The Jewish Wedding Part I
Before the wedding there was another reason for those in New York to make time to assemble, that being the years Nationals in show choir. For the former New Directions the event was tinged with some regret, as once again their former group had failed to make it to the finals, but they all turned out none the less to cheer on the Warblers, who had come to the city determined to defend their title. To say that Thad was a bundle of nerves would have been an understatement, but with the championship being held in New York, he had plenty of back up. The key he had found to success was in ensuring that the boys in his charge were relaxed and in a good frame of mind. Sebastian had helped out by getting them all tickets to see Book of Mormon the night before, and seeing a former Warbler up there in the lead was a great confidence booster; that and the fact that the alumni had once performed the show together here. Thad had eventually relented to the requests of the boys and belted out once more the sustained note that he had sung in the opening number in Sebastian's dressing room after the show, which had made his boys cheer, and the current actor playing the part ask if Thad was free the following night to take over.
He wasn't of course, his time being taken up with the first round of the competition. He had changed things up again, and having used his countertenor the year before, and soulful numbers all through the run up to the big event, he returned to the Top 40, and caught all of the competition off guard in the process. Their performance shone out as different amongst all the soul sounds that everyone else had chosen, anticipating that the Warblers would go on with them. As a result, it was no shock to anyone that they made it through to the second day of the competition. That began as it had the year before with a secret rehearsal session, this time in the round room at NYADA, with none other than Carmen Tibideaux in attendance, flanked by Santana. They watched and listened, and made some suggestions for minor changes which worked well. Then it was on to lunch at the Spotlight, where Nick and Jeff performed a comic duet for them, which made them all laugh. Lunch over, it was on to the finals…
In the audience this time were virtually every former Warbler in the New York area, along with Trent, David and Cameron. They applauded politely as the other groups performed, all blissfully unaware of what Thad had chosen for the performance. Santana knew, but had just smiled at them all when they saw her at the diner, which was highly annoying, and even a little worrying. When the boys came on, they were all shocked. In a move which would be described by all of the show choir blogs as revolutionary, the Warblers performed with music for all but one number. No one had anticipated that the famous acappela choir would do that. Those sat in the audience were shocked to say the least, if not a little betrayed by the fact, but those two accompanied performances were magnificent, and had the audience on their feet in the aftermath. Thad could only hope that he would not come to regret the curveball he had thrown, and that the judges would look on the new twist with kindness…
When the Warblers returned to the Spotlight that Sunday evening, it was to cheers and carrying the winner's trophy. For the first time in history, the Warblers had retained the title, and as the head judge had said, it was all down to surprising them with the out of the box accompanied singing. Even though they had been victorious, Thad had still dreaded the moment that his fellow alumni had appeared backstage afterwards, worried about how they would respond to his decision to abandon years of tradition for music. He need not have bothered, as they were just too pleased at the win, and as David would later say to him, the ends had more than justified the means, and there had still been one number in the traditional manner. For some in the current group, it was their second and final win, as they would graduate next month, taking happy memories into their future. It would also cement the funding of the Warblers firmly at Dalton, with the new trophy being placed on display in the cabinet the next day to the cheers of the school, at a victory ceremony which saw Thad lifted up by his boys and carried around protesting…
May was finally upon them after that, and with it came new levels of stress for the groom-to-be. Flint had been forced to ask his boss at work to change his extension number, and then ask the other staff not to redirect any calls to it after his mother called no less than 17 times in the space of five hours one day to ask just a quick question about some aspect of the ceremony. After a further two days, her number had been added on a temporary basis to the company's blacklist and all calls from her were blocked. Flint's cellphone was also left on charge in the house, with a new temporary number given to all those that needed to know it for urgent and important contact. Ethan reported that whilst he was at home one lunchtime, Flint's normal phone had rang and buzzed almost continually as Mrs Wilson tried to contact her son, and when he did not answer, she left a string of messages as she attempted to intervene on everything from the food to the outfits…
The reception was to be held in the Prince George Ballroom; it had all the style and grandeur that Mrs Wilson could possibly want, but it was owned and operated by a not for profit charity, so it appealed to the social conscience of both bride and groom. Flint had sent his mother photos of the venue - every area of the venue, even getting Izzy to take photos of the powder room - and had waited criticism, but it appeared that they had actually managed to get something right…
Inevitably, the moment came when he had to tell his mother the full name of the rabbi that would be conducting the ceremony. He had toyed with just telling her the surname, but had realised she would immediately start to research, so it was a bit like a band aid; it was quicker just to get it over with. There was an immediate silence on the other end of the line, deafening in its intensity. Then he heard his mother take a deep breath, which he knew of old as a warning sign that a rant was coming. Before she could even begin to vent on the fact that he had chosen a woman to officiate at his wedding, something in Flint snapped from the strain.
