So guys, we're now getting nearer to the wedding, a little too close for comfort i'd say :S.


14.Holy matrimony

Over the fall Karen had been both anticipating and dreading her wedding. Barely any of the plans were made, but she had decided to leave it up to her two capable bridesmaids. The decision had been so difficult that in the end she had decided to pick both Ann and Popuri. But as a sort of twisted revenge for the sleepless nights they had put her through she had decided upon the most hideous dresses for them she could find. They were a strange radioactive green colour, with a puffy skirt and as many frills as she could find. She knew Ann would hate her and probably refuse to wear it, which made the idea so much more succulent.

When she had given the designs to Lillia she had wrinkled up her nose and secretly changed the dresses completely. They became light lavender in colour with long sleek skirts and small bows at the back. Karen had been slightly perturbed by this but she promised she wouldn't massacre the dresses as long as her wedding dress was the most beautiful ever seen. Lillia had sworn to make this reality, however she told Karen she could only see the dress on the wedding day. This, Karen guessed, was Lillia's way of making sure that she didn't run away before the wedding.

Any last minute escaping would have to be done on the day. She wasn't denying the fact that she might run away, she still had no idea whether she truly wanted to get married, but it was easier than breaking Rick's heart. However the wedding planning was proving to be a rather stressful experience. She had so many choices to make, such as roses or lilies? She chose white roses and tiny jasmine flowers as white was just the right colour for a wedding.

There was the decision between fruit cake and white sponge, but she had never truly likes fruit cake so she went for the sponge. Every day Ann and Popuri would question her and organise exactly what she wanted, and after months of questioning she was sick and tired of it. She still had work to do at the shop while balancing the wedding planning. But all the plans were in motion and now everything just had to be prepared. She still didn't understand what the big fuss was about though, the wedding wasn't for another month. She didn't remember Elli's wedding being so stressful, but then again Elli made most of the plans herself. She felt like she was going to explode with all the planning and constant discussing, so she started going for walks more often.

She was walking down the beach, the sand and ice forming small clumps in her shoes. The weather was cold and the sea roared with the foreboding of its icy expanse. The sea was now black, rather than its summer colour of tropical marine blue. She swallowed a lump from her throat and sighed, her eyes were so tired from the many sleepless nights. Everyone seemed so happy about the wedding, she was the only one who felt a terrible dread. She bit her lip, the sea crashed onto the shore angrily, she was making the wrong decision.

"What do I do?" She shouted angrily, demanding an answer from the cold waves. They crashed angrily against the shore again as though in answer of her questioning tone.

"I can't put the wedding off now. It means too much to everyone! What's my other choice, I either put off the wedding, have everyone hate me and die alone. Or I marry Rick and regret that it wasn't the right thing, but try to learn to love him." She moaned. "Urgh, this isn't a choice! This is a death sentence!"

She collapsed onto the cold hard ground and stared at the sky. She grimaced, it had been so long since she had seen the sun, she was starting to forget what blue skies looked like. She clenched her teeth tightly and forced the hot tears she felt rising down again.

"No, this isn't the end of the world. It'll all be fine, I love Rick." She told herself. But if she had to keep reminding herself that she did, was it really true? She swallowed her negative thoughts down and took a deep breath, it was time to face the wedding planners again.

She strode into the inn to find Ann glaring angrily with a notebook in her hands. Popuri was sitting next to her with a bored expression on her face.

"Where have you been? We were supposed to meet at two o'clock, it's now three!" Ann said angrily, slamming the book onto the table. Popuri looked up as though finally out of her trance and yawned.

"I'm sorry, I lost track of time." Karen apologised and sat down opposite Ann.

"Okay, well let's get to writing your vows!" Popuri squealed excitedly.

"Do I have to write vows? This is so pointless. Why can't I just say I love you and be done with it." She said folding her arms in anger.

"Because," Ann said, her teeth clenched, "It shows no feeling."

