Koumbaros and Koufettas
Chapter 10: Time in a Bottle
Don never could remember much about the day he married Stella Bonasera in her parish church.
He carried some clear pictures in his head:
- Danny dragging him around to the b-ball court for a game of one-on-one at 8:00 in the morning and beating him into the ground;
- trying to choke down some of the enormous lunch his mother had left for them before she left for Stella's;
- his little niece skipping along waving to all the people she knew and calling out, "Auntie 'Tella's coming behind me. She looks like a' angel!";
- the odd mixture of worry, delight, and fierce love in Danny's eyes when he saw his wife coming down the aisle;
- the sight of his own father, beaming with all the pride he had shown in each of his daughters as he escorted his son's bride down the aisle.
All those pictures paled beside the image he carried forever of Stella on her wedding day.
She did look like an angel, or perhaps a queen. She was still a little pale, which added a fragility to her striking beauty. Her dark hair was pulled off her face, so her eyes were emphasized. Don had noticed before that when she was feeling something deeply, her eyes became an even darker green. Today they almost rivaled the rich colour of Lindsay's dress. He was dazzled.
When she got to the sanctuary, she kissed Don's father one more time, and said quietly, "Thank you, Da." And she reached out to take Don's hand. He never quite lost the sensation of electric warmth from her hand at that moment; he could call it up until the day he died.
He knew they got through the vows because no one laughed. He could feel the priest's hands on his head, giving the blessing. He would never forget kissing Stella; her lips felt cold against his then flashed into sudden devastating heat. He heard the joyous pealing of the bells, matching the pounding of his heart, and the triumphant organ playing Purcell's Trumpet Tune as they went down the aisle together, man and wife. He remembered the sun striking them as they stood on the stairs of the church and kissed again. He felt the sting of the rice being thrown as the congregation followed them out of the church to their limo.
In the car, they hardly spoke. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her again, being careful not to disarrange her veil or dress. He was almost afraid to touch her in case she fell apart in his arms. She sighed and curled against him.
"I was afraid you wouldn't be there," she whispered.
"Where would I be? You are so beautiful. Are you happy?' he murmured back.
She laughed low in delight, "That's just not a big enough word."
They arrived at the reception hall in time to greet guests. Lindsay and Danny got there only a few moments before, but Lindsay had already organized the receiving line, talked with the caterers, met with the band leader, and found a place for the photographer to set up for some formal shots with the wedding party and family. Stella looked at her in fond amazement. "Remind me to let Lindsay organize the next military operation the US gets involved in, Mac," she laughed.
Mac watched Lindsay as she gathered up the family for pictures and frowned. She looked strained and a little worried, a look he hadn't seen since Danny and she got married. "Oh well," he thought, "She's been working pretty hard on getting all this together. That's probably all it is."
The reception was not quite such a blur for Don as the ceremony had been, although he found himself thinking over and over, "We did it; we did it." He had been so sure something was going to go wrong that he had hardly been able to believe it when she had appeared in the doorway of the church. He had to keep touching her all evening to be sure that she was really there. He kept twisting his new ring on his left hand awkwardly, but then reaching out to hold her left hand and rub his thumb over the matching emerald and gold rings he had placed on her finger.
He hardly ate dinner, as he was constantly being called over to various tables to greet friends and family. He was kissed and questioned and fussed over by every auntie and cousin he had (and there were, as he had told Stella the first time she had dinner with him, a LOT of them), and grinned when one particularly stubborn auntie gave him the phone number of her care attendant, "Just in case it doesn't work out!" He made sure that piece of paper was ripped up into tiny shreds and flushed down the toilet.
Had he sat with Stella more, he might have noticed she wasn't eating much either, and had had only sips of champagne when the numerous toasts were given. He didn't think much about it even when he did notice that while his glass had been refilled a few times, hers was still almost full. Lindsay had warned him that Stella had been pretty nervous that morning, and he was certainly not going to make a big deal out of her not drinking.
When the final toasts had been made, the tables cleared, and the music begun, Don stood and reached out a hand to his bride. They moved to the middle of the dance floor, and all eyes were on them. The music swelled; it had been a difficult choice, but the song they finally agreed on was Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle". Although they had only danced together a few times, they seemed to move as one, and it was several moments before other couples stopped watching and joined them. The music filled the room as dancers filled the floor.
If I could save Time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you