Part 2: Chime of the Hours
Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talking it over just the two of us
Working together day to day, together
--The Carpenters
Kitty opened her eyes, squinting against the light that pierced the
comfortable
twilight of her room through the slatted window shade. She reached over
to
turn off her alarm clock, and a beam of light struck tiny rainbows from
the
diamond on her left hand.
Awareness flooded her mind even as she screwed up her eyes against the
brilliance.
Today was the day she would marry Gordon Rosewater. By tonight, she
would
be his bride. Never again would she wake up in the room where she had
only
dreamt of this day. Now it was here, and suddenly Kitty found herself
wondering--did
she really want the dream to become real?
Of course you do, said a sensible voice in her head. All brides
are
nervous on their wedding day.
That was it, she decided, as she rose to pull on her robe and open the
shade.
It was simply nerves. She had never been married before, so it was only
logical
to assume that this new experience would warrant a few jitters. In
fact,
she mused, seating herself before her dressing table, I should be more
concerned
if I wasn’t nervous.
She studied her reflection in the oval mirror. The young woman who
looked
back at her was a little pale, with spots of high color in her cheeks,
but
Kitty attributed that to the nervousness. Her eyes were windows of inky
glass
that sparkled in the wan light--or was it anticipation that made them
sparkle
so? Kitty smiled to herself and took up her brush to smooth the raven
wings
of hair back from her face. Two stubborn commas of hair fell over her
forehead,
and Kitty sighed. It would do no good to cut them (she had tried
before,
with disastrous results), and they were too short to brush into the
rest
of her hair, so she let them fall where they would. He's going to
see
me this way every morning, so there's no use trying to change what
can't
be helped.
A knock at her door made her look up, and she laid down her brush.
"Come
in."
Her mother entered, the sun painting ruby highlights in her chestnut
hair.
"My girl, all grown up," she sighed, her blue eyes already filling with
tears.
"It seems just like yesterday we brought you home from the hospital,
and
now you're getting married."
Kitty rose from her seat to embrace her mother. "Oh, Mama, please don't
start
crying now." She pulled away to wipe the tears from her mother's face
with
a corner of her dressing gown. "You won't be able to stop if you start
now."
"I know, I know," her mother nodded. She pulled a handkerchief out of
her
apron pocket and blew her nose. "I'm just so happy for you, Kitty.
Gordon
is such a fine young man; he's everything I've ever hoped for you."
Her smile felt brittle, but Kitty pasted it on anyway for her mother's
sake.
"I know, Mama."
Her mother stopped in the middle of folding her handkerchief. "What's
wrong,
darling?" She paled slightly and gripped Kitty by the shoulders. "You
haven't
changed your mind, have you? You still want to marry Gordon, don't you?"
Kitty knew it was foolish to try and keep anything from her mother.
"I'm
just nervous, that's all. Gordon's an important man in Paradigm. I only
hope
I can be the sort of wife he needs."
Tears welled in her mother's eyes again. "Oh, Katherine. You've grown
into
such a fine woman, one that your father and I are so proud of." She
laughed
ruefully. "Of course, a three-month courtship is a bit shorter than we
would
have hoped, but--" she squeezed Kitty's shoulders. "You are as much a
product
of Paradigm as Gordon is."
Frowning, Kitty broke away from her mother's grip and sat down on her
vanity
stool. "How do you mean, Mama?"
"When we lost everything…so many years ago," her mother began, "it was
chaos."
She shook her head. "People wandered the streets, calling out names but
not
knowing why, or who they were calling." Her mother's eyes became hollow
pools
of indigo with the horrific memory. "Fire swept through the city. The
clouds
of smoke turned noon to midnight. Ash fell like flakes of snow from the
sky.
And the Megadeuces--" Her mother snatched her hands up to her mouth,
and
Kitty bolted up from her seat.
"Mother, stop!" Kitty shook her mother a little, and the blue eyes
snapped
open.
"I'm--I'm sorry, darling. I shouldn't be telling you such things on
your
wedding day." She blew her nose again. "Anyway, my point is that your
father
and I, when we found each other--it was as if the sun had come back
again."
Kitty was breathless; her mother had never told her this story. "You
mean,
you and Father remembered each other, even after the Event?"
"I don't know if we remembered each other or not," her mother shrugged,
"but
when I saw him…" she smiled. "It just felt as if we belonged together.
With
him by my side, I felt that I might make it one more day." She turned
to
Kitty. "He gave me a reason to keep living. And then when we had you, I
knew
that God wasn't going to punish us forever. We were finally worth of
His
mercy again."
The words echoed the legends that Kitty's generation had been taught
from
birth: God became angry at the sin of the world and set out to destroy
humankind.
To accomplish this, God gave His permission to have the Devil released
from
Hell. The angels waged war against the Devil and his minions using
their
holy Chariots, the Megadeuces. As the battle raged, the world was
nearly
destroyed, but at the last moment, God heard His children crying out,
and
He stopped the battle. Sending the Devil back into Hell, God let His
tears
fall on the earth, reviving His children. However, His children lost
all
their memories of the sinful creatures they had been before. They were
left
to start anew, purified and holy.
Kitty sighed inwardly; her mother's generation still clung to the
legend
as truth, while more and more bits of the past were uncovered every
day.
The evidence showed that there had indeed been a cataclysm, but Kitty
doubted
that it had been the result of a war between angels and demons.
