Epilogue

They waited for sunrise before beginning the ceremony. Wind whipped through the gathering, sending the white wedding gown built by her mother high enough to reveal Melissa's red and black silk garters on her white stocking covered thighs. Even Zelda's heavy, low cut, black velvet dress adorned with silver moons, one for each phase except the new moon, rose from ankle length to her knees. Her black lace scarf fluttered, but glistening five pointed silver and gold star pins in her hair kept it in place. Others attending the wedding held their skirts down, but Melissa and Zelda ignored nature's revelations.

The actual full moon large and blood red set on the horizon. The large rising sun cast a scarlet glow on the sparse clouds and on the faces of the small group attending the ceremony. The figures cast long shadows to their right except Zelda's cast to her left.

Several of the attendees had occupied a rented bus as it drove through the night from New York City via New Jersey, driven by James, the African limo driver who usually drove Elliot around the city. Paid exorbitantly by Elliot, Sophie and Sarah, he used the week and a half as a sort of busman's holiday, bringing his pretty blonde wife and their two preschool daughters along. The cute girls had strewn gardenias and lilacs in front of Melissa and Marjorie as they walked down the improvised aisle, Sarah, dressed in a black tuxedo and white shirt and matching cummerbund and black bow tie, a red rosebud pinned near her heart, awaiting her bride.

Deciding it constituted the most spiritual place in the Eastern United States; Zelda spoke inches from a dramatic hill, an Indian burial mound in Northern Kentucky.

"Mother Earth and Father Sky and Sister Moon and Brother Sun
Bare witness this June morning to two souls becoming one.
As hard matter becomes our structure and soft clay forms our skin
And sea water blood feeds us and the wind lets us breathe in
We are one with all the heavens and with the earth on which we stride.
Though where nerves channel lightening as thought in minds do hide
Seeming ever to be separate and seeming to keep us all alone
When two souls intermingle by their union it is shown
The universe surrounding us is equally within us all.
It takes two true loving souls to breach the skull's tough wall.

So heaven and earth and friends and lovers and family please embrace
The sacred bond these two have wove, a mesh none can erase
And celebrate their binding choice and celebrate their trust
In letting go of singleness, making union right and just.
As priestess to the third eye's sight and chosen by these two
I solemnize this unity and bestow on them their due
To become two as one in marriage and forever on this land
Once vows exchange their souls shall walk through life hand in hand."

Nodding to them, Zelda watched the tears ooze from happy eyes as Sarah and Melissa faced each other. Sarah spoke first.

"Melissa my love, before I met you, I tasted sourness inside me and sent sourness to all unfortunate enough to encounter me. I thought the world had it in for me and I worked hard to prove it or provoke it. I wonder how my mother kept her hands off my neck to strangle away my ungrateful words. Then your sweetness infected me. I fought for awhile the dreaded disease of happiness, but seeing your brilliant smile everyday on the bus to school and back and in class and at home I realized what a treasure you are, what a gift you are. Because of you the world is a much better place. And me, I'm the luckiest person alive receiving your love along with your smile. You have made me a better person to the nth power. I love you entirely with every breath and every heartbeat. From toenail to split end, my heart and soul belong to you and will for as long as God or the universe allows us to live. I promise I will attend every word you speak and weather every storm we encounter and strive to ensure your happiness as you have given me mine. I am yours my love, my wife, my friend, my soul mate, my everything."

Melissa:

"When we first met, I practically rubbed my hands together in glee. 'What a project!' I thought. I saw your sourness, your meanness even, but always this loveliness prevailed. In fact your loveliness nearly broke my heart. It overwhelmed me. Isn't the most touching image laughing through tears? Of course your loveliness prevailed. In fact it saved me and my mother. Both of us hid monsters that clawed in the sealed darkness, ripping at our hearts and our minds. Mom took the worst of it, barely functioning despite her golden smile. But I was nearly as fragile. You opened up the chambers, releasing the demons, fucking us up for a night or two, but afterwards we walked into fresh air no longer corrupted by evil ripping and rending and sickening it. I know you consider me to be your giver of light, but I feel exactly the same about you. Sarah, I'm alive because of you. You are my life. That I breathe your breath and share the sounds and tastes and smells and surroundings and even the thoughts it seems with you, my lovely bride, my sister, my lover, my best friend, my soul, my heart, is a constant miracle to me. I intend, as I know you do, to sustain this miracle for as long as we both live. Okay?" Melissa smiled brilliantly through tears. Both young women giggled.