Stormwatch – A Wedding in The Wood

Terri is a joyful troublemaker, she's average height with large breasts, and raven black hair. She has a narrow face that makes her look kind of mousy. She's a Canadian by birth and upbringing but lives in Buffalo and works for Josh. Just then she was speaking in French to the slim, elegant black woman sitting next to her. She turned to Mateo and said, "They are my camping buddies, you're the only one here that I haven't been camping with.

"Who are these people?"

"Ok, that guy there is the big boss," she said as she pointed to Anthony Friedman, CEO of Andalon.

"I know Mr. Friedman and his wife, and Veronica, and Josh. What's with everyone else?" Mateo whispered.

"Ok, that guy there is Paul Jarecki, he's Josh's pal who is buddies with the owner of this restaurant. He's a cardiologist and he raises chickens and has a big-ass farm that's mostly forest."

"He looks like that guy that has all those Ford dealerships," said Mateo.

"Oh, yeah. He does that too. He's richer than snot, but he's pretty nice. The tiny lady next to him is his wife, Andi. She's a pulmonologist, they've only been married two years, but they have three kids. They have this really cool governess for the kids, and I went camping with her and Andi and Macy and Veronica, it was like a girl's weekend, we were in like a wood igloo made of branches woven together back in Paul's woods, it was totally cool." Terri was speaking so fast that Mateo could barely keep up.

"Who is Macy?"

"Macy is this babe sitting next to me, she used to be a fashion model but she's a pastor now and a psychologist and she's Canadian too," said Terri indicating the beautiful, elegant black woman sitting next to her. "She's married to that short guy with black hair, that's John, he's Paul's brother, he's also a pastor." Then she looked around, "Where's Audrey?"

"Who?"

"Josh!" called Terri, "Where's your mother-in-law?"

"I'm right here!" said Audrey as she hugged Terri from behind.

Mateo looked around in shock as he found that Josh's "mother-in-law" was younger looking than his date. "Where were you hiding?" asked Terri.

"I was at the bar saying good-bye to some friends," she smiled then continued to hug Terri to see if she was going to ask the obvious question, but she didn't.

Macy leaned over to Terri and said, "Quite the evening so far, you missed two baby announcements, and you didn't get to hear Josh sing."

Terri didn't care much about babies, but she's heard that Josh sang like a Country Western star, and she's never got to hear him sing, not even around the campfire this past summer, but she's seen videos of him singing to Veronica and once to Andi and Paul's twin girls on their birthday. "Who was he singing to?"

"Me," said Audrey.

"Why was he singing to you? He's never sung to me," whined Terri. She turned around in her chair to face Audrey.

"That's cause you're not having a baby."

Terri's shriek of surprise could be heard throughout the building, followed by her high-speed babbling which boiled down to "Ohmygod, Ohmygod, Ohmygod!" She leapt up and fired a million questions at the expecting young woman while her friends chuckled.

"I need to go eat, we'll talk later," and somehow Audrey pulled away from Terri and sat down with Mike.

A toast was raised to the celebrating couples, Andi and Paul, Mike and Audrey, Josh and Veronica, and then the food came out. They were served family style, plates and bowls of different Italian delights were placed on the table; there was Bruschetta and Italian wedding soup, Panzanella salad, lasagna, spaghetti, cavatini, chicken parmesan, and for dessert some delicious cannoli. The dishes were set out, and after grace the dishes were passed around for all to load up their own plates.

As they ate, Mateo asked Terri, "Andi and Paul are celebrating because their adoption was approved, and those two," he indicated Mike and Audrey, "are having a baby, but what's with Josh, and Veronica?"

"Oh, Audrey and Mike, that's a surprise, we just found out tonight. Josh and Veronica are getting married."

Mateo was shocked, even though Andalon was still at the size where the workforce thought of themselves as a family, this was quite shocking. Josh was one of the working guys, he spent more time with a screwdriver than with a keyboard, it wasn't unusual to see his desk covered with a server that is undergoing "surgery." Veronica on the other hand lives in the upper realms of management, the VPs report to her, and if they don't, they're not VPs much longer. It's like a case of the pauper marrying the princess.

The woman sitting next to Mateo extended her hand and said, "Hi, I don't think we've met, I'm Andi Jarecki."

"Hi, I'm Mateo Buran, I'm here with Terri."

"You looked overwhelmed," she continued. "Are you coming camping on Halloween?"