"--point is, Katherine," her mother was saying, "Everything you have,
everything
you are, is a result of the goodness that came out of such evil. From
what
he's told us, Gordon is the same way; he helped rebuild Paradigm when
he
was barely old enough to swing a hammer. There's no reason to worry,
Kitty."
Her mother hugged her tightly. "You'll make Gordon a fine wife. I'm
sure
of it."
Kitty hugged her mother back, a lone tear running down her cheek. "Yes,
Mama."
A few hours later, Katherine tucked her sheer-gloved hand into the fold
of
her father’s arm. She blew out a breath and tried to stand still, so as
not
to kick gravel and dust from the garden path onto her white satin
slippers.
Her father smiled and patted her hand.
“Nervous, Kitty-Kat?” he asked, using her childhood nickname. At her
shy
nod, he kissed her cheek through the filmy white veil. “Don’t be. Did I
tell
you how beautiful you are today?”
“Not in the last two minutes, Papa.” Katherine smiled back at him. “I’m
not
that nervous, really. I just hope Gordon likes my dress.”
“He damn well should,” her father snorted. “It cost him a fortune to
hire
that seamstress.”
Katherine giggled and clutched her bouquet of hothouse lilies and
irises.
“That’s Gordon’s way. He only wants the best.”
Tears shimmered in her father’s eyes as a rich chord of piano notes
signaled
the beginning to the Wedding March. “And that’s what Gordon’s getting
today—the
very best.” He pulled Katherine into his arms and hugged her. “I
love you,
Kitty-Kat.”
“I love you too, Papa,” Katherine whispered, trying to keep her own
tears
at bay.
At length, they stepped apart and reset their pose to begin the walk
toward
the white-painted summerhouse. “Well,” her father sighed. “He’s waiting
for
us. Let’s go.”
The ceremony was a simple one, yet elegant. Attended only by her
parents
and Amie, her maid of honor, Katherine placed her hands in Gordon’s and
made
her vows.
“I, Katherine Jane Smith, take thee, Gordon Alexander Rosewater, to be
my
lawfully wedded husband…”
When she had done, Gordon looked into her eyes and said with sincerity,
“I,
Gordon Alexander Rosewater, take thee, Katherine Jane Smith, to be my
lawfully
wedded wife…”
Opting not to wear a ring himself, Gordon gave Katherine a plain gold
band,
inscribed on the inside with their initials and the date. The gold was
so
shiny that Katherine had trouble focusing on the rest of the ceremony,
so
drawn were her eyes to the gleaming metal.
With the prayers said and the blessings pronounced, Gordon and
Katherine
turned to face one another. The priest, dressed in a long black cassock
and
white collar, raised his hands over the couple. “By the authority
vested
in me by the City and State of Paradigm, I now pronounce you husband
and
wife. You may kiss the bride,” he nodded to Gordon.
Breathlessly, Katherine waited for what seemed an eternity while Gordon
raised
the veil. He flashed her a brief smile, then leaned in and gave her a
gentle
kiss amidst polite applause.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the priest smiled, “May I present Mr. and Mrs.
Gordon
Rosewater!”
After the ceremony, a thin man with salt and pepper hair stepped up to
Katherine
as she sniffed the roses along the path. The party was slowly
making its
way to a canopied table, and the man touched Katherine’s shoulder
lightly
to get her attention. A little startled, Katherine turned to see
who it
was. Mr. Wayneright, she remembered, from a brief
introduction at
a social gathering a month before. He’s an engineer of some sort,
can’t
remember what it was just right now…
“Mr. Wayneright, thank you for coming to our wedding,” Katherine began
politely.
“It was very gracious of you to stand with Gordon. I know he
appreciated
it.”
“It’s Timothy,” Wayneright said, the sunlight gleaming from his dark
glasses,
“And it’s me who should thank you.” He sighed. “I never got to
see my own
daughter’s wedding. She was only eighteen when I lost her in the Event.”
Katherine squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry,” she nodded. “What
was her name,
if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Dorothy.” Never in her life had Katherine heard such sorrow
reduced to
three little syllables.
Her mother peeked around a large bush dotted with tiny red
blooms. “We’re
ready for the toast. You two need to get moving, or you’ll miss it.”
“Coming,” Katherine’s voice called after her mother. She tucked
her hand
into Wayneright’s elbow. “Well, for just a minute, pretend I’m
Dorothy,
and that you’ve just seen me married,” she whispered.
Wayneright’s smile quivered the tiniest inch. “Thank you,
Katherine,” he
whispered back.
When they reached the canopy, Gordon waited until his bride and her
clouds
of sheer white skirt were settled, then picked up a crystal flute of a
bubbling
golden liquid. “This, my friends, is champagne—an alcoholic beverage
made
from a specially fermented wine. My excavators uncovered a large store
of
this stuff while clearing a block for a new store.” Here he gave
Katherine
a broad wink. “Legend has it that when a bride is toasted with
champagne,
it’s a sign of good luck and happiness.” He turned to Katherine
as the rest
of the party picked up their glasses. “Katherine, my beauty,
here’s to our
future—and the future of our city. May God see fit to bless both.”
“Here, here,” Wayneright called out, and the toast was drunk.
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DISCLAIMER: Big O and all related
characters are property of Sunrise, Inc. This original story is
property of me.
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