Post Grid: An Arizona EMP Adventure (39 page)

****

“Hi, Emma. Hi, Lynn,” Bea Banting said, smiling as she answered her front door. “I'm glad you stood down on the road and yelled before you came up the driveway. I'm a woman alone now and I just can't tell you how unnerving it can be to have unannounced visitors.”

Emma eyed the shotgun near the front door and nodded. “I can't even imagine, Bea,” Emma said, laying her hand on the woman's shoulder. She entered the front door with a large basket over her forearm. “Do you feel safe down here, all by yourself?”

“No, not really, but I'm not willing to leave this house yet. Emmet and I lived here a long time and it's all I have left of
us
. You can understand, can't you?” Bea asked Emma.

“Of course.”

Bea closed the front door and took the basket. “I can't believe you have been able to get all of this stuff out of the house without the kids noticing.”

“I think Kelly has started to suspect something with Lynn and I disappearing every few days for a few hours at a time, but she'll just have to wonder,” said Emma.

“Yeah, I think she knows something's up,” said Lynn. “But she also knows the wedding is just around the corner, so she's not asking
too
many questions.”

“I see you brought some more ingredients for the wedding cake,” Bea said with a grin. She sorted through the basket. “Let's go to the kitchen, Emma. Lynn, take a look on the guest bed. We got some more piecing done last night and I think you'll be surprised.”

Lynn headed for the front bedroom while Emma followed Bea into the kitchen. “It's really not necessary for you to take on so much of this project, Bea. But we sure do appreciate your help.”

“It's a joy, really. Since Emmet died, I don't have that much to do. The garden is dead until spring, I've gotten all of my canning done, and the townsfolk have been so good about getting me firewood for the winter, that all I've been doing is rattling around this house alone and lonely.”

“I know, girl, and we do appreciate your help,” said Emma. “Your idea to hide the cake ingredients and then make it here was a stroke of brilliance. This should be the last installment except for the baking soda, so no one will suspect anything.”

“Emma! Emma!” Lynn shouted from the front bedroom.

“What?” Emma asked as she reached the kitchen's door frame. Bea was right on Emma's heels.

Lynn draped herself in the quilt top that had lain across the bed. “Isn't it beautiful?” Lynn asked. “I've never seen anything so pretty. I didn't know it would look this nice when we cut all of those pieces.”

Bea and the other women from town had taken hundreds of little fabric diamonds and joined them in a way that a swirl of color swished across the quilt top.

“The girls from town and I got that much put together yesterday. We still have to finish piecing the one lower corner and the border, then we'll be ready to stretch her out on the frame and secure the batting.”

“Amazing,” whispered Emma, fingering the fine stitches. “You are a true artist and the fact that you have taught the rest of us to piece a quilt is a miracle.”

“Oh, I don't know about a miracle, but you all have really learned quickly and pulled together; otherwise, it never could have gotten done this quickly. I'd say two more days and we'll be done. A half day for piecing and a day and a half for the quilting.”

“And none too soon,” said Emma. “Can you believe the wedding is this Saturday? Only five days away. Lynn and I have the Branham's house done and the sheets finished—we even made pillowcases to match. The men have loaded the trailer up with some cooking utensils, food, firewood and such for the honeymoon. They aren't taking it over to the house 'til Saturday morning, the day of the wedding. We don't want it stolen.”

“Tell Bea about Rich's plan to scare them.” Lynn grinned mischievously.

Bea glanced questioningly at Emma.

“Oh, that ol' coot is planning a
shivaree
.”

“What in the world is a
shivaree
?” asked Bea.

Lynn didn't let Emma answer. “It's like a party where you make the married couple get out of bed on their wedding night. Mean, huh?”

“Why would you do that?” Bea asked.

“For fun, I guess, if you're an ol' coot,” said Emma. “It's an old, old custom. It originated back in France, or somewhere like that. It was something the young folks did out in the country, all in good fun. There wasn't a lot to do back then like there is now. That old man has his mind set on it and he's recruited Dennis and Jose. He's a prankster and I don't think I can stop him.”

“I haven't even heard of it,” said Bea, still with a puzzled look on her face.

“Oh, they quit doing it back in the 1950s or even earlier.”

“I'm just excited about the wedding, and the cake... and the quilt,” said Lynn.

“I know, isn't it thrilling?” said Bea, practically giddy, her voice a little squeak by the end of her sentence. “Your Kelly, such a beautiful young girl and that young man, so handsome.”

Chapter 21

Kelly sat in a grey folding chair in front of her mother's dresser, which she could imagine as a gilded bench. Her knees knocked against the ornately carved, 1980s drawers. This was the closest thing in the small house to a dressing table. Makeup and hairpins littered the white linen table-topper, edged in lace, lying on the dresser. She stared at the reflection in the mirror of a young lady, her hair in rollers. It seemed foreign.

My wedding day
.

The thought brought a smile to Kelly's lips that spread to her entire face. How long had she dreamed of this day? For as long as she could remember, she supposed, just like most other girls. Focusing on her hair, she removed the rollers one by one, and long tendrils fell over her smooth shoulders. It had been so long since she'd been able to pamper herself, to see herself as a woman, that she fingered the soft curls longer than she may have otherwise.

There was a knock at the door. “It's only me,” Emma's voice came from the hallway.

“Come in, Mom.”

Emma breezed into the room like a whirlwind, her voice rushed as she said, “Lynn and I have gotten most of the food done and finished the decorations for the arbor. Oh, wait until you see the lovely wildflowers we found at the top of the canyon! The men are...”