"Halloween? Won't it be cold?" Mateo shivered at the thought, last year it snowed on Halloween.

"That's what fire was invented for," smiled Andi.

"Of course, he's coming," said Terri when she noticed that Mateo was talking to another woman. Then she whispered in Mateo's ear "We'll have a camper."

"I will definitely be there," Mateo informed Andi. It was then he realized that there was a small blond girl staring up at him, studying his face, her expression was unreadable, she looked no older than four-years-old. "Hello," he said to the little girl.

"Hi."

"Can I help you?" he asked, totally unsure of what a grownup says to a tiny girl.

The little girl thought long and hard, then finally said, "May I please have your breadstick?"

"Um... sure." Mateo handed the moppet a breadstick and she dashed off; she was almost out of the room when she ran back.

"Thank you," she said and ran off again disappearing into the main dining room. Then suddenly she was back, her white, blond hair in ringlets, a white dress with strawberry print. She glared at him in anger, swatted his arm then climbed up on Andi's lap squawking in anger.

"What did I do?" asked Mateo.

"Oh, that first one was Madeline," said Terri, "that's her twin sister Sandy. Their governess must have brought them and they're sitting somewhere else."

"How can you tell them apart?"

"Madeline asked for your breadstick and said thank you, Sandy would have just taken it."

Meanwhile Andi was scolding Sandy, "No, I don't care what Madeline said, he's not my boyfriend, he's just sitting next to me, and she asked him nicely for a breadstick." Just then a tall, slender Asian girl with blond highlights in her hair arrived to collect Sandy. "What's with the breadsticks?" Andi asked.

"Oh, Daniel and Katarina are teething, and Kenny gave them breadsticks to chew on and they're loving it and the twins are terrified that we'll run out of breadsticks," said Yi, the children's governess. Daniel and Katarina are the 10-month-old children of Andi and Macy, cousins born a day apart.

"Kenny is watching both of the little ones?" asked Macy, "by himself?" Kenny is Yi-jin's boyfriend.

"He's doing great," said Yi, "but he looks terrified. It's his fault, he mentioned you were coming here, and he didn't know this is the twins' home away from home and they demanded Mama Giardini over fish sticks and mac and cheese."

"He'll be careful what he says around these kids in the future," said Andi as she wrapped up a few more breadsticks in a napkin and handed them to Sandy. "Now you be nice and apologize to the nice man or there will be no Pumpkin Day."

Sandy hopped down off her mother's lap and sighed. "I sorry," and she sprinted off.

"Pumpkin Day? Is that Halloween?" Mateo asked, as plates of cannoli were set out and coffee was being poured.

"Pumpkin Day is before Halloween; it's going to be a riot!" said Terri.

"Speaking of Pumpkin Day," said Veronica, "who is in?" When everybody raised their hands, she smiled but then she reminded her friends, "that's going to mean two campouts in a row, can you all deal with that?"

"My washing machine may have a problem with that, but we should be good," said Marj, they have three rowdy boys and four rough and tumble girls who love to play in the ravine upstream from the pond and come back covered in dirt and mud.

Josh saw that Mateo had his hand up and smiled, "You really don't know what you're in for, do ya?"

"No, but as they say in my homeland, what the hell."

"What country is that?" asked Terri.

"Texas," smiled Mateo.

"Ok folks let's get started," said Macy Jarecki, a slim, beautiful black French-Canadian woman who was once a fashion model and at one time did a shoot with the bride Veronica von Köster. She is an ordained minister and was teaching theology at École de Théologie Evangélique du Québec where she met John Jarecki and is now going to help plan and officiate Josh and Veronica's wedding. "First, I don't care if it is Halloween weekend, this is a solemn oath you are taking so No Costumes! I do not want to see Dracula, Frankenstein, the mummy, none of that!"

"Man!" moaned Josh, "You must have been one tough teacher!"

"I only had to fail one student," she said and leaned over and kissed her husband, who was that student she mentioned, then she looked at her notes. "You guys are building a GUILLOTINE also?"

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After the plans for the wedding were hammered out and every member of the wedding party had their responsibilities, such as they were laid out, everyone returned home, full and happy. Paul dropped Josh, Veronica, Mike and Audrey off at their house, a block and a half from his own house. As they walked up the big Victorian house, Mike was ecstatic about the baby. Even though the evening was chilly, and the air was crisp, his heart leapt with joy, but Veronica was clearly not happy.

"Do you realize how much work it is to raise a baby?" Veronica asked as they took their jackets off in the house.

