Revolving Worlds – Book Three
2060
Chapter Three
At Long Last (A Wedding… Date)
Renesmee's Point of View
"No, no, no, no!" I heard Alice scream all the way from the back barn while I was out there refilling the water dispensers for our livestock. A second later Alice came running up through the woods, still yelling way too loud. At that volume our nearest neighbors, two miles away, would be able to hear her. It must be urgent.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I dashed over to her. She looked so anxious. Crap! What now?
"I can't take this anymore. Nessie you have to help me with your daughter."
"Felicity? What's wrong with her?"
"What do you mean what's wrong with her? She's been engaged to Jennifer for ten years now and they're no closer to finishing planning their wedding then they were a month after they got engaged."
That's not exactly true. They had made some progress. But I understood her frustration, it had been an extraordinarily long amount of time since they'd announced their engagement. "I know it's taking them a while but they just want to get everything right."
"Well I'm sorry, I can't… I just can't!" Alice shrieked. "Let me help them plan this, or else," she said, while stamping her foot. It would have been comical if Alice wasn't so terrifying when she got like this.
Her tantrum really wasn't that much of a surprise. I was actually in shock that Alice had held out this long before blowing up.
"Alright," I gave in. "But what do you want me to do? It's their wedding."
"I know you can do it Renesmee." Do what? "If anybody can talk to her, it's her mother. You just need to her make her see reason."
Yeah right. That wasn't going to work, but I'd give it a try, if only to get Alice off my back, though I still wasn't sure exactly what she expected me to say. "I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises."
Alice agreed to finish my chores around the Ranch while I went and talked to my daughter, her claiming it was a win-win for both of us. I wasn't so sure about that.
After cleaning up I ran straight to my daughter's house, finding her and Jennifer snuggled up on the couch together watching some old movie. I was just about to sit down in one of the chairs to their right when Alice came bounding up behind me.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're a genius, Nessie. I knew you could do it," my Aunt beamed with joy.
"Alice I haven't even started talking to them, yet."
"I know but I just saw," she said, pointing to her head, indicating she'd just had a vision, "that I'm about to go back to the main house and grab all of my books so we can get started. Without further explanation she took off, back out the front door she'd just passed through.
"What is she talking about?" Jennifer asked me.
"Apparently she had a vision that you two are going to let her plan your wedding," I confusingly replied.
"We are?" Felicity looked skeptical.
Jennifer gave her a look. I'm not sure what exactly she meant by it but two seconds later my daughter snorted a little under her breath and they both nodded before agreeing. I guess they were closer to letting Alice takeover their wedding planning than anyone realized.
A few minutes later Alice returned, arms full of wedding magazines, design books, sketch books, fabric swatches, and assorted other things. Pretty much everything she had when she helped Jake and me with our wedding, only ten times worse.
"Thank you again, Nessie," she said, wrapping me in a hug after dumping all but one of her pile of books on the table. "Do you know what it was like for me? Listening to the two of them, day after day, NOT plan their wedding. It was driving me crazy. I needed to do something. It wasn't easy. Not being able to see Felicity, since she's part Wolf, but I saw enough. Since I can see Jennifer, and most of the rest of us... as long as I focused on the wedding before Felicity walked down the aisle... or arrived at the reception... it was slow going but-" Boy she was dragging this out, she'd paused for dramatic effect for what, the third or fourth time? "Voila!" she finally exclaimed slamming a fancily decorated velvet binder onto the table. Everything was in it. From the exact shade of warm grey and cerulean blue interspersed with viridian green for the brides' bouquets, to the china pattern of the table settings for the reception.
"This is our wedding?" Felicity asked her in disbelief.
"Of course. What else would it be?"
"Then what is all this?" she asked pointing to the gigantic pile of books and other things dumped on the table.
"A few other options, just in case. You know I can't see you so I thought-"
"Oh, wow!" Jennifer shrieked. "This is gorgeous. Alice you are a genius. I love this, and this, and oh, this is nice too," she said as she flipped the pages. "Felicity, look at this," she added pointing to a picture of some elaborate flower arrangement. "Wasn't this what you were talking about last week?"
"That is it exactly!" my daughter exclaimed with glee. I don't remember her ever seeming so happy before looking at a bunch of flowers. I thought it was a little... no, a lot over the top, but it wasn't my wedding. "Alice you are amazing," she continued as the two of them began flipping the pages together.
"I guess I'll just be getting going then," I said as I rose from the table.
"You don't want to stay and go over everything with us?" Felicity asked.
"I don't want to intrude. It looks like Alice has everything under control." Actually I was feeling bad that I'd tried for years to help my daughter plan her wedding, to no success. I was her mother; shouldn't I know what my daughter liked? I had failed her and felt horrible. I just wanted to leave and crawl under a hole.
