Chapter 10: Put Your Best Foot Forward

The usual fare was done away with the Sunday of the wedding. Twenty-seven people were scheduled for baptism. The wedding ceremony for the latest, most famous couple in Tulsa left no time for frills like sermons.

Ruby sang two songs and accompanied herself on guitar. When she sat back to wait for the rest of the service to wind down, she looked out over the large crowd, the way an empress might observe her subjects.

Reverend Henry Friend gave a very short baptism talk and prepared to immerse the twenty-seven new souls who had come forward the previous Wednesday evening. The offering plates were passed and returned heaped with cash. Even the overflow crowd in the parking lot was given a chance to donate.

Three deacons rolled the pulpit aside and removed the flooring to open the baptismal font, newly filled with water, to public view. Henry was at his oratorical best as he baptized twenty-seven men and women, one at a time. His arms ached when he brought the last person, a heavyset woman, out of the water. Reverend Henry Friend decided the Catholics had the right idea after all with their sprinkling as opposed to the full immersion insisted on by the Baptists.

Ruby sang three more numbers while the preacher and the newly baptized people changed. Jimmy could not keep his eyes off this magical creature that in minutes was to become his wife. The time came for him and Ruby to get dressed for the wedding ceremony.

Rather than a bridal gown, Henry suggested a slightly below the knees lace dress. It was almost white with a whisper of mint. As a "widow," it was decided virginal white might seem inappropriate in the eyes of some. The long stem white roses she carried in the crook of her left arm brought tears to the eyes of many of the women present.

Stanley Green escorted the radiant bride to the altar. His expressionless face hid his horniness well as he felt her hand rest on his arm.

Jimmy was in a daze as he accepted the wedding ring from his best man, the governor. The mayor was asked to give the benediction and the ceremony began.

As soon as Henry said, "I pronounce you man and wife", Jimmy kissed his newly minted wife. She slipped her tongue between his lips and he became hard. More than a few of the women present, married and single, saw the bulge in the front of his pants as proof of his passion and manliness. They all decided it was a good omen and that the marriage would last.

Jimmy drove them to the reception. "By god, we done it. Oh honey, you are now Missus Jimmy Ray Haggard." He yelled a loud "Yahoo!" toward the sky and almost rear ended a stopped car.

"Jimmy, please watch where we're going. I want to be the live wife of Jimmy Ray Haggard, for a few hours anyway." Ruby's heart was filled with love for her man. "Oh honey," she whispered, as she laid her head on his shoulder.

Short minutes later, the newlyweds stood at the head of the reception line and greeted the hundred odd guests who held the much-cherished engraved invitations to the reception. Wally Chubb took picture after picture, helped by his new assistant. He had acquired a newly graduated, pretty coed from Oklahoma State University.

Two whole pages of the Monday morning edition of the society section were devoted to the baptisms, with the correct name under the each picture. The Metro section was devoted to a pictorial essay on the state and local celebrities who were present. A half page had been given over to a picture of Stanley Green as he escorted the bride down the aisle and handed her into place beside Jimmy. Jimmy's place in the pecking order at the newspaper was obliquely mentioned as "an important key position."

It was the only time in the history of the newspaper that a complete run from the presses was sold out immediately. More copies were printed to meet the demand. Stanley Green decided Ruby was good for business. Then he sighed and thought how good it would be for him, if he could get some of her.

He was unaware Ruby knew of his letch for her. She had devised a plan to handle that little detail before it became a problem and had already begun to implement her plan.

The reception had become the political event of the year. The Governor and the mayor stood surrounded by admirers and sycophants while holding watered down drinks. Both men had planned to stay only a short while and leave sober, with clear heads.

However, Ruby arranged for both politicians to have personal waitresses whose only duties were to keep the drinks poured, ever fresh and full strength. The plans for quick in and out appearances at the reception were changed. Ruby changed their plans. An hour later, they were both staggering drunk.

The mayor finally passed out and was carried home by two volunteers. The governor was made of sterner stuff. He left with his waitress who helped him walk straight and got laid in the back seat of his Lincoln Continental while his driver kept his eyes on the road ahead. She served the governor so well that afternoon she became the newest hire on his staff.