Her father, who raised two little girls to womanhood by himself stared at her. She retreated verbally and said, "Dad, we almost lost you last month! What do you think a baby is going to do to your heart?"

"I had a stint put in, I'm back up and ticking, and I have a nurse watching out for me," said Mike, his hands massaging Audrey's shoulders. As Veronica's mouth opened to protest, Mike said, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, she's the one who found me on the floor and called my vitals to 911 so the ambulance was ready when they arrived."

"This is a baby dad, it's crazy out there now, prices are incredibly higher than they were 30 years ago and you're making so much less money!" Veronica was just warming up and it looked like her father was too. Audrey started to slink out of the room unnoticed, but Josh stopped her.

"We have to finish this little lady," he said quietly, "or it's going to fester like a snake bite." Audrey nodded at his "Countryfied wisdom" but was starting to look terrified.

"Honey," Josh said to an exasperated looking Veronica, he spoke softly, trying to soothe the fired up dutchman in her. "We've heard your arguments, and they are valid, but this isn't a credit card debt or a bad car loan, it's our little brother," he took her hands in his. "I need you to look your father in the eye and listen to what he says next. Ok?"

"I'll try," she mumbled. She couldn't refuse anything Josh says when he uses that southern gentleman's tone of voice.

Josh continued to hold Veronica's hand and said to Mike, "Tell Veronica what you told Audrey, about how you felt when she told you."

"That's not for her ears," said Mike and he looked away.

"Maybe she should hear it, and maybe Magda should also," said Josh keeping his voice calm and soft.

"I said..." Mike summoned up his courage, "I told her how good it felt to hear the woman I love tell me she loved carrying my baby."

Josh paused a beat and when there was no indication that Mike was going to continue, he said, "You need to finish it dad."

Mike sighed, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle once he's out. "Your mother," Mike rarely spoke her name and he choked on the word mother because she abandoned him with two toddlers and cleaned out his savings, then did it again cleaning out his pension, "she reminded me every night how disgusted she was that she was carrying my baby, how I ruined her life... I'm sorry Ronnie, but I loved you two and yet she made me feel so foul both times... I hated myself so much... but now Audrey loves our baby, it makes me think that maybe I'm not such a bad guy after all."

"Oh daddy," Veronica dashed to her fathers' arms doing a bad job of trying not to cry and she sniffed, "I'm sorry too, I didn't know..."

As Ronnie and her dad hugged, Josh gave a smiling Audrey a side hug and said, "Ok, it's Tuesday, Ronnie and I have to get up early and adult tomorrow, Snookums do you have any classes tomorrow?"

"Nnnnnno," said Audrey as she rolled her eyes up and reviewed her class schedule in her mind.

"Ok, when dad falls out of bed at the crack of noon or whenever he's up, bring him down to Andalon and we'll see if a tech support phone fits his ear. Maybe we can get him earning a little cash." Work was Josh's fix for everything that ails a man, when a man works and earns his pay, it makes him feel right with the world.

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PUMPKIN DAY

8 days before the wedding

Pumpkin Day! That glorious Western New York holiday! The day that was set aside exclusively for carving Jack O' Lanterns and preparing costumes for the big day, Halloween. Pumpkin Day occurs on the Saturday a week before Halloween and has been a joy filled time tested holiday tradition since... well, no. It had never been tried before, but Veronica and Audrey were both doing everything they could to turn it into a tradition. There were 30 pumpkins that needed to be turned into Jack O' Lanterns for the wedding and the best way was a group effort.

Last night was a big gathering at Worzils Bar and Grille for a fish fry dinner and to celebrate with friends. Dave and Angi Johnson burned the mortgage note on their business, Johnson's Feed Mill, and now it's all theirs, building, business, house, and car, and the bar was packed with Springville locals to congratulate the hard-working couple. Things got a little out of hand last night, Veronica had a touch too much wine and invited everyone at Worzil's last night to come out to "the pond" as Josh and Veronica's vacation plot is now called, to celebrate Pumpkin Day, carve pumpkins and prepare for their upcoming Halloween wedding.

Josh woke up roused by his aching back, he hasn't needed an alarm clock in over a decade. He just goes to bed six hours before he needs to get up and six hours of sleep always ends with pain that forces him out of bed. He gave the peacefully sleeping Veronica a kiss on her temple and she smiled in her sleep, then he dressed and stepped out of the bedroom and into the main room of the cabin. The fire in the fireplace was burning low, so he added some wood and made sure that the heat exchanger was set then grabbed his legacy USAF field jacket and well-worn University of Georgia hat and as he stepped outside he realized that there was someone on the couch.