"Don't even start, Mom! I love you, but if you dare to criticise Rabbi Hirsch, then I will uninvited you to the ceremony, and it will only be you I uninvite. Izzy and I could have chosen to get married by some random government official on a beach on an island in the Caribbean; we could have eloped and invited nobody to witness the ceremony; we could be getting married far more economically in City Hall. But instead we chose to get married at a temple, not because it was important to either of us, but to try and make you happy. I'm glad that we made that choice now, because it has helped me see that temple isn't as bad as I recall. Just maybe mom my faith has become an important part of my life again, and that is down to that good woman. If you want to see me marry then you need to stop nitpicking and criticising right now, and accept that this day is for and about me and Izzy. It is our day, and if we want to get married with the congragtion all dressed as Oompa Loompas, whilst we are Shrek and Princess Fiona, then we will do that, and you will like it! I want you there to see me get married, but in danger of sounding like a cliché, enough already!"
"I take it that she is an older woman? Not some young blonde thing that doesn't know her rituals and traditions?" came the terse response to his outburst.
"Yes, mom, she knows her traditions, and she will bring almost all of them into the ceremony, but she will also give us the wedding day that we want."
"Well, I suppose that I can live with that. It's just that I don't know her, and I want the best for you and Isadora, and I'm so used to the way our rabbi…"
"I understand that mom. Look, we will be attending temple as a family the day before the wedding, and I have already asked her to make time to have a talk with you so that you can get to know her a little - and she suggests that the best way for her to do that would be to invite both sets of parents to join her for lunch."
"She's invited us for lunch… Well that is certainly something that our rabbi would never do. Very well, tell her we will have lunch with her. At least if I have spoken to her beforehand I will feel better."
Ten minutes later Ethan arrived back from work, to find Flint sitting sprawled out on the sofa, his eyes shut, the blinds drawn, and his phone discarded at his side. "How is your mom?" he asked at once, which made Flint laugh out loud.
"She's her usual self. I just told her that Rabbi Hirsch is a woman; it went better than I expected, after I had a mini blow up at her. She also agreed to accept her invitation to lunch on the day before the wedding…" Ethan nodded, whilst thinking that the rabbi was a very brave woman and would be worthy of nomination for a peace prize in the aftermath…
Of course, behind Flint's back, Ethan was very busy. He had been tasked by Thad to ensure that some kind of instruction into the etiquette of the synagogue was given to all of those that lived in the city. Getting them all together in the one place at the same time was a herculean task in itself given their work, and in the end he had to give up on the plan and deal with the majority of them on the Sunday, whilst doing a one on one catch up with Sebastian on the Monday. There was as expected the usual hilarity when a group of former Dalton boys were gathered in the one place, particularly the first time that they all donned a yarmulke. It fitted neatly to most of them, particularly Nick whose hair was still cut in a preppy style, but far less successfully on the hair of his more bohemian husband. It was agreed that the only solution would be for Jeff to use pomade on his hair for the wedding, as well as tying it back; Jeff accepted this on the condition that it was only for the actual ceremony; at the reception, he would be returning it to its usual style. Ethan accepted that, knowing that it would look like a gesture of enormous respect to Mrs Wilson, and such things would make her pleased, and thus would make life for Flint a little simpler.