“Slow down, Mom. I don't think you've taken a breath.” Kelly turned to face her mother. “I'm sure it will all be lovely.”

Emma took a deep breath as she caught sight of Kelly's hair, and the tears came fast. “Oh, Kelly. You look… you look like a princess.”

Kelly put a hand on one of her mother's and turned, looking back at herself. “Do you really think so?”

“I know so. Since the first moment I held you as a newborn, I've felt an overwhelming sense of pride watching you grow into a fine woman.” Emma's eyes glistened with tears. She turned her back on Kelly quickly. “And now it's your moment, your time, to marry that young man and start your own branch of the family tree.”

Kelly sniffled.

“Don't get me started...” said Emma, avoiding the word
crying
and wiping her face with her sleeve. “I have all day to be sentimental and there are too many things to get done right now.”

The bride batted her eyelashes quickly, then waved her hand in front of her face to dry her own sparkling eyes.

“Can I help with your hair, just like I did on your first day of school?” Emma asked, taking a long lock of hair in her fingers and stroking it gently.

“Please,” Kelly answered eagerly. “Remember when I used to beg you
not
to brush my hair?”

“I even let you go to school one day with a rat's nest, just to let the kids tease you,” Emma said between sniffles. “Didn't work.” Mom and daughter laughed and cried at the same time.

“Stop that,” Kelly said, “let's make this a happy day, Mom—no tears.”

“Oh, I can't guarantee that. If I didn't cry, the neighbors would talk,” she said teasingly. Emma gathered one-inch locks of hair and wound it with her fingers, then secured each tidy roll at the back of Kelly's head with a hair pin. The long hair made a mound of joyous curls from crown to nape, then Emma took a can of hairspray from the dresser and drowned the updo.

“There, your veil should sit nicely just there,” she said. Her hand, veiny and sun spotted, brushed back a few stray wisps of hair from Kelly's forehead up to the crown of her head.

“It's lovely, Mom, thanks.”

Feeling her eyes going misty again, Emma turned and rushed toward the door. “I really should check on things, and people should be arriving soon.” She turned back, hanging onto the door frame, and smiled softly at Kelly. “You have about half an hour. Call if you need anything. Sorry, Sunflower is a little short on caterers right now.”

“Go on,” Kelly said chuckling. “I have to get my makeup on. I shouldn't need any help 'til I have to get into the dress. Say, twenty-five minutes?”

****

The men had worked for several days to ready the backyard for a wedding. They built an arbor for the ceremony that was constructed from curvy sycamore branches, its smooth, white bark making a perfect bridal statement. The grass had been hand cut with a scythe, which was laborious work but resulted in a smooth lawn for the wedding. Every chair in town had been collected and hauled to the barn, stacked to ensure they were ready for the special day. Long, flat, wood planks lay across stacks of firewood, which would serve as tables for the reception.

Two days ago, Rich and Jess constructed a barbecue pit big enough for a side of beef. Emma, along with Dennis and Jose, had slaughtered a cow, hung meat to jerk in the new smokehouse, packed beef in water-softener salt, canned beef all day long in the pressure canner, and still saved enough for the wedding.

Yesterday, sunup to sundown, everyone baked and prepped food for the reception, finished their sewing, and prettied up the house and yard. Except for Lynn and Emma, no one knew that the women of Sunflower were doing their own baking and decorating of a wedding cake.

That morning, before dawn, the men put the beef on the barbecue. Lynn decorated the arbor with the pods and wildflowers that she and Emma had collected, then spread petals along the aisle between the two rows of chairs.

The only thing left was a few minutes of nervous waiting.

****

Guests had started to arrive about a half hour before noon, the time set for the ceremony. The townspeople came on foot, horseback and wagon. Everyone wore their finest: the women in nice dresses if they had one, and the gents in suits, or at least their best western shirt and bolo tie. Many carried presents they had scavenged or made for the young couple.

“Run in and help Kelly get into her gown, would you, Lynn?” asked Emma.

“Me?” asked Lynn. It was nearly a gasp.

“Of course you. You are her bridesmaid aren't you? There are a few things I just
have
to get done, then I'll be in.”

Lynn took off like a shot.

“I could smell the beef cookin' from my house, and that's a long way,” said Bill.

“Glad to have you,” said Rich. “Come take a seat, we can talk.”

“I brought a peach cobbler, Emma, where would you like me to put it?” asked Janet Nichols, sticking her head through the open door.

“And I brought potato salad,” called out Patty Johnson, Bill's wife.

“How about in the kitchen for now, ladies, and thank you. Let's keep it away from the bugs 'til we eat,” said Emma, hurrying into the house herself. Janet and Patty followed. “I'll get the bride, I mean Kelly,” she said, flustered. Janet patted her on the shoulder.

“You've got some time,” said Janet. “I think it's taking Bea a little longer to get here with the cake because she's afraid of tipping it over. I told her not to worry—there isn't a wedding on this planet that has ever started on time.”

Emma made her way down the hall to Kelly's room. “Ready, dear?” she asked, knocking softly.

“Almost,” came the muffled reply. “Okay, come in.”

Lynn slipped from the room as Emma entered, giving Emma a wink as she passed her.

A gasp escaped Emma when she saw Kelly for the first time in the
dress
.

“Do you like it?” Kelly spun nervously. “It fits, doesn't it?”

“Of course, of course, turn around.” Kelly turned slowly in the small bedroom, the train catching on the bed frame. “Stunning, stunning… it's just… amazing,” she sighed.