"Yeah, you're the Mother of the Bride, you should be here for your daughter," Jennifer added.
Great now I felt worse. "Okay." I plastered a false smile onto my face and sat back down. "What's left to do?"
"Not much," Alice replied. "If the two of you like everything here that leaves just a few minor details to hammer out."
Over the next hour Felicity and Jennifer went through all one hundred forty-seven pages of Alice's book and made a few changes, before attention was turned back to the other details Alice had mentioned. I could not imagine what they could be. It seemed that she'd already planned everything.
"Alright, now Felicity did you want to have Jacob walk you down the aisle?" She nodded. "But Jennifer, um... did you want to be waiting at the end for her or... err-" she trailed off. "It's just that since Joham is well... um-"
"I was thinking of asking either Edward... or maybe David to do it," she said, cutting Alice off. "Renesmee, would you mind if I asked your father?"
"Of course not. I'm sure he'd be honored."
"Great, now that that is settled, who wants to walk first?"
Felicity and Jennifer just looked at each other, neither replying.
After a minute Jennifer spoke up, "Could we go at the same time?"
"While holding hands?" Felicity added.
"We'll have to widen the aisle. Four people won't fit the way the church is now, but I think it can be arranged," she winked at them. "Okay last question... When? Here is a list of dates that the church is free," Alice said as she quickly wrote down seventeen dates and times, at her normal super-fast Vampire speed, on a scrap of loose paper.
"What years are these for, you only wrote down months and days."
"This one, silly," Alice chuckled at my daughter.
"But these are all within the next few months," she gasped.
"Calm down, you know I can't see you, Felicity, so I can't be sure about the exact date but I'm pretty sure that's when it takes place based on the flowers in bloom and a few other things."
"How do you know it's this year though? Jennifer and I have been engaged for years now."
"I didn't think you wanted to wait any longer. Isn't that why I'm here now? I thought so," she said, answering her own question.
But I had one for her. "Alice, are you sure that no one has booked anything during all of those times?" That seemed strange. Surely there were other weddings, funerals, baptisms, and what not.
"Mostly," Alice now looked guilty. "There are a few things going on some of those days, but it's nothing too important that a little money wouldn't convince them to switch to a later date."
"Alice, I'm not forcing another couple to move their wedding for ours. Which days?" Felicity asked.
""Fine," Alice sighed, "but that is going to dramatically limit our choices." Alice then crossed out eleven of the dates.
"Not just the weddings, we wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone," Jennifer added, which caused Alice to sigh again and cross out another three dates.
Three choices left
Sunday, September 12
Sunday, September 19
Saturday, October 9
"Okay, Jen, which one do you want, I'm good with either of the September ones but think October might get too cold for some of the human guests."
There were going to be humans at the wedding?
"I agree, so what do you think about-"
"Oh, no," Alice cried, as she crossed off the one of the September dates. "Funeral," she mumbled under her breath.
"I guess that settles it. Are you both okay with September 12th?" I asked.
"It's only five weeks away," Jennifer beamed at my daughter. The smile was even bigger on her face than when she was looking at the flower arrangements.
"We're getting married," Felicity screeched, jumping up and down with excitement. Jennifer quickly joined her.
I guess they were okay with the earliest date.
I stayed for another hour as the wedding plans got further finalized, now that the date had been set. Alice called the church and figured out how to temporarily widen the aisle in a way that wouldn't cause permanent damage. The first fittings for their wedding gowns, the bridesmaid's dresses, and usher's dresses and tuxes were scheduled for the following weekend.
Most of the decorations that Felicity and Jennifer settled on could be bought locally or ordered in time for the wedding, but there were several things that would need to be made.
Alice was ecstatic. She found out about a vintage fabric store sixty miles away and already saw herself purchasing the most gorgeous fabric to use for the table clothes, or so she said.
"Jake, I'm home," I said while walking through the front door, four hours after Alice had appeared this morning.
"Mmmmmm, I missed you." Jake had come up and wrapped me in a hug with a few quick pecks on the cheek as soon as I crossed the threshold. "Alice called to say that she was stealing you, but I didn't think it was going to be for so long. What did she do, take you shopping?"
"Not this time. She actually got our daughter and her Imprint to set a date for their wedding." It was exhausting, and I really just wanted to take a nap. "We were finalizing all of the plans."
He looked at me in disbelief. "You're kidding."
"Nope. September 12, 2060 at 2pm."
"So everything's really all set?"