All of them were in agreement that such things should be their primary goal, and to that end, they all sat in silence as Ethan played a film he had obtained from Rabbi Hirsch, which showed the marriage ceremony from start to finish. "Now, as far as I am aware, Flint's service will not be exactly like that, but it won't be that far off," Flint advised as the conclusion came. "All of the main elements of the ceremony where shown there, and thankfully there needs to be very little participation by us other than a few responses to the various prayers…"
"I'm sorry, are you saying that we don't get to sing something? That doesn't seem right," Jeff blurted out. "Music is what brought us all together; it is our link to Flint and an important part of all of our lives. Couldn't we sing something during the ceremony?"
There was a murmur of agreement, and Ethan was thrown for a moment. "I'm not sure if that would be possible; if we were to do it, we would also have to be really careful not to offend anyone with the lyrics…"
"What if we found a traditional song, and sung that?" suggested Skylar. "I know that most of them will be in Hebrew, of course, but we could all learn the words and tune of one song surely? On top of that, his mom would love it…"
"She would, Ethan," Nick added. "Could you maybe sound the rabbi out on that? Not Flint, so it would be a surprise to him. The rabbi could help us out with the pronunciation and stuff…"
Ethan would later that night relay the entire subsequent discussion on the pros and cons of such a move to Thad, and to his surprise, found that the Head Warbler thought the idea was worthy of investigation. So it was that Ethan found himself having a quiet chat with Rabbi Hirsch the following night, to ask what she felt about it, and what they could sing. She had a number of suggestions, thinking that the idea was very fitting, and gave him a website address where he could find not only song titles, but recordings and sheet music. He thanked her, but as he hastened back to the West Village to meet with Sebastian, he shuddered at the idea that there was more than one choice, as that meant another lively meeting about which one they should choose…
In no time, the big day was more or less upon them. Izzy had sat her finals, and had arranged to have the whole weekend off, including the Friday and Monday on either side; both of them had agreed that a honeymoon could wait until later in the year. As Flint had already headed to Dalton on the Thursday for what some in his close circle of friends lamented would be one of the dullest bachelor parties in history ever, and then the graduation day ceremonies on the Friday morning, it fell to Izzy to go to the airport to meet all the members of his extended family that had accepted their invite to attend. She was pleased to see Leo was first, helping his grandmother, followed immediately by his mother and sister; then his grandfather, with his uncle, aunt and cousins, then finally Flint's parents and his paternal grandmother. She had met the latter lady only one before, and she had immediately fallen in love with her, given that she took every opportunity she got to ridicule the stereotypical attitudes of her daughter-in-law. Flint had admitted that he loved her for that too, and saw more than a little of Santana's style in her; he was looking forward to introducing them to each other…
On seeing Izzy, the old lady immediately took her as a companion, for which the bride to be was grateful, as it freed her from the clutches of Mrs Wilson. As it was nearly lunchtime, they headed into town to drop off bags at the hotel that they would all be staying in, Flint having booked a superior room for his mother naturally, then went out for lunch. Flint's grandmothers both recalled hearing about the Spotlight, and Leo went on to wax lyrical about how good it was, and so they headed there, Izzy warning Elliott who was on duty that they were en route, so that he could ensure that the full kosher menu was available. Once there, Mrs Wilson engaged Elliott in conversation as the others took seats. As they did so, Izzy got a text from Flint to say that their flight home was just about to take off, and he should be back in plenty of time for dinner. That meal was one for the two families, along with Beats as best man and Ethan as the assistant groomsman. After that, their would be a trip to see Book of Mormon, so that the whole family could see the show for which Flint won a share in a Tony…
The meal of the week as far as Mrs Wilson was concerned was Friday Night Dinner. Izzy's father had offered to pay for the meal, and so it was that the two families came together in one of the better restaurants near Times Square to eat a traditional meal in a private room. The fact that they were eating in a room of their own was seriously impressive to Flint's mom, as had been the fact that as they walked in she had glimpsed several celebrity faces; thankfully they had managed between them to stop her rushing over for autographs, and embarrassing them and the others in her party….
