The Wedding of the Fashion Dolls

"I've heard this cover, they change the original lyric to 'I know you'll be by my side,'" said Marj.

"Good! It'd be pretty damn' inappropriate otherwise!"

El smiled sweetly as Ani's parents went by. James returned the smile without guile. Cindy more or less curled her lip at Marj and El.

When Laoise and Nancy went by El guided Marj out to follow them, by putting her into a gentle armlock and pushing her into the aisle. They were still holding hands because Marj wouldn't let go.

―――――

Marj held the bubbles, and El held the wand. They put their faces together to blow a few bubbles at the happy couple.

El inspected her for the duration of the wedding ward. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am. The ceremony got kind of rough, early on, but I had some pretty good support, so I made it." She gave El's hand a squeeze. "I think I'm going to make it through just fine."

"Is it harder because it's Anilaja?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well Ani is a close relative," said El. "Her wedding might hit you a little harder. I just wondered how you've made it through other weddings over the years."

"I uh." Marj sighed as the line bunched up and they stopped. "This is the first wedding I've been to since Charlotte died."

She looked at El's face, saw the questions forming and preempted them. "We were at a lot of weddings, three were gay weddings even though that was technically illegal at the time. After," She sighed. "Those first years after Shar was killed, I no-showed a couple of wedding celebrations. Sent gifts, but even that was pretty damned hard. I stopped going to parties. I hadn't been much of a partier before Shar anyway, and after? Nuh. Never was much of a bar-goer." She shrugged. "I'm more of a one-on-one type. For crowds I need to be part of a team. Without Shar on my team, I stopped going where there were crowds. Stopped

accepting invitations, so people just stopped inviting me."

"So, last night at the restaurant?"

"I had a teammate, yes. Me alone is a boring lump."

"Forgive me, but I strongly doubt you're ever a 'boring lump.'"

Marjani looked at her steadily. Finally she said, "I'm not sure you would ever know. I'm not sure I am a lump, if you're around."

"Whoa!"

"Take it easy. I'm just saying I'm comfortable enough around you to be relaxed and have some fun. You're what every awkward girl needs.

El made a "go on then" gesture.

"A friend," said Marj.

"Um."

"You blush very prettily."

"Aaaand she makes it worse. Cut it out, you!"

"Yes ma'am."

El bit her lip.

Marj looked at her speculatively and said, "purple sneakers."

El scrunched up her face, shook her head, and gave Marji an are you totally bonkers look. "What!?"

"I'm just seeing if everything I say makes you blush."

Elle scowled and said "hmmmm. So your parents used to let you watch Laugh-In at that tender age, did they?"

Marj nodded happily. "And the Smothers Brothers. And the Watergate hearings. Whatever comedy was available."

"The Smothers Brothers didn't have Goldie Hawn go-go dancing in a bikini, and I know this 'cause they got pulled before Laugh-In took off, and I remember that yellow bikini because I expanded my vocabulary by paying very careful attention to the body paint on those women! And the hearings ran after Laugh-In was gone, I think, and they had a really bad format to boot. Nothing but boring old men and not ONE scantily clad go-go dancer. Anyway, I bet you really didn't watch anything but Carol Burnett."

"Busted. Although 'The Dentist Sketch' is about the only thing I remember. You're 'gold star,' aren't you?"

"Yeah, never been tempted. My needle's always pointed to 'F,' since I was watching 'Captain Kangaroo.'" El looked into the distance for a few seconds, and sighed. "Y'know what?" she asked, looking back at Marji. "We're fucking old."

"Eh. Maybe," said Marj, "but we're not too old to."

El raised an eyebrow and leaned away, looking at her sternly. "Ahem! Don't dangle your prepositions, young lady. Someone could get the wrong idea!"

"Or the right one," Marj murmured.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Nothing."

They had been strolling while bouquets were thrown and garters fired, and El realized they'd strolled up to the dry bar. She got them a couple of unsweet iced teas. As they sipped she started paying attention to what was going on around them.

"Hey." She nudged Marj. "First dance. Stay or go?"

"We can stay. I might need hugs."

"As many as you need, Sweetheart."

They hovered near the bar and silently watched Mrs. and Mrs. Conners waltz each other around in a private world.

Marj leaned into El and watched the brides while she and El side hugged.

"Is it bad?"

"Nope. Well, not totally. Just want all the hugs."

"All of them?"

"Yup. But right now, it's time to applaud."

El let go and started clapping. A second later she was able to figure out she was clapping because the first dance was over. She applauded harder when she realized it was time to eat.

―――――

After the obligatory glass clinking and initial toasts, dinner was served.