"Mostly, but it's an ALICE wedding now so you know it's not going to be simple. And Felicity and Jennifer seem to have some major plans now that Alice is in on it." I was going to have to tell him what I agreed we'd do; he wasn't going to like it. Well… he might, but probably not.
"And what does that mean?"
"Err... that there's going to be a lot of work to do, in a very short amount of time, and the entire family is going to need to pitch in. Including us," I added at the end.
"Of course we'll help. It's our daughter's wedding. Anything she needs, I'll do. What's up with you? You're fidgeting," he said, then saw my worried expression. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to be something beyond what is the normal father of the bride stuff?
"Because you're so smart," I replied, then kissed his cheek. Okay, so I was shamelessly trying to butter him up. It couldn't hurt. I was the one who agreed for the two of us, after all. "And you, my wonderful husband," oh how I love saying that. I never thought I would, but I do. "You know that with Alice nothing is ever that easy," I smirked back. "We have been volunteered," I said, using air quotes around the word volunteered, "to carve... um, some votives for the wedding reception."
"Okay, what else?" Jake asked. I guess he missed how I avoided giving him an exact number.
"That's it," I said, turning my back to him, not wanting him to see the concern in my eyes. I really don't want to tell him the amount of candle holders we were going to make, not just yet.
"What else is it?" he pressured.
"Nothing else," I hesitated. "It's just that we have to make... a lot of candle holders." I chickened out again.
"And by a lot you mean...?"
"One hundred sixty-eight," I blurted out. His eyes bulged out, and I wasn't even done. I guess it would be better to get it all out there at once. "In the shape of roses. And then stain them grey to match the color theme. And Alice would like it if..."
"One hundred and sixty-eight roses!" Jacob gasped. "That's going to be tight. I guess if we started right away... what kind of wood did they want?"
"Err..." I hesitated again. "Purple Heart," I whispered, hoping he didn't hear me, yet knowing it would be impossible for him to miss it.
"Purple Heart? I thought their wedding colors were shades of teal?"
"It is. But Alice wants to add some gray tones in and I guess Purple Heart comes in some light shades of gray. That's another reason why we need to stain them. She gave me a map of where we can find the right kind of trees. It can't be ordered, we have to go get the wood ourselves." Alice had drawn a map on a piece of paper which I handed Jake.
He looked at it skeptically. Did he know that those types of trees didn't grow around here? "I don't recognize any of these landmarks. What part of the forest are they in?"
"South… America," I squirmed.
"South Amerrrr... aughhhhhhh. Fine," he huffed. "I'm assuming Alice booked us on a flight already."
"She did. Our plane leaves in two hours."
"What?" he growled, not at me, but still… I knew he was going to be upset, just not this upset. But then he took one look at me, and how upsetting his being upset was making me, and calmed down. He even attempted to put a smile on his face, which I instantly mirrored. "I guess we could look at this like a vacation."
We quickly packed a bag and raced to the airport, just making it as the gate was closing.
Clearly the choice of wood for the votives was Alice's doing, well before she somehow managed to get Jennifer to suggest it. I only realized that when Jake and I were heading to the airport. She'd shoved some papers into my hand as I was leaving Jennifer and Felicity's house. At the time I assumed they were our boarding passes. Some of them were, but not all. The pile of papers also contained a small stack of envelopes - wedding invitations.
I guess I couldn't be that upset. I knew that Jennifer would want Huilen, Nahuel's Aunt, and the Amazon coven coming to her wedding. So did I. And what better way to give them the invitations then them being hand delivered by Jacob and me? Most likely they wouldn't get delivered any other way.
I just wish I knew how Alice had done all of this – she'd written the wedding invitations out, with the date and time, and though they were sealed I guessed they were on the paper and design that Felicity and Jennifer just agreed on this morning. All done without her being able to really see, since Jacob, and Jennifer's Wolf side, blocked her vision.
Once in the air Jake turned to me, "Nessie, you know that even if we find enough of this wood to use, it's almost impossible to carve. This is going to take forever."
"I know."
"I don't think you do. It may not be possible to do them all. The wedding's only five weeks away. Maybe if we had a few months or if the rest of your family was helping..."
"They can't. Alice has them doing a whole list of other things."
"Well we'll just have to tell Alice that it can't be done. Fifty maybe, but..."
I cut him off, in my astonishment. "You want to say 'No' to Alice?" He knows how Alice is when she's in her party planning mode. "We can't do that. Plus Felicity would be so disappointed and she's never asked us for anything before."
"I know you're right," Jacob sighed. "Well if we're going to do this we better started carving, as soon as we return. I hope you're all caught up on your sleep." He smirked over to me.
I was glad he was in a better mood. Hopefully it would last when the carving started.