The conversation over dinner was dominated by one topic naturally; the wedding, although that did not mean that either Beats or Ethan escaped a grilling from Mrs Wilson. The former talked openly and happily about his relationship with Elliott, and his work with the MTA; when he mentioned how short they were of engineers, and how they were about to launch a recruitment programme to get more young people on board, train them up through a combination of work and college studies, and then give them a permanent job afterwards, Leo's ears pricked up. He was enjoying his course in the college back in that other Manhattan, but it did not come with a job at the end, nor did it exist in somewhere exciting… He resolved there and then to talk to Beats privately some time during the weekend. He had enjoyed his visit to the city before, and he knew that if there was a chance of a well paid job with prospects for him, his mom would understand why he wished to come and live somewhere so far from home. Little did he know that at that same moment, his mother knew exactly what he was thinking, and although she would miss him, he would have family in the city. New York did not seem a very bad option for her son's future….
Ethan was grilled just as hard, and impressed all of those there with what he had to say about the ethical standpoint of his employers. In fact, Mr Bernstein was so impressed that he decided that he would be wise to sit down and talk with him at some point about his own investments; the young man seemed very sincere and wise beyond his years. Ethan did however decline Mrs Wilson's suggestion that she could ask around at the temple tomorrow to find out if anyone had a suitable daughter for him to marry, by pointing out that as he already attended regularly, he knew what answer she would receive. He was very glad to escape from the room, and relived he was not going on to the show…
The following morning would bring the first of many surprises for Flint. He had left earlier than usual for temple, as he had to head uptown first and collect his family, to guide them to the synagogue. Fortunately his mom had already seen photographs of the exterior and was not expecting a grand old synagogue, and as for the rest of the family, they did not care. What he did not expect to discover as he walked in was that Beats and Ethan were not alone in their usual spot; Thad and David were there, and he might have expected that; but the presence of Nick, Jeff, Sebastian and Puck was not anticipated, particularly the attendance of the latter. He hadn't even known if he would be able to get leave to attend the wedding the last time they had spoken.
Introductions had to be made of course, and the fact that so many of her son's non-Jewish friends had given up their Saturday morning to attend made a big impression on her; Puck in his uniform made an even bigger one, particularly as he had just been given a promotion. His presence was a relief to Flint too, as it meant that there were now three people there that knew the script, so to speak. The service passed off without incident, and Rabbi Hirsch left a lasting impression on all of them in a positive way; no-one felt unwelcome, or that their presence was unwanted. She invited all of them to join her for lunch, but Flint's fellow Warblers and Puck politely declined; Sebastian after all had a show to perform, Nick had paperwork to go through for Monday, and Jeff had a drawing that he needed to finish. As for Puck, he had to go and meet Artie, and had invited Thad and David to join him. After that, he would be heading to Penn Station to meet Quinn.
The lunch was a much simpler affair than dinner the night before, and began with Mrs Wilson asking the good rabbi one quick fire question after another, all of which the older woman handled with aplomb. Before the starter was finished, Mrs Wilson was happy and satisfied, and could not imagine anyone else being good enough to conduct her son's wedding ceremony. Indeed, she pondered asking if the rabbi had ever considered moving to Kansas, not that she said it in the end. But it was worthy of consideration; after all, her own rabbi in that other Manhattan was getting old…
As she was talking, Leo took advantage of all the attention being focused elsewhere to ask Beats about the jobs; he just smiled, and pulled a pile of forms out of his pocket. "Your mom had a word with Flint last night to ask him to ask me if I had any details about the scheme; like most moms, she is psychic. Admittedly, she also said that it was strange to finally meet me dressed…" Leo stared for a moment, then had top stifle a laugh as he recalled that the only other time his mom had ever seen Beats was when he and Flint had been stripping in that gay bar in Princeton…
After lunch, the group split up; the ladies were off on a sightseeing and shopping trip, and Izzy had found herself agreeing to go along with far fewer qualms than she might have done, given that she had her mom for company, and had managed to call her two best friends from high school, who would be her bridesmaids the following day, to come and join them. They would act as a buffer between her and the worst that her future mother-in-law could throw at her, but she had an inking that the other female members of Flint's extended family had her back too. The majority of the men were off on a trip of their own, but Flint had been excused by his father from joining them, given that he had been through quiet enough family times in the last 24 hours, and what he really needed now was some quality time alone with his best man. Ethan had agreed to go along with the majority, and act as a guide, and so it was that Flint found himself alone with his best friend.