"Yeah, you want it all to be special and heartfelt!" Popuri said dreamily. Karen bit her lip, how could she say heartfelt words if her heart didn't feel them.

"Fine, fine." Karen said giving up. Ann smiled with satisfaction and pulled a pen out of her pocket.

"So... what do you want to say?" Ann asked, biting the pencil.

"Erm... Rick, I love you so much, ever since we were kids I felt a special bond with you blah, blah, blah, yak, yak, yak." She said boredly, without any feeling what so ever.

"Heartfelt." Popuri reminded her sweetly, Karen rolled her eyes.

"You suck at this." Ann told her.

"I know." Karen admitted, nodding in agreement. Popuri sighed and grabbed the pencil off Ann.

"Okay, this is what you're going to say..." She said scribbling down something in the book. A few minutes later she put the pencil down and smiled smugly at her work. Karen leaned over at read it, nodding with approval.

"Sound great." She said, leaning back on her chair.

"You read this and learn it until you feel it, kay?" Popuri said seriously. Karen nodded and reclined more in her chair.

"I think that's pretty much all the plans, just leave everything up to us okay." Ann said with a wink, she smiled and nodded. She loved having two bridesmaids to do her job for her. She left the inn skipping to learn her vows.

The 14th of winter was Valentine's day, the day when girls gave their boyfriends chocolates. A few years before Karen had been feeling so generous that she had given every man in the village chocolate. Well that year she was feeling particularly scrooge-like so she decided to just give Rick a batch of chocolate cookies, made by her and Popuri. Rick had always been one of the most excepting of her cooking, when they were young she used to make mud pies and offer them around and he was the only one brave enough to try them. Sadly he got a nasty case of food poisoning from it and was sick for a week. Karen had visited him everyday, with freshly squeezed orange juice as an apology, her mother had told her that the vitamin C and nutrients might help. Whether that was true or not she didn't know, but it helped her feel less guilty for making her best friend sick.

On the 14th she handed over the cookies and Rick smiled gratefully. In the end though, they ended up eating them together in front of the fire and sharing stories. She and Rick were great friends, but they had never really acted like a couple. They never really did the stuff couples should do, like hold hands and hug all the time, instead they talked. Karen had always put it down to Rick being too shy, but the more time they spent together the more she realised, it was because there was no connection. There was no spark or chemistry between them only friendship. They spent the entire day together, talking about the wedding and discussing all the disasters that could happen.

"What if a meteor hits earth on our wedding day?" Karen suggested, swallowing a mouthful of cookie.

"I don't care as long as I spend my final day with you." Rick said sweetly. Karen grinned happily.

"Awww, I think I'd care a little..." She said and he laughed.

"Do you know what my worst case scenario is?" He asked seriously. Karen shook her head and helped herself to yet another cookie.

"Wait, is it that I'll eat so many cookies that I won't fit into my wedding dress? Because that's mine." She said shuddering.

"Nope," Rick said shaking his head, "It's that you'll get cold feet and run away."

"Oh." She said softly. Rick smiled and squeezed her hand.

"But I'm not worried, because I know that we love each other and you'd never do that to me." He said almost forcefully. She nodded slowly, her eyes wide.

"But other than that, you can be as fat as you like." He joked, steering them away from an awkward silence.

"But what if I'm walking down the isle and my dress splits and... and... Everyone sees my underwear!" She said hysterically. Rick burst out laughing his face turning a violent shade of red.

"That would be the icing on the cake!" He said and Karen laughed. She made a worried face and he chuckled again. He then gave her a long hug.

"Now I have to get back to work. Sorry, it's on Valentines day and all." He said apologetically. She shrugged.

"No problem, we still have the starry night festival and you'd better organise something special." She hinted. Rick winked and then strode out the door. She sighed and took one last cookie for the road.

