Battle-Hardened, War Weary Ch. 08B

"Those sapphires have to be, at least, two carats" Melanie pointed out.

"I guess he wanted the sapphires to match the engagement ring," Kali assumed.

"How many carats is the diamond in your ring?" the wedding planner asked.

"Two and a half carats," she answered.

"Ah, close enough," Melanie mumbled.

The three women giggled.

"Do you want to put the bracelet on?" her grandmother asked.

Kali nodded her head. She passed the velvet box to her grandmother. Mare passed the note to Kali, who folded the paper and then tucked the item into her cleavage. She held up her left hand for her grandmother to apply the bracelet. The older woman took the jewelry out of the box. She placed the bracelet on the wrist and fastened the clasp.

"Now, I think the bracelet is beautiful," stated Mare with a broad smile.

As she stared down at the expensive gift, Kali remembered her gift for Ryan. "Oh," she gasped. She turned to Melanie. "Melanie, can you please give this gift to Ryan?" Then she held up the lace-covered picture frame.

"Yes ma'am," Melanie said to her with a nod of her head and a smile on her lips.

Melanie traveled over to the dressing chamber's exit. She stopped walking when she reached the threshold. She turned to face the two Richardson women. Kali noticed a small smile on the woman's face. It was a small smile that was normally used to mask sadness. But the most beguiling feature on the woman's face was her eyes. Her narrowed, evenly-spaced, hazel eyes held a source of familiarity, according to Kali.

"Kali?" the wedding planner spoken.

"Yes, Melanie?"

"I just wanted to say that my baby brother is a lucky man." Then Melanie gave a broad smile to the two women and held it for four seconds before she exited the closet.

Mare and Kali was deeply rooted in the spots that they were standing in. They were both shocked from the recent discovery that Melanie was Ryan's older sister. After a minute had passed, Mare turned her attention away from the empty doorway and to her granddaughter. "Ryan has a sister? I thought he only had brothers."

Kali slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, he has a sister. He used to talk about her all of the time, when we were kids. She is his half-sister; they have the same mother. I know that she was living with her dad, but I don't know anything else." She slowly shook her head in hopes of getting the mental cobwebs out. "Oh my God, that was a pleasant surprise."

"Yeah..." Mare laughed. "It was a surprise."

*****

A few days after Ryan proposed, he hired Melanie Matters to plan their wedding. Kali didn't know what to look for when it came to hiring a wedding planner, so she left that responsibility to her fiancée. She didn't care about the process of planning for the wedding ceremony. All she wanted was the marriage.

In regards to the location of the wedding ceremony, they decided to have the ceremony and the reception inside of Whittler Manor. Both Ryan and Kali were not religious and they didn't belong to any religious denomination, so they didn't want to have the recitation of the vows being spoken by a priest in a church. Ironically, they thought two non-religious individuals getting married in a church was sacrilegious.

Despite having a short deadline to create a gorgeous setting for their wedding, Melanie managed to make the best out of the situation. The wedding's endless budget, which was supplied by Ryan Whittler also helped the planner to achieve her objective. Due to Ryan and Kali's meager input when it came to planning the wedding, Melanie chose every decoration for their ceremony. She searched out and hired everyone from the caterers down to the printing company that made the invitations.

When it came to the ceremony's theme, she called it "Romance and Passion". She chose to design the wedding ceremony's venue with items that conveyed romance. The venue, which was the courtyard that was built in the center of the property, was decorated with candelabras, wreaths and garlands of flowers and cherry blossom trees. She also made sure that every corridor that was inside of the house was decorated in the same manner. Each doorway, staircase rail and archway was decorated with a botanical garland that was made with gardenias, multi-colored angelonias, and pink begonias and rose balsam, along with ivy vines. Within each corridor that was accessible to their guests, six-foot tall candelabras were lined up against the walls. There were candelabras used in the courtyard as well. They decorated the aisle that Kali will walked down and there were a pair of them posted up against each doorway. There were lines of adolescent-aged cherry blossom trees served as guard rails that surrounded the seating arrangement in the courtyard.