"Elliott isn't expecting me back until late, so for the rest of today we are back to being Fleats; two best buds that are hanging out together one final day before marriage separates us all the more - and before you argue with me, it will. You will be moving into your marital home in the Upper East Side next week, with the new Mrs Wilson, and although it isn't hundreds of miles away, you won't be just down the stairs anymore," said Beats sadly.
"I'll still be down in the West Village a lot though; when Izzy is on duty at the weekend, you and Ethan will be my first port of call…" Flint paused and then sighed as he realised his friend was right. "I will miss you being so close, Beats. You and I have been through a lot together and supported each other through the worst that life could throw at us. We've done stuff together that I could never once have pictured myself doing, like going off to Antarctica…"
"And stripping in a gay bar," interjected Beats, which made Flint chuckle.
"I would do that again in the blink of an eye if you needed me to. It was the most exciting and daring thing I have ever done. I knew that if my mom ever found out she would explode, and that thought made it all the more thrilling!"
"Plus it was kind of how you met your bride-to-be," joked Beats, "Of course, the Preppy Boy brand is still going strong, and will do so given that Callum and Alan have recruited their replacements - but we can talk about that with them tomorrow at the service."
"I just hope that they remember to tell my mom that they were Warblers if she asks them how they know me; I don't think she could cope with the concept of their being strippers in the synagogue."
"Apart from you, me and the legendary White Chocolate?" asked Beats, and Flint once more laughed out loud as he realised with a start that there would be five former strippers in the temple the following day…
They debated for a while what they should do with their last afternoon of relative freedom for a while. They considered going to a bar and just nursing a beer or twelve, going to get matching tattoos (which they decided they would actually do, but not before consulting Elliott and Izzy first), or even catching a train to Princeton, heading to the bar, and giving one last performance on stage. They ruled that out as they quite simply did not have the right clothes anymore, and no-one wanted to see them fall flat on their faces as they tried to get their shoes off.
So in the end they just headed back to the West Village, grabbed themselves an ample supply of chips and cookies, and watched trashy television side by side on the sofa, as they often had on the quieter days in Princeton. It was a lot like old times; those happy carefree days of their freshman year, when the world had seemed simple and safe, at least until that disquieting news had begun to emerge from Dalton… They ordered takeout food eventually, and apart from answering the door to collect it, did not move from the couch. That was where Ethan found them when he arrived home just after 9pm, curled up together making comments about the action in the sports that were now on screen. A part of him was tempted to just leave them to it, but he knew that he had to be a responsible adult, and remind them that somebody was getting married in the morning, and that they needed to get a good night's sleep. After all, tomorrow was the biggest day in Flint's life so far, and although he personally had no intention of ever following in his friend's footsteps, he could appreciate why it mattered so much. There was also Mrs Wilson to consider - and it was the mention of her name that had Beats reluctantly admit that bro time had to be over, and he had to act like a grown up again too, at least until the weekend was over…
Once he had retreated upstairs, after a long hug on the doorstep, it was Ethan's turn to sit at Flint's side, a sad smile on his face. It was also of course the last night that he and Flint would be roommates; as of tomorrow, he would be living here alone. He could manage that now, having built on his reserves of strength which had been left sadly depleted when Drew vanished from his life. He had made plans to redecorate the place and change the furniture; he needed to make the place his own, and Jeff had no issue with that when he approached him and asked.
He would also get round to dealing with another issue that he had been putting off for some time, more than usual in the last fortnight. He now had quite a stack of letters hidden in his room, all of them with the frank of MacKenzie Inc. on them. He had known that the day would come when his parents would reach out to him, and bring him into the firm. The problem was that he wasn't ready yet, and to be honest, he didn't know if he ever would be…