The remaining weeks before the starry night festival saw Karen concentrating on her work at the shop and wondering whether, after she was married, she would continue to work there, or perhaps she would work at the poultry farm with Rick. She knew she'd probably take over Lillia's job and become just like Popuri, a "professional" housewife. She wondered if her dad would be able to cope without her, he was awful at collecting the townspeople's debts.

She continued to stack seeds onto a shelf, wondering why they still bothered to display them without a resident farmer. Only people who wanted really fresh vegetables would bother to buy a pack of seeds only to grow them in their tiny gardens. She was already preparing the spring seeds, she couldn't wait until those crops, they were so much better than anything you could grow in fall. But her favourite time was the pineapple harvest in summer, when she could have a juice anytime she wanted. But she also had a particular liking of the bamboo shoots that grew in spring, they went great in some dishes. She sighed and began to colour code the seeds, she had never had a very big role in the shop, just setting out the supplies and pricing any new ones, which barely ever came. But her job was better than Jeff's, which included standing in front of a counter all day and being bullied by customers.

"Hey Karen!" Jeff called, snapping her out of her daydreams.

"Yeah dad?" She asked boredly. She wandered out into the front shop where she found a rather fat blonde man with a tall purple top hat. He looked rather like a mixture between a pig and a salmon, with his overly large lips and egg shaped posture. She studied him and then made her sulky, angry face. It was the gourmet.

"Can I help you?" She asked, her teeth gritted.

"Yeees." He said, with a high pitched, annoying voice. Karen cringed and forced a polite smile.

"I would like some ingredients from your quaint little shop. I'm looking for a rather rare ingredient which I have searched for throughout the world and finally my search has brought me here." He said very matter-of-factly. Karen nodded boredly and yawned to show that this piece of information didn't interest her in the slightest.

"Yes... well anyway I'm looking for the rare and legendary white flower, the snow hibiscus, do you stock it here, or do you know of its whereabouts?" He asked in a hushed voice. Karen snorted and looked at him patronisingly.

"Yes we do stock a super rare flower that probably doesn't exist." She said sarcastically. He looked at his feet sadly and then looked up again determinedly.

"I shall pay you ten thousand dollars for that flower!" He said excitedly. Karen saw Jeff's jaw drop down as he began to stammer.

"Ten...ten...ten thousand?" Jeff stammered and the gourmet nodded. "Let me just talk to my daughter a second."

The gourmet shrugged and Jeff pulled Karen behind the counter.

"We could really use that money, to help pay off my debts. Is there anyway you could get that flower?" He whispered desperately.

"Well all I know is that legend has it that it will appear on Mother's hill only in the winter month at midnight. But that's just a legend." She said, recalling the days when Ellen used to tell them that story.

"Well it's worth a try. Tonight, why don't you take him up the hill at midnight and try to find that plant." Jeff told her. It was more of an order than a question and she sighed.

"Why don't I go with Ann and Popuri and find the flower, otherwise he might just take it and not give us the money." She suggested quietly.

"Good idea, but don't tell him that." He told her and she rolled her eyes. They emerged from the behind the counter and Jeff addressed the gourmet in a business-like manner.

"We have talked it over and my daughter will go up the hill tonight and retrieve the flower for you." Jeff said. The gourmets smile faded and he shook his head.

"Nonsense, I wish to see the flower be picked myself, or else how will I know it's the correct flower." He said suspiciously.

"Because, we're decent and honourable folk!" Karen snarled. The gourmet shrugged and scratched his greasy blonde hair.

"Regardless I shall escort you." He said. His word was final. She sighed, it looked like she would be spending her evening with the dullest man on earth.

That night they set out at ten thirty pm, just in case it took slightly longer than expected to reach the summit. Karen was dressed warmly with a fleece a raincoat and two layers of tracksuit bottoms. She walked out into the cold and shivered, even with all her layers. She shoved on a pair of gloves and a hat then headed down to the inn to meet the gourmet.

