Mick and Evelyn are headed towards a big event and some interesting encounters.

Not much commentary on this story upfront, just a title song:

Leonard Cohen - Dance Me To The End Of Love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love


Annie, already decked out in a white lace-trimmed dress and a circlet of orange blossoms and feathery greens, had climbed onto a stool behind me and watched me carefully as I knotted my tie.

I caught her eye in the mirror and gave her a wink, which made her laugh.

Evelyn, meanwhile, was fiddling with the white rose boutonniere on my suit jacket that was still waiting on its hanger, muttering angrily under her breath, "Oh rats … I was just trying to set that damn thing straight, and now it looks worse than before!"

"Mommy said a bad word!" Annie cried out and broke into another fit of the giggles.

"Uh … you never heard a thing, Annie, did you?" Evelyn's face had gone slightly pink, and she turned her attention back to the offending object, holding it out at arm's length. "Gosh, I really don't have any talent for things like that. Just look at this!"

"Well, I'm fine with it as it is", I said as I turned around, took the jacket off her and shrugged into it. The white rose on the lapel looked perfectly fresh and neat to me among its little nest of greens and baby's breath. "What do you think, Annie?"

„You're looking strange, Daddy!" Annie exclaimed, chuckling, excitedly rocking on the balls of her feet atop her stool.

"Strange." I took a deep breath and looked at Evelyn, pretending to be stung. "Annie thinks I'm looking strange in a suit."

"Yes, you look strange", she said with another bubbly little-girl laugh. "Beautiful-strange."

"Thanks, sweetie, very reassuring", I said. "And what about Mommy in that dress?"

"Mommy is beautiful, too."

"Oh, goody!" Evelyn laughed and squeezed Annie's shoulder. "Will you please get down off that stool now before you fall and hurt yourself?"

"I won't hurt myself! I'm a big girl!" she protested indignantly.

"Yes, and a very pretty one, too", I said. "But you really better come off that thing now. Let's not take any chances. You can't be a flower girl with a bloody nose, and anyway, it's high time for us to leave. We've both got a job to do and can't possibly be late."

I grabbed her round the waist, deposited her safely on the floor and bent to kiss her on the cheek before she could complain.

She paid me back with a couple of loud, wet smacks and obediently came with me, her little hand in mine, jabbering ceaselessly as we walked down the carpeted hotel corridor.

"Haven't you forgotten something?" Evelyn called from behind.

"Daddy! You almost forgot the seahorse!" Annie scolded. "Good that Mommy noticed!"

Evelyn caught up with us, passing me my old mahogany cane with the seahorse handle, and I smiled a little wryly, weighing it in my hand. I hadn't needed that thing in a long while, but I had brought it along just to be on the safe side. I didn't want to take any risks at an occasion like this, well aware I wouldn't get a second chance if I screwed it up.

We got into the car that was already waiting outside, and Annie fidgeted giddily all the way to the church, while both Evelyn and I were filled with happy anticipation but also a little tense about what lay ahead.

I fingered the elaborate seahorse carving and couldn't help wondering once again if this was a good idea.

When she had asked me, my first impulse had been to say no, but I had sensed how much it meant to her and bitten it back, and finally, after some deliberation, I had acquiesced because her heart seemed so very much set on it. I had, however, insisted on taking the cane so I wouldn't make the kind of big entrance I had made at a similar occasion, when I had lost my footing on the marble floor and not actually fallen but banged noisily into the next pew for everyone to see and hear.

The church was barely a ten minutes' drive from the hotel. As she spied the steeple from afar, Annie squealed, "Is that it? Is that where the wedding will be?"

"Yes, darling, that's it", Evelyn said and tucked a stray curl behind Annie's ear before she reached over and stroked the back of my hand with her thumb. "Are you nervous, Mr. Carpenter?"

"A bit", I admitted. "What if I slip and fall in the aisle after all and ruin everything?"

"You won't slip, and you won't fall, and you certainly won't ruin anything. You'll do just fine." She leaned over behind Annie, lifted my hand to her face and brushed it with her lips. "You'll be perfect."

The flower-lined square outside the church was almost deserted when we climbed out of the car. Only one young couple of latecomers, in a festive suit and dress respectively, were hurrying towards the entrance just as the bells began to ring solemnly.

There was a small building to one side of the square, a kind of parish hall or whatever they called it. The door flew open when we were about to walk past, and a young woman in a pale blue bridesmaid's dress waved to us. "Over here, please!"

I recognized her face, but it took me a second or two to remember her name. Nora … no, Nola. Nola Kennedy.

"Hello, Nola. Good to see you. Got everything under control?"

"Absolutely. Come on in, we still have a couple of minutes to go."

I entered the smallish vestibule, where four other girls in pale blue flocked around the radiant bride.

My breath caught in my throat when I caught sight of my little sister in her wedding dress.

She had chosen the kind of clean and deceptively simple cut that suited her so well, with a tight bodice and a full pleated skirt that both brought out her slender build, and she wore no veil, just a few lovely orange blossoms tucked into her swept-up hair.

