Chapter 24: The Wedding

Cody slept for over eighteen hours. The next morning, Jewel awoke very early and checked on him every thirty minutes. She decided that if he were not awake by noon she would wake him to come out for lunch.

A few minutes after noon she headed to the bedroom intent of rousting her finance. She found him sitting up in bed with his fingers tented. She gasped.

“Cody,” she rushed to the bedside to sit next to him. “What are you doing? I thought that all went away.”

Cody raised his face and looked her in the eye. The first thing she noticed was how clear his gaze seemed. He could not hold back a huge grin.

“It is! All gone. I tent my fingers and I no longer see The Onyx.”

Jewel screeched. “Cody!” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back with equal fervor.

She pulled back and looked at him intently. “It’s gone? Really gone? You’re not pulling a fast one to keep some super power?”

Cody took his hands and put them on either side of Jewel’s face. He grinned. “I swear to you. The Onyx is gone. I no longer have any powers. I would never lie to you. I love you and can’t wait until Saturday when we become husband and wife.”

Jewel squeaked again and hugged him tightly.

“What do I smell?” said Cody.

“Oh, shit! Burgers. They are on the stove. Come on, let’s go get lunch. If they’re not too burned.”

The burgers had a solid crust but Cody insisted it just gave them a nice charred flavor.

Jewel kept touching, smiling, and hugging Cody throughout lunch.

As they moved the dishes to the sink, Cody asked about the last-minute wedding plans she mentioned.

“I know you’ve been trying to plan everything, even with what’s been going on. What else needs to be done?”

“You sure you want to know?” she said with a wicked grin. She went to the kitchen and took a notebook from a drawer. When she opened it, Cody saw that most of the lines on the current page did not have check marks.

Cody kissed Jewel at the door of their house on Friday afternoon.

“Next time I see you, you will be walking down a church aisle.”

“And you will be standing on a podium in a tuxedo waiting patiently for your bride.”

They grinned at each other and held hands.

“Have a good night,” she said.

“With my parents?” he said. “Not a chance. But you, have a tame night.”

She snorted. “Tame? Not with my friends.”

They laughed at each other’s predicament.

“I love you,” they said together.

Cody gave her hands a final squeeze then let himself out to go to his parent’s house. When he arrived he saw several cars in the driveway and on the street. In the house, he found his aunt and uncle that lived in town, but to his great surprise, Aunt Edith, Mason’s sister, was also there from Philadelphia.

“Cody!” she wailed. She rushed to him and gave him a big hug. “I hope you are ready for a bachelor party.”

Cody knew it would not be a night of traditional debauchery as Auntie Edith was in her 80s, but he also knew it would be a night to never be forgotten. Edith found and then brooked no opposition when she dragged them all out to a local karaoke bar. When she let the bartender and manager know she was there for her nephew’s wedding, they gave her plenty of latitude in picking both the songs and singers.