Greta, the waitress Ruby planned to use as her chief problem solver with Stanley, was pressed into duty at the appropriate time. Ruby had learned earlier in the week that Greta, a tall and lanky blond, worked part time as a waitress while she attended Tulsa City College. She was a hungry hillbilly country girl with ambition. She wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Ruby coached her well. Now was the time to take care of Stanley Green.

"Mister Green, this is Greta, your personal waitress. She will take care of your every need. If you want anything at all, just ask Greta." Ruby smiled and hurried off to find Henry Friend. Jimmy caught up with her and followed along in her wake.

"Oh, Mister Green, you are just like Ruby described you," Greta told him, fluttering her eyes.

"How was that?" Stanley asked. "She say I was a short, ugly Jew?" Stanley was bored and restless. He sought an excuse to leave early.

"Oh no, sir," she told him breathlessly. Greta's voice sounded like a growl as she said, "She said you were a man of raw power. I did not know what she meant until I met you. Would you like another drink or something?" She emphasized the "or something" just a little, in a way the publisher was not quite certain if he read her right.

Stanley was tired of the unfulfilled sex urges Ruby awakened inside him. "You like working here?" he asked. Right then Stanley Green was the perfect picture of a hard driving businessman who had never developed many conversational skills.

"Well," she drew out the "well." She took a deep breath and the top button on her uniform popped off. The threads had been partially cut through earlier so this would happen.

Somehow, Stanley caught the button and stared at the two pink nippled breasts struggling to free themselves from the transparent bra restraining them. "Maybe I ought to try to put this little button back in place." He held it up as a trophy. Ruby had rekindled fires he thought dead. This big blond added fuel to the flames. Greta looked straight into his eyes and licked her lips. She smiled in a way that added more gas to the fire now raging out of control inside him.

She grinned her appreciation at his attempt to be clever and told him, "She didn't say you had a glib ... tongue too." Her mention of "tongue" conjured up mental images of his tongue being put to another good purpose. She licked her lips with just a flicker of her own tongue. Stanley had already begun to surrender to the feelings inside him.

"What do you do when you aren't working as a waitress and leading some poor old man on?" He looked up at her. In an instant, he was interested in this big busty blond. Over and over, he felt a few more twinges in that area of his body he thought long dead. He smiled to himself as he realized that area had been merely dormant and waiting to be aroused.

"I study journalism in college and write short stories." She smiled modestly, "I haven't been published yet, but I have hopes of connecting. Perhaps some day." She sighed and Stanley hoped one of her fine breasts would pop out at him. No such luck.

On impulse, he asked, "You want to come to work for a newspaper? I need another intern. You got the job if you want it." They stood on the edge of the crowded room.

"Why I don't know what to say, this is so sudden," she gasped. This was going just like that red headed lady said it would.

"Come on, let's get out of here and go someplace where we can talk and be alone." He turned and marched toward the door. For a moment, he was afraid he would become a laughing stock if people saw them leave together. Then, he realized he did not care. He wanted to get into this big blond girl now.

"Let's go to your office and..." her voice trailed off. "Well, I want to see where a big man like you does his stuff. She grabbed his arm and let him pull her along toward the entrance.

Ruby smiled as she watched them leave. Too bad all problems were not so easy to solve.

After the reception finally wound down, the newlyweds went home to be alone. Jimmy snagged the newspaper up off the porch as they entered. "Let's not get divorced, if you don't mind," he told Ruby. "I don't think I could make it through another shindig like today."

In an instant, her face paled and became serious. "Jimmy Ray Haggard, I don't ever want you to say anything about a divorce, even in joke. Just to hear the word scares me."

He kissed her and stepped back in order to look at her. "I mean it, Honey. I got you and I want only you forever." His features softened as he told her in a gentle voice, "Ruby, they will have to shoot me to get me pried loose from you and that might not even work."

His eyes became moist as he stared into hers. "You gave me hope and a reason to live when I had none before you come into my life. You give me love." Tears of wonder filled his eyes as he looked at her. "Oh Jesus, Ruby, how I love you."

Ruby choked as she tried to answer him. She hugged him tight against her, then stepped back and looked up into his eyes in awe. "Jimmy, I never knew the meaning of love before I met you. I thought it was just a word. Then you happened to me."

He led her inside and sat on the sofa. She sat on his lap and laid her head against his chest. In her throaty voice, she began to hum. It was a song without words. Slowly he rocked backward and forward in time to the humming. "What is that tune? I never heard anything quite like it."