Chapter 14

Carl’s turn:

I wake in the wee hours of the morning, realize my situation.

Location. I’m in a hotel room in Auburn, Alabama.

Proximity. Next to me, covered up, is a particularly fine example of a female, especially if you have any sort of taste for the exotic, in the form of a beautiful girl of Korean ancestry, her ebony hair disarranged in the most charming manner.

Plan. We’re getting up in the morning, I’m giving her up to what she terms ‘the sisterhood’ and the next time I see her, we’ll be in front of the community, in front of a preacher, and we’re getting married.

Ain’t nothing better I could ask for.

I re-arranged myself, cuddled up behind her. Must’ve disturbed her into semi-wakefulness because she nestled backward into me, like this is the way it’s supposed to be.

It is.

We were told NOT to go looking for breakfast on our own, and to be present at the pavilion at 0800.

Which means ... I felt a nudge. Opened an eye and saw the clock. 0650.

“Our wedding day, Carl.”

I turned to face her.

“Still time to run, Sunny. But I really wish you wouldn’t.”

“Not on your life, Carl Primeaux. You’re stuck with me.”

“I’ve settled myself to that conclusion. Not half bad.”

“Not half bad?” she tittered. “Good enough for a quickie, then a shower?”

“Ma’am, you know how to wake a guy up...”

She LIKES a quickie, and I like ‘em, too. Squeezed both of us into the hotel shower afterward.

“Now, for the rest of the day I’ll have those little twinges thinking about how YOU fill me up so wonderfully, and you’ll be thinking of doing it some more after the wedding...”

We bumped into each other a lot as we went through the morning ablutions before we dressed. Sunny grabbed a hanging bag with her dress, I did the same for my suit, and off we went.

I hope that it’s a portent – beautiful blue skies, cool, just perfect. Like the creature sitting in the seat beside me.

We got segregated when we arrived at the pavilion.

“Has to be this way,” Jason said. “The ladies have their rituals and indoctrinations.”

“While we sit in a circle hooting and throwing clods of dirt in the air,” Bill Simon inserted.

“Yeah, it’s kinda like that,” Alan said. “She does look pretty over there, though.”

I looked. I’m prejudiced, you understand, but there she is in the middle of a bunch of pretty women, and her shiny black hair, almost blue when the sun hits it right, slightly tawny skin and those almond eyes, she’s the orchid in a field of daisies. I say a little prayer of thanks.

It’s kind of a blur, looking back. I found myself in the pavilion again, wondering how they managed to clean it and rearrange it so fast (Alan says they have a list of college kids who’ll gladly work a Saturday for a few bucks.) but now it’s changed, and I’m on the dais up front with a Baptist preacher beside me, Cindy and her mom are singing, accompanied by another redhead on a flute and a little brown-haired girl on a violin and normally with music like this, you’d expect to see angels.

And the back doors open and I saw one.

Sunny. Wasn’t in the dress she’d brought with us. This was a simple off-white sheath, the lines leaving the beauty to the form they covered. Embroidery on the patch under her face. A wreath of little blue flowers around her head.

Sandy Gleason and that little brown-haired violinist – I found out she’s Kara Williams – provided the Wedding March as Sunny was escorted up the center of the room in the middle of a covey of beauties.

But mine’s the prettiest.

Then she’s standing beside me and I vaguely remember some words and I answered “I do” and took a ring from a pillow held by a robot with a bowtie and put it on HER finger, and I got kissed.

The preacher had us turn to face the crowd. “Friends, family, it gives me joy to present to you Carl and Soon Yi Primeaux. May the Lord bless us all.”

We stepped off the dais and into the waiting crowd.

Mom hit Sunny for the first hug while Dad hugged me. After that, it was just about everybody, including Vicki, in the company of an athletic-looking Bill Hardesty. I bent over for a kiss from Vicki.

“I like being right. And don’t disappoint Sunny. I’d hate to have to hunt you down...” and she kissed my cheek.

What a strange little creature. She gives my wife a hug, too, then moves off, holding hands (HOLDING HANDS?!?) with the guy.

We tactfully hung around for a bit before leaving under a hail of flower petals, courtesy of Grandma Desai, a sweet, smiling older Hindu lady who congratulated us warmly. Cindy snickered. “Grandma Desai’s the keeper of the Shiva shrine.”

“Shiva blew up my pickup truck,” Sunny told her in the middle of a hug.