Kali believed that Melanie was an experienced, wedding planner so she wasn't worried about the plans going awry. She was more focused on Ryan and their impending marriage. So on their wedding day, when she entered the first level of the Whittler Manor, she saw everything for the first time. Her mind had gone blank while her eyes bulged and her mouth was agape. She tried to observe everything as her feet carried her down the marble steps.

'Oh my...' her brain muttered as the rest of her body surveyed the decorative foyer. Kali stood in the center of the area and spun in a circle, in order to view everything.

"Melanie has outdone herself with everything, hasn't she?" Mare commented. "When I arrived this morning, I was so excited that I actually tear up!"

"Yeah," sighed Kali as she viewed the garlands while she slowly spun around, "yeah, she did do a great job."

A silence had fallen between the two women. Kali continued to survey the foyer while Mare viewed her. The older woman gazed at the young, expecting woman with awe. She stood on the first step of the staircase and just stared at her granddaughter.

'We did it, baby. We were able to do it,' she said to herself and to her late husband, Geoffrey. Her dark brown eyes pulled away from Kali and stared at the ceiling. She thought about her late husband. She was sure that he was proud. Then a mental image of her son's face flashed in her head. She was positive that her son was proud as well. Mare glared at her granddaughter and her mind began to reminisce.

When Maryland Richardson and her husband was about to transitioned into their "golden years", they received a surprise, on one memorable day. The married couple of twenty years learned that they were grandparents of a four year-old girl, thanks to a phone call from a social worker from a New York City social services agency. The social worker informed Mare and her husband, via speakerphone, that Kali's medical records labeled their deceased son Augustus as her father. Then the man from the agency gave the grandparents a little bit of information about the child. During the conversation, Mare listened to the man's voice and took note of the anxiety that was lined in the tone. Her gut instinct told her that something terrible had happened to that child. Unbeknownst to Mare, her granddaughter was the same child that was spoken about by every news outlet that was stationed in New York City.

Mare thought about all of the things that the "professional experts" had said about Kali, when she was a child. She remembered every prognosis and diagnosis that the hired mental health professionals had told her, as well as, her husband. They told Geoffrey and Mare that Kali was too damaged from all of the abuse that she suffered. She was going to remain in an unhealthy state. She was going to grow up and turn out to be a 'mentally damaged' woman who would be a danger to herself and to others. She recalled the time when one prestigious psychiatrist had told the grandparents that she was 'a feral child who needed to reside in a mental health institution'. Once she heard the word 'feral' slipped out of that doctor's mouth, a ball of anger formed inside of her chest. As the anger lingered, there was a burning and achiness inside of her chest.

She believed that her granddaughter deserved a chance to be helped. For the first three years that took place after Kali was rescued, she resided in the children's ward of a mental health institution that was located in Elizabeth, New Jersey. For every day, for three years, Mare would make a three-and a-half hour trip to the hospital, in her 1970 Cadillac DeVille. For every day, out of those three years, Mare made that long trip only to spend a few hours with her granddaughter. For one thousand and ninety-five days, Mare gave it her all in regards to showing her granddaughter that there was more brightness in this world than there were dark clouds.

During those visits, the grandmother participated in doctor-approved, behavioral-mental health exercises with Kali. The treating psychiatrists thought that the exercises would help Kali establish trust with her grandmother. At the beginning, it was rough for Mare, for both her body and for her spirit. There were incidents where Kali physically attacked her grandmother, as well as her appointed psychiatrist and the staff. Mare would return home on those nights with scratches, bruises and the occasional black eyes. There were times when she would return home and she felt spiritually worn out. They were the times when the older woman's heart would entertain the garbage that was generated by the pessimistic side of her brain. There were thoughts that her granddaughter would never become healthy. She would eventually grow older and live in mental institutions for the rest of her life. For Mare, those times were the roughest. She knew that she could cure a bruise or a cut with some salve and tender loving care. She knew that she couldn't do that with a downtrodden spirit. She ended up crying most of the time. Once the tears stopped, Mare spoke with her husband and then they prayed to God together.

"Mama?"

