Chapter 13

Wedding day and a surprise! Myra and Walt knocked on the door just after nine o'clock. Penny and Bill were the only ones that knew they were going to be present at their daughter's wedding. Some different from the last time she was married. That one was boycotted because the chief didn't like his daughter's choice of a man. This one he did and was present to show his approval.

"Where's the boy?" Walt asked the question after the greetings and the women had gone into the living room.

"Paul? He's downstairs on the computer. I don't know just what he is doing. He received some new games for Christmas or he may be practicing something I've set him up to be interested in. Let's go down and see. After all he is your grandson."

"Hrummph."

Ed had to smile. Walt wasn't going to own that he had a grandson, not this one anyway. Paul was playing Free Cell and his grandfather stood behind him to watch. "So he won a game, so what? Bob plays all the time. His percentage is seventy-two. He tells me that is really good."

Ed took the mouse from Paul's hand and clicked the details showing games played and percentage. It showed Paul had played 2147 games. Games won, 2147, games lost, zero. Percentage, 100%. "Paul hasn't been here long enough to run up a really impressive score yet. The machine he had at home had several hundred thousand games won on it with the same percentage.

"Sir, your grandson is severely disabled, no question about that, but he is damned near genius in the things he can do. I don't think he ever will be able to talk, but I discovered a way to communicate with him to some extent and I have just started with him. Penny, Cindy and his mother are working with him all the time. Cindy has the most influence on him and I've done my bit. I have a feeling someday you are going to be bragging about what this kid has accomplished."

"Not to be a downer, but I don't believe you. I'd like to have you prove me wrong though. How long is this miracle going to take? I'll bet you a six pack against your favorite beer that in two years he will be the same. Kids like him just don't get no better. I checked when Sally first discovered what was wrong with him."

"I'll remember this conversation and I'd like to bet with you. I won't though, because it wouldn't be right. In a few hours he is going to be my son. No one would bet against his son." Ed looked him in the face until Walt flushed."

"Or his grandson either? Is that what you are trying to get across to me? If it is, you've done a good job of it. You know, I took a big dislike to you at first and later I figured Sally had found another loser, and now I am seeing you through my daughter's eyes. I'd like to call you Ed and be friends with you. That's not just because Myra says I have to either." Walt was asking.

"Certainly."

"Good. Why don't you call me Walt. I'm not going to be chief when I retire and that isn't too far down the road. I'm just realizing everyone calling me Chief is just a bit of vain foolishness. It's time that people remembered my name is Walter. Ed, I'm beginning to think maybe you will pull off what you want to with my grandson. I certainly hope so."

Penny, Myra, and Cindy loaded Sally into one of the cars and went into town to George and Emmy's where she was to get ready. Penny and Myra wanted Sally to have her hair done, but Sally said no. She had seen a wedding picture of Myra in the dress and wanted her hair done just like her mother which didn't need a hairdresser.

Walt, the chief, stayed with his wife and Sally when Ed reached the house where Sally was dressing. Cindy had already dressed and offered to help Ed with Paul at Bill's house. "Ed, you get dressed and I will get Paul's suit on him." This was to be a simple wedding and ceremony so Ed was wearing his best suit. He was nowhere as nervous as he had been at his first wedding, that is until it was time to go to the church.

The church seemed filled when Ed stepped out and stood where he was to be married when Sally came down the aisle to him. Bill as best man and Paul stood with him. Cindy objected at the final moment and wouldn't go to the back of the church to lead the procession down the aisle ahead of Sally. She demanded to stand with Paul and she had the flowers in one hand and her hand grasping Paul's in the other when the organist played the wedding march.

Ed looked out over the filled pews to see his friends who had come to celebrate him being married to a woman no one really knew yet. Mr. and Mrs. Butler were there and Bill's two sisters and their husbands. Several of the people that Ed worked with and also Eloise Hartley were sitting in the back of the church. Three women and the manager of the store where Sally had worked so many years made the trip. The biggest surprise of all was when Bob and Sammy came in after the minister had started reading the service.

Ed had made a sizable donation to the church and the ladies put on a dinner for all that wanted to attend. Ed and Sally had sent no invitations and yet all those in the church and those downstairs had come to meet and congratulate the newlyweds. Cindy was the one that was the most excited of all. She whispered to Ed, "Someday Paul and I will have a wedding just as beautiful and nice as this one. And that will be the day I can call you my dad, too." She scampered away before Ed could say anything.

No one lingered after the meal. Ed and Sally said goodbye to everyone and were soon on their way. Ed took Sally to Boston to see a few shows and they were happy to just wander around and see some of the historical sights. The rest of the time they shoved their daily cares into the background and concentrated on getting to know each other and making each other happy.

Ed was more experienced in lovemaking but Sally was the less inhibited, and when they returned north Sunday morning, they knew what they had was something that would last as long as they lived. They arrived in town just in time to grab a cup of coffee and then to attend church. They felt compelled to thank God for the gifts He had given them. Then they went to Bill's house and picked up Paul.