"Evening." He said with a nod. She shrugged and strode on ahead through the thick snow. They marched up through the cold and to the summit of the hill. Karen's face was numb with cold and she saw that the gourmets face was turning the colour of an overly ripe tomato. She giggled, at least she could enjoy seeing the fat gourmet march up mother's hill.

They reached the summit at eleven thirty, with still plenty of time to spare, she sighed. A whole half hour spent with the gourmet would be pure hell. She watched his piggy eyes observe the scenery, delighting at every snowflake, animal and tree. He looked at her and smiled, trying to be friendly, she simply scowled back to show that she'd rather be anywhere else.

"My dear, I know you don't like me much. Is it simply because you lose the cooking festival every year? Because I promise I have no bias, your food just tastes awful." He said casually. Karen scowled harder, how dare he insult her food when she was doing him a huge favour?

"Well, it still sucks. I don't hate you for that, you're forgetting I don't even know you. All you do is come every year and scoff our food then leave. Do you do that every week...? Because it would explain a lot." She said angrily. The gourmet looked self-consciously down at his stomach and groaned. They then sat in silence for a further ten minutes. Finally Karen's watch told her it was midnight and she ventured onto the hill to find the flower. Finding a white flower on white snow proved near impossible, but eventually she found it lurking near a rock.

"I've found it!" She said, clutching its tiny stem.

"Damn it!" The gourmet shouted. Karen looked at him strangely, she then scowled harder realising that he wouldn't have paid them had he found it first.

"Come on then, let's go to my house and you can pay my dad." She said skipping down the hill and away from him. He followed after her, trying to run but finding that his protruding stomach got in the way. Karen reached the shop and the gourmet arrived five minutes later gasping for breath. She shoved her key into the door and allowed him to follow her inside.

"Dad! We're home!" She yelled up the stairs. Jeff oozed down the stairs and looked tiredly at Karen, she pulled the flower out of her pocket and yelled "tadah". Jeff's face brightened immediately as he grabbed the flower to look at. The petals were silky and smooth and had a delicate white shimmer to them. The stem was long and thin and it ended in a small curl at the bottom. The centre of the flower was red with a purple dot in the middle, it truly was a beautiful flower.

"It's amazing. Now hand it over." The gourmet said, holding his hand out. Jeff went over to give it to him but Karen snatched it away quickly, her father was too gullible.

"First you show us the money then we'll give you the flower." She said suspiciously. The gourmet froze, he then frowned.

"You see... well... I don't have ten thousand dollars, I only have about two thousand dollars in the whole world. Why do you think I became a gourmet, it's for the free food and board. But if I had that flower I could make the most delicious candy in the world! Can you imagine? A candy that becomes more popular than chocolate and all it needs is some of the nectar from that flower. All I have to do is let it a-sexually reproduce and create more of the same flower. It's perfect!" He said, his eyes wild. "So hand it over, I don't want to use force."

Suddenly he pulled out a long silver gun and Karen gasped. He grabbed Karen and held it against her head, she quickly threw the flower to Jeff.

"Don't give it to him dad, if he shoots me he'll go to jail." She said bravely. The gourmet looked slightly perturbed but continued to force the gun to her head.

"Hand it over." He demanded angrily.

"I'm not afraid to die." Karen said calmly. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and fear screamed at her to give him the flower. But she stood with a calm expression on her face, something inside her longed to die. She could feel it stronger than ever before, this nagging feeling deep down that wanted death, it wanted her to join Jack. The gourmet looked angry and scared at the same time, this was obviously the first time he had threatened to kill someone.

"It's hard, isn't it." She said coolly, she could tell he wanted nothing more than to escape. But the situation had already started and he couldn't just run. Jeff stood uselessly by the counter, unable to decide what the best course of action was.

"I'll shoot!" The gourmet threatened desperately.

"Fine." She said calmly. The gourmet swallowed hard and pulled the trigger, Karen shut her eyes tightly.