The call of her name came from her granddaughter. Mare was yanked out of her sea of memories and was pulled back into reality. She focused her attention on Kali. With her recent trip down memory lane still fresh in her mind, she continued to stare at the younger woman with more amazement. Kali stood in the foyer in her wedding gown. Her long, tulle and lace veil surrounded her curvy body like it was a stream of smoke. She was about to get married. She was also about to become a mother to her own daughter. She was well-adjusted, mild mannered and emotionally stabled. She wasn't feral and she damned sure proved those doctors wrong.

Mare smiled a broad grin. 'Please Augustus, smile down on your daughter and on her husband.'

Suddenly, she was afflicted with a foreign physical occurrence. She experienced a case of slight light-headedness. The strength in her knees lessened and she buckled a little. She clasped on the thick mahogany wood that made up the bannister. Her heart raced. Her left hand touched her chest and her palm felt the strong beats. Then she felt a shudder that began at the base of her neck and ran down to her knees. Her body grew very warm as her nose caught the faint scent of Yardley of London's Jaguar cologne. It was Augustus' favorite cologne and his staple fragrance. Then she felt her boy's presence. She felt as if he stood next to her, above her, in front of her and behind her simultaneously. Mare knew what she had just experienced and it caused her to whimper from the excitement that she felt. She never believed in the acts of the paranormal. But she believed that she just experienced one. Then she came to the conclusion that her son had shown up, so he could witness his baby get married.

Once Mare gathered her bearings, she climbed off of the marble stair and traveled over to where her granddaughter stood. Kali stared at her with tears in her amethyst-colored eyes. The older woman knew that the younger woman wasn't sad. She saw Kali's happiness shine off of her. Mare clasped onto the younger woman's shoulders as an act of affection. She gazed into Kali's eyes.

"Are you ready to say 'goodbye' to Miss Kali Richardson?" inquired Mare.

Kali nodded her head. "Yes I am. I am also ready to say 'hello' to Mrs. Ryan Whittler." Both women laughed.

Mare drew Kali into her arms and then embraced her. Her long, toned arms tightened around her granddaughter's expanded waist. She buried her nose into the nape of Kali's neck. She inhaled the fragrance of Vanilla Fields from off of her neck. She also took in the faint, spicy scent that was a part of Kali's natural musk as well. She did this because she wanted to smell her granddaughter one last time. She wanted to store her granddaughter's scent into her memory bank. She hugged her baby in a strong hold. She wanted to savor this moment for the rest of her life. She wanted this embrace to mean something to the both of them, just like the first one which occurred twenty-two years ago in the children's ward of The Institution of Saint Dymphna of Behavioral and Mental Health.

With only fifteen seconds in her hands, Mare took another trip down memory lane. She recalled the event of which she met Kali for the first time. She thought about Kali when she was an older child, who was shy around strangers but a sweetheart and polite. She remembered the teenaged version of her granddaughter, who was friendly and didn't mind socializing with her aged grandparents. Then she thought about the woman that Kali turned into. She was assured woman, who was about to become a wife and a mother soon. And she still didn't mind hanging out with her grandmother. She thought about Ryan, her soon-to be-grandson in law. She was aware that Ryan had a tough childhood, like her Kali. She also knew that he was correcting his errors and trying his best. Mare witnessed the couple together and she knew that they were going to be fine. Knowing that Kali was going to be fine made Mare cry.

Kali knew that her grandmother was crying before the woman released her first audible cry. She felt Mare's body shake. When her grandmother did let out a sob, she thought her heart was going to sank down into her stomach. Kali's arms tightened their hold. Her subtle action seemed to have caused Mare to cry louder and harder. Her emotional outburst was about to come forth after she had to listen to her grandmother's sobs. She had to bite down on her fleshy bottom lip in order to keep her tears at bay. She chose to focus on the pain that she felt. Once she felt her heartbeats slow down and her eyeballs stop stinging, she turned her attention towards her grandmother.

"Sssshhhhh... Grandma, it is okay," whispered Kali into the woman's left ear. "I am going to be fine. Ryan and I are going to be fine. I promise you." She continued to embrace her while she consoled the woman. Mare eventually stopped sobbing. They continued with their embrace for a few more minutes. When they parted ways, the two women stood in front of each other. "You feel better?"

Mare nodded while she wiped at her cheeks. The demure woman let out a snort. "Oh great, I've ruined my makeup!"

