Chapter 16: Wet Wedding

This is Curtis Diarmid, all grown up and with a wedding imminent, on the brink of some theoretical awesome future he is beholding there in the near distance.

Curtis graduated college and went on to train as a teacher. He has just taken a job at the local elementary school and his beloved, Leonie is working for the local paper. They have no money, they have a fortune in student loans to pay back and they are relying on the goodwill of Curtis's parents for room and board.

This is Leonie's mother who is in town for the wedding. Marjorie, although introduced to her, now can't remember her name so refers to her constantly as Mother Locke, until she can hear someone else address her by it. Mother Locke came by herself, so Marjorie assumes there is no Mr Locke, but doesn't like to draw attention to it by asking.

Although Marjorie is doing well at work and has had some big bonuses from recently completed film projects, she and Luke were reluctant to splash out on a huge wedding for Curtis and Leonie. They had channelled all their spare cash into converting their barn into a living space to give them more room. It was out there on the morning of the wedding that Leonie and Marjorie got ready for the big day, with the help of their maid, Trixie. The ceremony was being held in the front garden. Marjorie stood glaring out of the front door at the weather - it certainly looked very dull and overcast.

Both Leonie and Trixie were thinking it was a bit rich wearing your own wedding dress to your son's wedding.

Over at the house, Luke Hans and Tara were in charge of welcoming guests and ushering them to their seats. Luke had been sneaking several glasses of Asti from the fridge while Marjorie was getting ready, claiming it was for his nerves. But really he just wanted to have fun....his head was feeling very light and giddy at this stage.

Curtis waited until his Mum went out to greet guests and then he sneaked out back to the barn to secretly check that Leonie was okay.
"You look....amazing!" he gushed.
"You realise that its bad luck you being in here!" laughed Leonie.
"I just had to see you, I can't believe we're really together...here...really doing this."said Curtis
"You look so handsome Curtis! How could I not want to marry you? Now get out of here before you use up all our good luck." she beamed.

As Curtis rounded the front of the house the first spits of rain began to fall. His heart sank. The last thing he wanted was Leonie's day and hair, make up and dress being ruined by the rain. Silently he cursed the idea of the cheap homemade outdoor wedding in late Autumn.

He saw his grandmother Tessa standing by the flowered trellis arch, dressed as though it was the height of summer and she was at a wedding on the Riviera, loudly declaring that the wind had gotten up and there was heavy HEAVY rainstorms forecast.

She waved around a brightly coloured umbrella, "Good job I came prepared, you have to with these exposed-to-the-elements weddings!"

The bride emerged finally and everyone began to take their seats as the proceedings got underway. Luke was concerned that Lesley had not yet arrived. He had called her at home and on her cellphone several times but there was no reply. He signalled to Curtis to carry on they couldn't delay things any longer.

At the last second the Mayer sisters arrived, supposedly still friends with Leonie, they had never forgiven Curtis for dissing their advances and were bitterly jealous of Leonie and her wedding Curtis. Both of them were defiantly wearing thongs. No one wanted a scene, so everyone pretended like they hadn't noticed.

 "Rain, rain! Go away!" sighed Leonie. She was already half drenched. Curtis was inspired by this, his musicality coming to the fore, he started singing in a strident and bluesy baritone.

I'm gonna love you like nobody's loved you.... come rain or come shine.
High as a mountain and deep as a river.... come rain or come shine.
I guess when you met me it was just one of those things.
But don't ever bet me cause I'm gonna be true if you let me.




Leonie forgot the rain and kept time with her foot, gazing at her man, as Curtis continued...

You're gonna love me like nobody's loved me come rain or come shine
Happy together unhappy together and won't it be fine?
Days may be cloudy or sunny
We're in or we're out of the money

But I'm with you always, I'm with you rain or shine....

 As Uncle Jethro visibly swooned at the performance. It was the most romantic thing he'd ever seen. Curtis and Leonie exchanged rings and with that, they were wed.

 And they no longer even noticed the rain.

There was still no sign of Lesley. Jethro could not believe that she would miss the wedding of her only grandson. There must be a serious problem. He decided when the ceremony was over he would drive up town and see if he could find her.

The wedding guests rose and applauded. Rice was thrown and the happy couple moved to one side for the cutting of the cake. They had to speed things up because the ground was getting waterlogged and starting to flood.

Curtis's grandfather Durham made several loud and ostentatious toasts and everyone applauded again.

Then they cut the cake. Leonie was relieved that everything had gone so well. She felt elated and couldn't stop gazing adoringly at her husband.

"Here we go, Mrs Diarmid! Here's a nice generous slice for you..." Curtis laughed as he cut the cake.

Tessa was loudly wondering if they should carry the cake indoors since it was getting soaked with the rain. Marjorie was all "Meh, the sponge cake will soak it up...." when there was a telephone call for Leonie.

It was her doctor. "I have the results of your tests," he was saying. Everything faded away and Leonie closed her eyes and held her breath as she heard the doctor say "It looks like you're pregnant. You'll need to make an appointment for a scan and some other routine checks." She said thank you and hung up. She was in shock. How could she process information like that in the middle of her wedding?

The party continued.....

 ....late into the night.....

 .....and early the next morning when everyone woke for breakfast. The party animals were just unstoppable.

Later that morning, when Curtis and Leonie had the house to themselves, she told Curtis the doctor's news. Curtis was ecstatic. "That's perfect." he said. "Let's have a whole pile of babies." and he took his wife in his arms and they totally ignored anything to do with real life, the demands of babies and children, funding this insanity or putting a roof over their heads.

__ ~ __

But there was to be some terrible news.

 Marjorie received an urgent call at work from Jethro, she rushed over to the hospital. Unable to find his mother, he had started ringing round all the hospitals and that's when he found out the news from St Simians General.

Lesley had been admitted the day, the day of the wedding. It looked as though she'd had a heart attack at the wheel of her car, and had run off the road into a ditch. She was dead.

 Although Luke Hans and Lesley had drifted apart, he took his mother's death particularly hard.

He knew that she had not approved of a lot of the things he had done. He knew he had let her down, but in recent times she had begun to soften and there were hints that she might forgive and forget all of his transgressions. Now she was gone and Luke must live with the fact that he could never tell his mother how much he loved her and appreciated all she had done for him.

He could only hope that she was up there looking down on him now, as he told his deepest feelings to her grave stone.