A minute or two later Karen realised that she wasn't dead and looked around the room.

"No bullets." The gourmet said shaking. Karen took this chance to kick him in the groin and head to the nearest phone. She quickly called the Mayor and soon half the town arrived. Harris, the local policeman, and Zack dragged him away. A police boat would soon arrive to carry him away. The townspeople had already had the entire story explained to them by Jeff and they were standing worriedly around. Sasha ran in weeping and hugged Karen tightly.

"My baby, my brave child! Are you alright?" She asked, squeezing her tightly.

"I'm fine Mom." Karen said with a shrug. Although she couldn't hide the fact her hand was shaking. Ann and Popuri walked over and both hugged her, Popuri looked frightened and Ann had a serious look on her face.

"You should have just given him the flower." Ann said gravely. Karen knew she was probably right, but shrugged anyway.

"It turned out all right in the end." She said calmly.

"Thankfully yes." Ann said. "Next time, don't be a hero."

"Yeah Karen, it's okay to run sometimes." Popuri said backing Ann up. Karen sighed and nodded, looking at her feet. Rick dashed over to her quickly and gave her a big hug and kiss.

"Oh Karen, are you alright. Well done for saving the flower." He said, she could tell he didn't mean "well done". She could tell he wanted to ask "what were you thinking?" But instead he had decided to be a supportive boyfriend.

"Thank you." She said gratefully. Rick smiled but his smile faded when he saw Ann's disapproving face.

"So anyway, what are you going to do with it?" He asked, moving the conversation on. Karen thought for a moment and then smiled.

"I'm going to press it and keep it." She said smiling. Popuri grinned sweetly, showing that that was exactly what she would do.

"Well you all must be tired. Let's all get to bed." The mayor said, shuffling off home. Everyone groaned and waved goodbye, they had all had an exiting night. Karen kissed her parents goodnight and then headed up to her room. She picked out a book from her shelf, it was one that she had borrowed off Jack, she smiled, running her fingers down the spine. It was called the chronicles of Narnia, a book telling the tale of a magical land. She remembered reading it and discussing it with Jack, apparently it was very well known on the mainland. She breathed in the smell of dust and then placed the flower between some of the pages and shut the book.

"There." She whispered. She then snuggled down into bed to get some sleep, unable to think of anything but the incident. She tried to force it out of her mind, but she just couldn't, why hadn't she been afraid of being shot? She swallowed hard, trying not to cry, she missed Jack. Finally her eyelids became heavy and she shut her eyes, secure inside her dreamland.

After a week had passed most people had already forgotten of the event partly, Karen believed, because no one really cared. The gourmet was a small part of their lives, so it didn't matter that he was gone and they were so used to bad things happening to Karen that news of her suffering didn't interest them. So this left her asking the question "why do bad things happen to good people". The answer, she had no idea. Everyone she asked just shrugged, uninterested with her little question. No one seemed to have any time anymore, people were suddenly working harder.

She remembered when she was younger, when everyone had too much time on their hands. People would sit for hours in the hot springs, relaxed with the remote country life. Now people seemed to be working harder, all trying to earn a living in the "American dream" world. Karen sighed as she recalled Mineral town being so remote that they barely knew there was a world past the long expanse of sea, but connections had been made. Sometimes the residents would go on holiday to the mainland, and each time they would bring a little piece of it back, a little more corruption. Karen found she was one of the only people who still had time to sit, and simply watch the world go by. But she knew that was soon to change.

She reclined on her bed thoughtfully, looking up at her worn ceiling, with cobwebs all around. She was waiting impatiently for Rick to pick her up for the starry night festival. He had told her he was planning something special, although she somehow doubted that when he never had time to visit her. She was wearing her nicest black top and a long flowing black skirt that she had received one birthday. Her hair and makeup was done to perfection and she was just laying there, bored.

