymoon,’ Amanda assured her, helping her to slide the folds of the dress over her hips.

  ‘Gary’ll probably divorce me when he finds out.’

  ‘Indeed and he won’t. Stop being dramatic,’ Amanda chided as she arranged the soft neckline over Carol’s bosom. ‘He certainly won’t divorce you when he sees you,’ she said in admiration when she stood back to admire her friend. ‘Look at yourself,’ she urged.