"Mick!" she cried out when she glimpsed me. "You're looking gorgeous!"

"Hey, don't go stealing my lines, Jessie!" I replied, laughing. "I was going to say that to you! You're the absolute queen of the day, and not just because you're in that dress. All the guys are gonna be terribly jealous of Oliver."

"And all the gals are gonna be terribly jealous of Evelyn!" She gave me a wink that couldn't quite hide her nervousness.

One of the girls, who had positioned herself at the door, signaled to us that it was time now.

"Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. I can't believe I'm about to get married." She batted her eyelids comically and took my arm with a quizzical smile.

Nola handed Annie her little basket of rose petals and gave some last instructions to Ben, the boy who carried the rings on a small satiny cushion, and off we went across the square and through the pointed faux-Gothic arch of the church portal.

The organ heralded our arrival with the first rousing notes of an elated minuet, which made me smile, for I recalled how Jess had made quite clear to Oliver that she did not intend to march down the aisle to Wagner's hackneyed Lohengrin tune. She had chosen this beautiful, uplifting piece by some little-known French composer instead. It was joyful and exhilarating and not at all pompous and thus suited Jess perfectly.

I wasn't too sure how well I fitted the picture, but I did my best, slowly proceeding down the gleaming marble floor, the tap of my cane with every other step fortunately drowned out by the music.

Heads turned, and I was pretty certain there was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring going on, what with the bride's brother reappearing out of the blue, and him, not her father, the one to lead her down the aisle, despite an obvious disability.

Annie, for her part, was clearly enjoying her duties. She was walking ahead of us gravely, gleefully dishing out generous handfuls of petals left and right, so generous that the leather sole of my right shoe slipped on a clump of them.

For a dizzy split second, my mind went blank with panic, until I felt Jess's hand grip my arm tighter and her body shift slightly towards me. Between her and the cane, I managed to regain my balance quickly.

I thanked the heavens for small mercies, and for nearly a decade of experience in narrowly avoiding accidents, and concentrated even harder on seeing this through until the end with as much grace and style as I could muster.

The aisle seemed to be endless, but I managed to deliver Jess safely to her place by Oliver's side and gratefully settled into the pew where Evelyn was already waiting, right behind Janie and her family.

She gave me a smile and that familiar look that was her way of asking if I was alright.

I smiled a 'yes' back at her and relaxed a little, now that I had done my bit without getting my feet tangled in the train of Jess's gown and shamefully landing on my backside.

While the congregation was singing the last verse of a hymn I didn't recognize, I looked at the back of Janie's head, her blond curls arranged impeccably beneath a little royal blue hat. Brian and Kevin, as I knew her sons were called, stood at attention to both sides of her.

Were they always like that, those nephews I hadn't been aware I had? I hoped for their sake that this was just a one-off display of best behavior to honour the occasion. And I hoped I'd get a chance to talk to them later in the day.

Jess had wanted all of us to meet a couple of days before the wedding, to catch up with each other and to get acquainted with our respective partners and families, but Janie had declined on some lame pretext.

I was pretty certain my baby sister hated me.

She had stubbornly kept her eyes trained ahead while everyone else turned their heads to watch the arrival of the bride, and the way she held herself, stiffly erect in her royal blue silk dress and matching jacket, refusing to cast the tiniest glance over her shoulder, spoke volumes.

I shifted my focus to Jess and Oliver as the minister began to speak. This was not the moment to dwell on that little drop of bitterness.

Jess had her head tilted to one side the way she used to do when she was a child, listening to a story I was telling. I smiled at the discovery that this little mannerism of hers was still around, while I felt a deep regret that I had missed so much of my sisters' lives.

It was surreal to see her standing there, about to get married to a fellow doctor, when it felt like only yesterday that she had been a skinny grade-school kid, with white socks forever slipping south on sticklike legs and long brown braids that had a tendency to come apart.

All of a sudden, my little sister was a pretty young woman with a university degree, almost as tall as her husband-to-be and slender bordering on lean, with glossy brown hair much like Mom's and a kind of colt-like grace to her lanky figure.

When the moment came, she said "I do" in a determined, resonant voice.

I felt a surge of inexplicable pride that Jess hadn't turned out one of those dainty, mannered creatures who stage-whispered the words with artificial breathlessness. She was straightforward, unaffected and clever. I hoped Oliver knew just what a lucky man he was to have her for a wife.

After they had taken their vows, two friends of the newlyweds gave a beautiful rendition of a Mozart aria. I felt a little shiver running down my spine watching Jess grip her new husband's hand and flash him a big bright smile.

She looked so happy, and so beautiful, that I found myself touching a fingertip to the corner of my eye, hoping to brush away the sudden wetness without Evelyn, or anyone else, noticing what I was up to.

Of course, she chose that very moment to look up at me in that sideways fashion she had, and her own brown eyes were shimmering moistly as she reached for my hand in a gesture echoing the bride and groom's.

I closed my fingers around hers tightly, reaffirming the promise I had never actually spoken out loud but always done my best to honour.