Penny moved to Bill's house over the weekend, but not Cindy because she was going to stay one more week at Ed's house while Bill and Penny went off on vacation. Cindy had to return to school on Wednesday, so really there had been no real changes for her yet. Ed had to work, which was the deal he made with Bill to get Sally moved three weeks previously. Bill then could have a week off the first week of the year.

Cindy slept in Paul's room now, the one with the twin beds. Ed and Sally moved to the master bedroom upstairs. Ed laughed the first night he occupied it. "Do you realize this is the first time I have slept in this bed since early October? And wonders, look who is here with me? Never, ever as long as you are with me am I going to give it up again. I'm home!"

It was a busy week for Ed. He was covering for Bill at the factory and he was getting used to being married. Penny and Bill had married and Cindy was nominally living with them. Every day she didn't have school Cindy managed to be up in West Brattleboro with Sally and Ed. Ed wasn't fooled, for he knew it was Paul that was the attraction for her.

Sally and Ed were concerned for her. She seemed to have this obsession for Paul. Maybe it was because she had declared her love for him. Penny talked with Cindy about the situation, telling her it was hopeless and she was denying herself a normal childhood. "Mom, Paul doesn't have much of a life and I make it better for him by just being there with him. Ed is the only one who understands me, why can't you?"

This brought a family meeting of Bill, Penny, Sally, and Ed with Cindy sitting down around the kitchen table. Cindy, now a teenager, sat back from the table with a sullen look on her face. Penny started to say something. "Mom, I'm not listening to anything anyone says except Ed."

All faces turned to Ed. "Okay Cindy, I'll explain the way things are. You aren't going to like some of what I have to say. That said, I guess I do understand how you feel about Paul. We all have hopes for Paul that someday he will grow to be normal. I was there at the university when he was tested. I was told the area in his brain where speech is located is pretty much a blank.

"That's sad, but that is the way it is. Other areas of his brain show unbelievable activity so we know in some ways he is highly intelligent. You can say if he had more of one thing and less of the other he would be better off. But who would he be better off for? His mother, me, his father, your mother and Bill, or just you? He is a definite care and will be for the rest of his life. We are his support group and that includes you.

"We just hate to see you throw your life away on someone that gives you no real return."

"But Ed, I do get real return. I love Paul and he loves me. He just can't express it. Tell me, what is going to happen when you and Sally get old and die. Who is going to take care of Paul? I will, and you know it. Mom probably would, but she might die too before he does. I have a lot of sleepless nights worrying about that happening."

Ed looked close at Cindy and maybe into her heart. It was as if he didn't really know her. She was willing to give up a normal life for Paul. It made him love her more than ever. He looked around the table and all felt the same way. "Let's let that go for a minute. We do know you love Paul, but there are other obstacles in the way of your having what you wish for.

"I'm thinking someday you believe you and Paul will marry. You could, and feeling the way you do about him, I wouldn't mind. The problem is that here in Vermont you have to be of sound mind. Would Paul qualify? I hesitate to say he would. Sally, I asked you when you complained about not having enough to do, if you would observe Paul and take notes because we may have him evaluated again. Do you see any improvement in his actions at all?"

"Oh yes, let me get my notes." Sally came back and opened a spiral binder. "Most of the obvious improvement concerns Cindy and you of course. There is a calendar on the computer. I pointed it to Paul once. I have noticed he looks at it every day. I was puzzled at first. I finally got onto the fact that he knew what day Cindy would be up here with him. It isn't much, but it is something.

"If she misses a day on the weekend, he is nervous and upset. When you go away on your job every month he gets excited when he knows you are returning. He uses the calendar for that too. To me that shows the beginning of reasoning.

"You have given him futures contracts to track just as he was speculating on the floor of the CBOE. He follows the trends and averages. He sells a contract if it reaches the stop limits he has put in place and often buys the same contract back if it gets way low and he has read something that indicates it may go up again. He has been doing this for the last two months.

"I have hesitated to ask if you are going to let him give you advice in trading. I have learned enough about margins and margin calls to know a person can lose a lot of money. I haven't seen that he would have to answer a margin call on any of the so-called contracts he follows."

"That is something to look into. I gave him those books and papers to read to keep his brain active and I guess I haven't followed up on it. Anything else?"

"Ed, if Paul could talk and had full control of his emotions, I believe he could be considered of sound mind. Enough of a mind to marry Cindy, anyway."

Cindy was all smiles. "Sally, thank you, thank you. I have faith in him and someday he and I will be married just like you and Ed are. I want to be happy and married to Paul and I will be. Is it okay if I sleep here tonight? I want to dream a little."

Penny had something to say about this. "Sally, I don't want to argue with you about this, but I still don't want Cindy to get too close to Paul. I'm sorry."

"I can understand your feelings Penny. I would like to have Cindy come as often as she has been, though. Paul is just so much better."

"I like Paul and I love you like a sister. If you promise that you will never let Cindy touch Paul in any intimate way, I will let her visit as much as possible."