He backed up and studied the figure under the blanket. Whomever it was sleeping there was female, if not then he's got a thin waist and nice rounded hips. The flow of silver hair from under the blanket led him to believe that it was that lady from the bar last night, she was with Kenny and Yi all evening, what was her name... Maxine! Her daughter runs a sexy what-not shop in Lackawanna called Amorous Goods. How the hell did she get here? Josh shrugged it off, he's got things to do.

Old Glory and the U of G flags were soon raised to greet the dawn, but right now the only light was the buglight on the porch and the fire in the fire pit. A toasty fire was popping and snapping in the brick rectangle called the fire pit and a percolator sat over the flames and was augmenting the scent of the fire with the smell of fresh brewed coffee. Lord, but it's peaceful out here in the morning!

Soon the eastern horizon began to lighten and as it did a bug light on the other side of the pond came on illuminating the porch and dock over at Cabin #5 where Mike and Audrey live on the weekends. Josh saw a figure exit Cabin #5 and make his way across the dock to the rowboat then slowly row across the small lake. Nothing gets the blood moving in the morning like a turn at the oars with a promise of a cup of joe at the end of the trip. Soon Mike was tied up at Josh's dock and he pulled up a chair next to Josh. "No fishing this morning dad?" Josh loved calling Mike "dad," it was so good to have a sober father figure in his life.

"No, I'm going to let the fish sleep in this morning," said Mike as he sipped his coffee. "You?"

"Same. I figure I'll let the fish get fat and lazy for next summer. Maybe do a little ice fishing this winter... just to keep them in practice."

"Good plan," nodded Mike. Both men agreed on the rule eat what you catch. Doing anything else is just torturing the fish.

As the men watched a dark figure emerge from the woods and was walking toward them, at the same time the sound of boots on a wooden porch behind them was heard and Maxine emerged from the cabin dressed in a long flowing black dress with blue jeans underneath, and black square toed cowboy boots. Her outfit was topped with a denim jacket featuring a large patch from a local motorcycle gang on the back, and a set of USMC stripes on the sleeves, yellow stripes on a red background, and they were big, so they clearly came from the Marine evening dress coat, in the middle of the stripes instead of a pair of crossed M-1 rifles there appeared to be an exploding pineapple.

"Master gunnery sergeant?" asked Josh. That was the highest enlisted rank in the USMC.

"Roger dat," said Maxine as she poured herself a cup of coffee into a steel canteen cup that she was carrying.

"Cool, where did you get them?" asked Josh.

Maxine snorted then hocked up a loogie and spit it off into the weeds, then as she sat down, she said, "I earned every goddamn one of them."

That's exactly how a marine would answer, Josh then said, "When did you get out?"

Maxine didn't pause for a moment when she said, "May first, nineteen sixty-three." Josh was stunned, that was over eighty years ago, either she knew how to play the game, or she was a time traveler. Then she paused and started silently counting on her fingers, heh, he's got her now. She stopped counting and said, "It was a Tuesday."

Just then the figure that emerged from the woods was close enough to see in the morning gloom. "Morning all," he said.

"Good morning, Anthony," Maxine said, which should have shocked Josh, but Anthony knows practically everybody.

"'Morning Maxie, I didn't know you were coming," said Anthony as he poured himself a cup of coffee from a strikingly full pot.

"None of us did," muttered Josh into his coffee. As Anthony sat down the quiet conversation had a markedly masculine tone, they spoke of the weather, the Buffalo Bills' chances against the Dolphins tomorrow, and the expected weather at game time. Throughout the entire conversation Maxine kept up with the fellows. She was definitely a member of The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys.

The sun finally broke above the horizon and the sunlight painted half the sky a spectacular bloody crimson. It was truly inspiring, Josh even pulled his phone out and took a picture. Finally, Mike sipped his coffee and said, "Red sky in the morning," and all of them nodded at the sage wisdom of the observation. The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys is long on wisdom, and short on chit-chat. Unless it's about the Bills' front line, they're starting to look a bit weak and it's halfway through the season! there's eight more games to play! Now the sage wisdom of The Unofficial Fraternity of The Guys came into its prime, they were beginning to discuss line-up changes when a middle age blond woman stepped out of the cabin and said, "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"