The food was good. El had the Chicken Parmesan with a Caesar Salad and a glass of Merlot—which earned her a look of disdain from the server. The seating was a bit disappointing, since she and Marj were more-or-less back to back. They were angled, so it wasn't impossible to talk, but it wasn't easy. They were in the center of two clusters of variously labeled "queer folk." After a bit she figured out that her table was mostly originally friends of Bandi; she assumed that Marj's table mostly started as friends of Ani. Since they were almost all some flavor of "Queer" the conversation was bizarrely abnormal compared to the mainstream; it was mostly about movies, sports, politics, the weather and gossip about people who weren't at the wedding.

The guy on her right was about her age, and was one of Bandi's undergrad professors at U of M. The young lady on her left appeared to be a ditzy, bubbly twenty-something who giggled a bit and made extremely intelligent, incisive and quietly devastating comments about all kinds of things, from politics to finance to various guests, including Cindy. She appeared to bear little love for Ani's mother, which seemed to be a shared sentiment among those who had met Cindy.

El and the prof had a good conversation about EMU and Ypsilanti, ending with a toast to "The Water Tower: may it stand proudly forever." He then told her about a serious proposal that someone had made in the early eighties for a snack shack and souvenir shop to be housed in two small geodesic domes at the base of the tower, and claimed it had almost made it to approval. She took it with a very large grain of salt.

When the after-dinner toasts got underway a few chairs were abandoned and Marj was able to sit next to her. She looked a bit frazzled. El had been reaching behind to squeeze her hand every so often during dinner, but when they were sitting together Marji just latched on again. They remained mindful of their promise to be unobtrusive, which was not a problem because Marji was pretty subdued.

They were deep in talk when El got the uncomfortable feeling that she was being watched. She looked around and was not surprised to discover that Cindy, still at the head table, was glaring at her. She rolled her eyes and looked at James. James happened to look in her direction at that instant, and frowned in puzzlement. El jerked her head to the side a fraction, in Cindy's direction. Cindy frowned. James frowned as well, and took Cindy's arm as he leaned over and spoke into her ear.

At that point Marj noticed what was going on, although it was doubtful anyone else did. She sighed and said "Cindy is something else. You've just gotta ignore most of it. I will say that as she gets worse—and she has been getting worse, lately—James has been more active about keeping her in check."

"She's free to be whatever she is, I don't give a damn what she thinks of me. We've all got that bad relative or two. Some worse than others. I assume you know about Bandia's father, my brother Willy?"

"I've heard some things. I gather that we don't really need to concern ourselves with him."

"Yeah well. If Cindy's social status is a big concern to her, our family probably isn't recommending itself."

"Probably, but I think I explained what Cindy can bloody well do."

El grinned and looked over, and Marj sneaked in a peck on the lips. "Y'wanna dance?"

"Um, sure?" said El, startled by the kiss. "I don't think we're dancing yet. It looks like they're doing the cake." She frowned, and very firmly told her shoulder devil to "shut the fuck up, and stop poking that. Those. Whatever, just quit it!"

Marji, looking worried, said "Sorry. Should've asked. I got a little ahead of myself."

El reached up and, smiling, tucked a tress back behind Marji's ear. She returned the peck. "It's fine, young lady. I wasn't frowning at you."

―――――

There were the "Parent/daughter dances." James and Laoise danced with their daughters, then danced with their daughter-in-laws.

After that there was the shoe game while more tables were pulled back and the snack buffets were set up.

Finally the actual dance floor opened up.

El needed the restroom. They were heading that way when they were intercepted by the brides and James. Bandi and James got into story-telling with Marji, while El danced from foot to foot. Ani excused herself to pee and El grabbed the opportunity.

Ani dismissed her MoH, saying "Aunt Elody will help me out, right?"

"Absolutely, as long as I can go first!" She cast an anxious glance back at Marjani.

Ani pulled her along. "Aunt Marji will be fine. Bandi and Dad will keep her grounded."

El looked at her suspiciously.

"We know all about Charlotte," said Ani.

Elle stopped dead and blinked at her. Ani pulled on her arm got her moving again.

"Mother isn't the only source of information about her family, and Aunt Marji is so sweet and so loving that you can't just sit there and watch her be sad all of the time. Dad has had a lot of details about what's happened in her life for quite a while, despite Mother's attempts to exclude her, and her own reluctance to discuss anything.

"And we've got eyes, after all. We know what you've been doing for her all day."

El wasn't ignoring the conversation, but she wasn't exactly participating, preferring to let her new niece talk. She wasn't sure what she should say, anyway.

