A CALIFORNIA ROSE
Chapter Eleven
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Fabrizio and Helga were married on a sunny
Saturday in April. Rose attended the wedding, acting as a bridesmaid for Helga,
along with Trudy and Sophie. Jack was best man, having called in
"sick" to get out of work. Tommy acted as ringbearer, incurring a lot
of teasing from the others.
The wedding went well, except for the piano
player missing her cue and not starting the music until Helga was halfway up
the aisle. This caused a great deal of laughter, but no hard feelings. Rose
wondered how Cal would react to such a thing.
After the wedding, they all returned to the
house that the four roommates had shared. Fabrizio and Helga had found an
apartment to live in, but it wasn’t big enough for a wedding reception.
Trudy teased Rose that she would probably
catch the bouquet, as she was the next one getting married. Rose wondered if
there was anything to the superstition that the person who caught the bouquet
would be the next one married. Maybe if she didn’t catch it, she wouldn’t have
to marry Cal.
So Rose reacted with both surprise and
delight when Helga’s three-year-old niece caught the bouquet. The little girl
shouted with delight, then hit the little boy standing next to her with it.
The party was held in the back yard, although
it soon began to spill over into the house and the front yard as more and more
people arrived--friends of the bride and groom, neighbors, a wanna-be singer
from the local high school. The street was packed with cars, and more were
parked around the block.
As it grew dark, one of the neighbors hauled
over a stereo system, and Tommy brought out his guitar. The high school kid
tried singing until several people threw cake at him. He finally gave up and
settled for drinking beer instead.
The beat from the music pounded through the
dimly lit yard. Jack grabbed Rose’s hand.
"Come on! Dance with me!"
Rose protested at first. "Jack, no! I
couldn’t possibly, Jack!" But she was laughing and smiling the whole time.
Jack spun her around. Screeching with
laughter, Rose grabbed his hand and whirled in a circle. They both nearly
stumbled into another group of dancers. Still laughing, Rose stopped in an open
spot and shouted, "Hey, Jack! Watch this!" Putting her feet into
fifth position, she proceeded to do something that looked like a cross between
the Macarena and the Chicken.
Jack stared at her for a moment, then,
laughing, he tried to imitate her. Unable to keep his balance, he fell against
her, and they wound up in a laughing heap.
Out of breath, they leaned back against the
fence, watching the festivities. Briefly, Rose wondered where Cal was. He
hadn’t been happy about her being a part of this wedding, but, for once, Rose
hadn’t listened to him. She had told him that she would see him in the
morning--the last couple of months he had begun showing up for breakfast on
Sunday mornings--and had left it at that. She knew that he hoped she would stop
by to see him once the reception was over, but Rose doubted that she would. The
party would probably run until late, and she really didn’t feel like visiting him
anyway.
The newlyweds were trying to sneak through
the house toward their car, but the guests caught on and followed them.
Laughing, Rose and Jack slipped through a side gate and met them out front,
rice at the ready.
Jack, with Rose in tow, slipped over to the
back bumper and tied half a dozen cans to it. When Helga opened the passenger
side door, Rose pounced, showering her friend with rice. Helga laughed, holding
up her arms to shield herself against the assault.
The married couple backed slowly down the
driveway, as their guests threw more rice, confetti, and silly string at them,
them stopped at the end of the driveway while a black car moved up the street,
trying to avoid the badly parked vehicles and the press of people.
When they finally pulled away, the crowd
cheered. Someone started dancing, and soon others joined him. Jack grabbed
Rose’s hands and whirled her around, then picked her up, imitating a ballet
dancer. Rose screeched with laughter.
In the confusion, neither of them noticed the
man standing across the street, watching them.