"It's alright Mama, you can let the makeup lady fix it for you!" suggested Kali. She grabbed her grandmother's hand and led the woman back over to the staircase. "We can go back to the bedroom and she—

"No, no, no, no Kali, you need to go to the patio and get ready!" her grandmother protested as she waved her left hand in front of her. "I'll go upstairs and have the makeup re-done."

"Are you sure, Mama?"

"Yes honey, I'm sure! Now, you go on to the patio and meet Jack and Davis! I'll be down before the ceremony starts, I promise."

"Okay, grandma" she said as she nodded her head. Kali had let go of her grandmother's hand and then had taken a few steps away from the older woman.

She walked away from the staircase and entered the long corridor that led out of the foyer. She walked past several rooms as she traveled on her way to the patio. During her journey, she encountered different members of the wait staff that was hired to serve every one of their seventy-four guests. They gave her compliments and she thanked each one. By the time she reached the patio's entrance, she was blushing.

Kali stood in the patio's entryway and she quietly observed her Uncle Davis. She viewed the tall, six feet-five inched man as he stood in the elaborate porch. Davis had his back facing towards her. He stared out of the window pane that was a part of the sliding glass doors. His hands were buried in his pockets. Kali assumed that he was swimming in his thoughts. He wore a tailored navy blue, pinstriped suit that highlighted his lanky frame.

"Hey, Old Man" she greeted him as she leaned against the doorway. She saw Davis jerked from the surprise of her voice. "I thought you said..." She watched her uncle turn around to face her. She viewed his aged, handsome face morph into the expression of surprise. His deep set, brown eyes widened and a wide smile formed on his face. His dark brown skin grew bright. "...that a person should never turn their back towards a door."

"Baby Girl..." Davis sighed, making his astonishment evident. He folded his long, thin arms across his broad chest. Then he made a few steps towards her. "...you look absolutely beautiful." Kali pushed her arm and shoulder off of the post. She entered the dining room and she traveled over to her uncle. "I know that I have told you this before, but I am going to tell you again. I am deeply honored that you have chosen me to walk you down the aisle and to give you away. I always considered you to be my daughter and I know that Joey considers you to be another daughter for her. I hope that you consider me to be like a father to you as well."

Kali blushed. Then she felt a case of strong fluttering inside of her. She cradled her bulging belly and then she felt two kicks against her left palm. She gazed up at Davis' face. "I do consider you to be like my father, Davis. You have always been there for me and your family as well." She took a step back and surveyed Davis' outfit. "You look very dapper, Uncle Davis!" she informed him while she perused his suit. "You're as sharp as a tack!"

"Yeah, the old cheapskate finally decided to buy a decent suit!"

Kali turned to the doorway and saw Jack Logan enter the room. He casually strolled up towards the two individuals with his hands in his pockets. He wore a huge smile on his usual stoic face. Kali also noticed his relaxed nature and the glow that shone from his skin.

'Good sex will do that to you...' Kali concluded. 'Wait a minute... Mama and Jack... EWWWW!' Her face made a slight wince. She watched the other NYPD detective stroll over to where she stood.

"If it was up to him, he would've shown up to the wedding wearing his uniform!" Jack stated in a joking manner.

"You are absolutely right!" stated Davis. Kali glared at him with a shock look on her face. Davis stared down at her and started to backpedal. "I mean... What I mean to say... I mean... Because of you, Kali, I..." Davis proceeded to stammer as well as try to excuse his outburst. "... I... Damn it..." He failed. "I blame you!" Davis said to Jack as he glared at him.

Jack smiled and did a 'Who, me?' gesture with his thumb pointed at his chest.

"Yes, you Jack!" stated Davis.

Jack chortled in response. "Uh-huh," grunted Jack. He turned his attention towards Kali. A warm smile had lined his lips as he gazed at her. He held a gentle grip on her shoulders. "My God... You are absolutely gorgeous, Sweetheart," he declared. Kali heard his adoration for her in his statement.

"Thank you," she sighed as the lump in her throat had grown larger. She inhaled and then exhaled a big gulp of air, in hope of settling her nerves. She surveyed his stylish, black suit. "You look very handsome today, Uncle Jack. But then again, you always dressed nicely."