"Okay, here we are. God, I can't wait to get this dress off, but I guess it'll be at least another hour. I'll wait for you, I know you're about to burst."

El went into the stall and used the toilet, wondering mightily what the hell was going on. After washing her hands she went back in with Ani and managed her dress while she, apparently completely unselfconciously, took care of business.

After they'd washed their hands again, and were out of the restroom, Ani grabbed El and just about hugged the breath out of her.

"We had a whole elaborate plan for taking care of Aunt Marji, which probably wouldn't have worked. Dad told us months ago about her and Charlotte and the horrible stuff that happened. We really wanted to have her at the wedding, but we thought we'd be lucky to keep her at the rehearsal dinner."

"But," said El, and Ani put a finger on her new aunt's lips and said "'But.'

"You showed up last night, and once you guys started talking she was 'fun and funny Auntie Marji' for most of the dinner. Then, lo and behold, you showed up with her again this morning! Did you two spend the night together?"

"Well, uh, yeah. But it wasn't like that. Her motel crapped out on her, so I gave her a place to stay. How in the hell did you figure out I had learned about Charlotte?"

"Are you kidding? You have been guarding her and supporting her and keeping her happy since you got here! How could you not know?" She hugged El again. "Bandi should've pushed a little harder to make you a regular part of our life—and just so you know, there is now no escape. You're in it. You are absolutely wonderful!

"Not to mention the fact that you and Aunt Marji are in love, which is better than wonderful."

El's eyebrows shot up like rockets. "Whoa, whoa, whoa there. Hold up! We've known each other for about one full day. I'd like to think we're both a bit more rational than that about matters of the heart."

"Oh yeah. Matters of the heart are veeery rational." Ani gave her an amazingly exaggerated "eye roll with emphasizing head motion," ending with a world-class "yeah, right" skeptical look. "Believe what you want—just know that I am so grateful to you for caring about her and helping her stay calm enough to enjoy our wedding.

"It was hard getting her to commit to coming, and we were very worried about how she would handle the ceremony after we realized why she's avoided weddings, and parties, and just. I dunno. Just 'having a life?'

"It's been years since she lost Charlotte. Our plan to handle getting her to," she air-quoted, "'just be her, without being totally traumatized by a celebration,' was basically shit. What there was of a plan—it was more like throwing darts at a concrete target to see if they'd stick. We tried every way we could think of to get her to open up, but she's so damn' good at deflecting!

"And then you come along, and wham! You spend one day with her, and problem solved. You've handled it beautifully. I love her a lot, and having her here is about the best wedding gift we've gotten! Now c'mon." She grabbed El's hand and pulled her along. "I wanna party!"

―――――

There was some slow dancing, and some fast dancing. There was dancing cheek to cheek, and dancing in groups. After a while the brides vanished for twenty minutes. They came back wearing skinny jeans, black tee-shirts that said "I'm the pretty wife" in glittery rainbow script, and court shoes. The serious dancing and partying got underway.

"The Aunties" picked up that nick-name from BandAja's friends, and the obvious ship-name "Marginal" from their nieces. James' nickname was "Daddums," Laoise was "Goodmom." Bandi's Aunt Nancy started as "Sergeant NowThinkGirls" but quickly became "Sergeant NTG," and then just "Sarge." Cindy was, well, "Cindy," usually delivered in a chilly tone.

They sat and talked, and danced and talked, and wandered and talked while they built up fuller pictures of each other's lives. When they'd had their first kiss. Where they'd gone to school. What they'd studied. What was fun, what was boring, what was desirable, what was unthinkable—old memories, distant promises, faded dreams. All sprinkled with a few little kisses to keep thoughtful pauses from being devoid of communication.

It was near midnight when the DJ "spun" the Sara Bareilles' version of "A Soft Place to Land." They danced slow and close, hands firm on the smalls of each other's backs. When it was over they just stopped and stood on the edge of the dance floor. El looked into Marji's wet eyes and wiped her own nose with the back of her finger.

"Ohmigod, use a tissue!"

"I ran out. Do you have one?"

"Just this," said Marji, holding out the one she'd just been using.

El lifted her chin and presented her nose. Marji dabbed it and said, "Eew! Gross," smiling wide as she said it.

"Mmmhmmmm. Just disgusting." El leaned forward and touched the tip of Marji's nose with her own. Marji tilted her head to the side and parted her lips as El's moved to meet them.

The tissue fell to the floor.

It was more than a minute before El pulled back enough to murmur "I think we should go back to the apartment now."

Marji sighed, "yes."

―――――

End of part one. Part two will be here as soon as I can manage it!