“My daughter Chandra,” she said, touching Cindy’s arm, “asked me to make prayer to Shiva for both of you. Shiva is The Destroyer. Out of destruction, life arises.”

“My deepest thanks, ma’am,” I said. Yeah, I know ... My Baptist preacher back home would likely accuse me of consorting with demons or something, but I just can’t ascribe evil to the kindly face before me, and I also can’t help but believe that God hears the prayers of a good woman.

We know the way to the hotel. Easy run.

“Sunny, I promise you a real honeymoon, darlin’,” I said

“Husband, you’ve been telling me that for two weeks. When this project is over, we’ll do something.”

“I owe you...”

“We owe each other.” She paused. “If you just want it to be me and you, I know a trick...”

“What kind of trick?”

We’d talked about doing a cruise. Her comment was that she was just dying to be in an enclosed space with three thousand other people.

“Johanna’s folks – her dad’s the CEO – have a place in the mountains in Montana. They fly up there for a while. So’s Johanna and Stoney and the baby. They have cabins. We could catch a ride, spend a week or so ... Our own cabin. Food, if we don’t want to go out, or we can be friendly and sociable...”

“Winter in Montana...”

“Adventure. That’s what Tommy and Mimi did for their honeymoon.”

“That’s if I live through tonight,” I laughed.

“Oh, was I supposed to be saving up something special for tonight?” she laughed.

“Well I did,” I replied.

“Oh, really? I thought I got the best you had.”

“You did. You make me better at that than I ever imagined...”

“Oh, god, Carl ... I LEARNED what loving feels like.”

“Me too, babe.”

“Get me to the hotel, Carl. Marriage? We gotta consummate...”

“Consummate? Ain’t thet one a’them prissy-ass soups? Ah jus’ luvs me a eddicated woman...” I drawled.

“You have the most horrible sense of humor, Carl...”

“You knew that when you married me.”

Hotel. I’d left them a note asking that they make sure our room was done early. It was.

“Okay, what’s the story on the dress?”

“This thing?”

“Yeah. That’s not what you brought.”

“Something borrowed,” she said. “Kim wore it. Kara wore it. Tara wore it. I wore it.”

“It fits you well. Perfect.”

“That was part of this morning. They brought the dress and a seamstress.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“I thought so. Just seems right. It’d seem more right draped over the back of that chair, though...” and she kissed me.

Naked in bed after Round One. She’s on top of me.

“You really do love me, don’t you?”

“One of life’s big truths, Sunny. And you love me just as much.”

“Maybe more.”

“It’s gonna be fun figuring out who’s right, huh?”

Nubile body wiggling atop me. Big smile that encompasses her whole beautiful exotic face. “Yes, it will.” Giggle. “Hard again?”

“Oh yeah...”

“That thing must be protected from exposure to air.”

“Oh, where shall we put it?”

“Well, it has to be someplace where I can still see your blue eyes.” She raised up, reached her hand down, and...

“God, Sunny, you get me.”

“You get me too, Carl. So good.” Our mouths met.

We staggered out of the room at nine in the evening, headed to a burger joint she knew about.

“Gotta keep my strength up,” I said.

“Me too, baby,” she said. “I’m dehydrating, the fun way...”

Then back to the room and heaven help me, she’s still delectable and giggly.

Oh, well ... One more couldn’t hurt. And then...

“Kim Soon Yi, if you shake your hair like that one more time, I’m gonna start biting chunks off that little pink ass.”

She shook her head, grinning.

I can’t call it ‘sleep’. I was paralyzed and comatose, barely able to keep my arm around her.

“That’s what I expected from our honeymoon,” she sighed, her last words before we slept.

I guess I was sleeping really hard because I woke up when a knotted muscle pierced the slumber. Time to move. The sweet thing in bed with me had slid slightly away, turning onto her other side.

I can’t help myself. I had to touch the magical swirl of hair at her neck. Silk. One little feel of her shoulder. Skin. More silk.

Okay, Carl, let the cutie sleep. I arranged myself, leaned forward to catch a sniff of the top of her head, then planted a kiss, just a brush of lips.

Heard “Mmmm”. Got a twist of body and found myself nose to nose with her. Soft giggle. “I was kinda drifting along,” she said, “wondering if I should attack you.”

“And your answer?”

“I should, but you’re a mean ol’ thing and you’ll probably attack right back.” Titter. “I feel a weapon...”