"Hurry up." She whined, punching her pillow. He was already a half an hour late. She had watched Mary and Gray leave together, she sighed.

"I'll wait a few more minutes, and then I'll go find him." She told herself. Finally she heard a knock on the door and she hurried down. She opened it quickly and put a frustrated look on her face. He looked at her sheepishly and handed her a box of chocolates that she knew had been half price at the store. She frowned and he made an innocent face. He then held out his arm in a gentleman-like manner and she linked her arm with his. He took her to the inn, where they dined together with both Ann and Cliff and Popuri and Kai. None of the girls considered this their idea of romance, sharing the bill between them and spending their evening with two other couples.

"So when did you guys come up with this plan?" Karen asked her teeth gritted.

"Well we all just decided together really... we thought it would be great." Kai smiled, looking at Popuri with puppy dog eyes. Popuri's face softened and she blushed. Ann rolled her eyes and ate her dinner quickly. They all finished eating and finally Doug broke their awkward silence by handing out the bill. The guys asked the girls to chip in and they angrily forked over some cash. Finally they all stepped out of the restaurant and into the cool night air.

"So what's everyone doing now?" Kai asked with a grin.

"We were gonna walk by the hot springs then...erm go back to the room." Cliff said grinning. Ann glared at him and folded her arms.

"I'm tired, I think we'll just go for a quick walk then I'll turn in early." She said pretending to yawn.

"Well we were just gonna go straight home..." Kai said winking at Popuri.

"I don't feel like it, Ann do you fancy going for a walk with me?" Popuri suggested sweetly.

"Don't mind if I do." Ann said angrily and with that they strode off.

"What's up with them?" Cliff asked frowning.

"Women." Kai said rolling his eyes. Karen glared at them red faced and fuming.

"You ruined our evening and you expect us to just act normal after that. If you guys still want to have girlfriends tomorrow you'd better go apologise." Karen yelled. Cliff and Kai shuffled their feet and then edged off to find Popuri and Ann.

"Did I ruin your evening too?" Rick asked sadly and Karen nodded.

"I'm sorry, I guess I didn't think things through..."

"Yeah well... you arrived half an hour late and then you couldn't be bothered to make a romantic evening for us!" She said fuming. Rick nodded understandingly and timidly kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm really sorry, can we go and enjoy the rest of the night?" He asked hopefully.

"Fine." She agreed. They set off towards the hill silently to watch the last of the stars.

Before Karen knew it, it was the New Years festival and just one day before the wedding. She sat nervously on Mother's hill enjoying her last evening of single life. Rick had decided to go to the festival in the town square to enjoy buckwheat noodles. She silently reviewed her New Years lessons, trying to decide if she had any, so much had happened in one year that she couldn't think of what she would have done differently. Eventually she decided that she would have done everything the same. Her heart leapt, she was marrying Rick the next day. Soon she would be Mrs Karen Iris and no longer Karen Bordeaux.

Finally she would be a wife, a wife to Rick and she would be the best wife ever. Sure she couldn't cook, and still had some severe emotional issues, and wasn't entirely sure whether she loved her husband to be... but that didn't mean she wouldn't be a good wife, did it? She had to try extra hard and soon, she might be a mother, the best mother ever. She wouldn't make the same mistakes her Mom made, she would be a good Mom. She would bake cookies every evening for when her children got home from the church school, then she would have a delicious dinner prepared for them. She grinned dreamily, thinking about the future helped her to get rid of her cold feet.

She was scared though, but everyone gets a bit nervous before their wedding. She sighed, what if she tripped over walking up the isle, and then her skirt fell over her head and everyone would see her white lace underwear. She gulped. What if the cake caught fire? What if she was cutting the cake and someone fell into her and smooshed her face into the cake. She shook her head, now she was just being paranoid. It was getting really late, so she stood up and headed down the mountain. She needed an early start for her wedding. Imagine being late for your own wedding.