Jonathan’s First Wedding
by
Sandie Nygaard
Copyright 2014 Sandie Nygaard
During the summer that he turned five, Jonathan learned about weddings. The fuss started when his sister Susan and David Anderson, her boyfriend since high school, came home from college for the weekend. She rounded up the family and made them sit down in the living room. Then she stuck out her hand. Jonathan’s other sister, Karen, sixteen years old, with her hair dyed orange that day, shrieked and bounded across the room to hug Susan. Jonathan’s mother hugged Susan, then David, eyes full of tears, and his father shook David’s hand.
“Glad to have you in the family,” he said.
Grandma Hudson also hugged them both and said to David, “Your grandfather and I grew up together in this town. Who would have guessed that one day our grandchildren would get married?”
Susan showed Jonathan the ring on her finger. “David gave it to me. It means that we’re going to get married. And I want you and Karen to be in the wedding. Would you like that?”
Jonathan didn’t know if he’d like that or not, but nodded anyway.
“We’re thinking August. That will give us two months after graduation to find jobs and plan the wedding.”
“Honey, two months isn’t much time.”
“We want to keep it simple. An outdoor wedding in the park, with just close friends and family. We figure a hundred people at the most.”
“That sounds very reasonable,” said Jonathan’s dad. Jonathan’s mom shook her head but said nothing.
After they left to tell David’s family, Jonathan’s mother wiped her eyes with a tissue and said, “They seem so young.”
“When I get married, I’m going to elope like you did,” Karen said to Grandma Hudson.
“Good idea,” said Jonathan’s dad.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” said Grandma Hudson. “A normal wedding is much better for everyone in the long run.”
Karen looked and Jonathan and made a funny face at him, sticking out her tongue and squinting her eyes. Jonathan mimicked the face back at her.
The next morning, Jonathan and his mother began planning the wedding. He didn’t want to plan the wedding, but Karen was at school and no one could stay with him. He played games on his mom’s cell phone while she leafed through pages of photographs at the photographer’s, pictures of flower arrangements at the florist’s, and most boring of all, pages of invitations and announcements at the printer’s. He saw pictures of kids dressed up for the weddings, but he couldn’t figure out what exactly they did to be in the wedding. Every place they went, his mother wrote in her notebook, and took brochures. By then end of the week, her notebook would hardly zip closed it was so stuffed.
One evening while Jonathan sat at the kitchen table coloring and his mother sorted through her papers, the phone rang. It was Susan calling from college.
“Have you thought more about the wedding?” asked his mom. There was a pause. “We talked to the Andersons, and I don’t know how we can keep the guest list down to a hundred.” Another pause. “But our relatives alone will push the list to over a hundred. I honestly don’t know how to keep the list that low without hurting feelings.” She listened then said, “Well, think about it. We’ll talk more when you come home for the weekend.”
When Susan came home, they talked more about it, then they argued about it, then they cried about it. Jonathan hid out in the family room where he couldn’t hear them and began building a crane with his brick building set. Karen came in not long after, her hair now with a purple streak dyed in it, and sat down with him. Then Susan came and sat down on the floor too.
“This is impossible,” said Susan as she snapped a brick in place. “Mom has the wedding planned already.”
Karen picked up a brick. “Why don’t you elope? It would solve all your problems, and it would be so romantic to sneak away in the middle of the night.”
Susan rolled her eyes. “David and I don’t have to sneak anywhere. We’re adults.”
A knock at the back door interrupted their conversation, and Grandma Hudson walked in.
“Hello everyone,” she said. “Where’s your mom?”
“She’s upstairs crying,” said Susan.
“I know, she called me.” Grandma Hudson sat down on the couch near them. “Weddings are such problems in this family. My father wouldn’t speak to me for two years after I ran off with your grandfather. It’s a hard way to start out.” She reached out and tousled Jonathan’s hair. “I wish you could have known your grandfather.” She continued, “Then I thought I’d never recover from your mother’s wedding.”
“Why is that?” asked Karen.
“You know, having to call off the wedding at the last minute.”
“Why did you have to call if off?” asked Susan.
“Don’t you kids don’t know the story of your parents’ wedding?”
“I didn’t think there was much to it. They were married at home, weren’t they?”
“Yes, but we had planned a church wedding, with a small reception afterward. Nothing big or fancy. Very simple. The kind of wedding that you want, Susan. Anyway, your mother woke up two days before the wedding and called everything off.”
Karen shrieked with delight and flopped backward on the floor, arms outstretched. “You mean she left Dad at the altar?” she said to the ceiling.
“Yes. Then two weeks later, she had another change of heart, so we had the pastor come out to the house and marry them.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Susan.
“It happened, and I know your mother regrets it. I regret running off too. If we had been more patient, I know my parents would have consented. I’ve always wished I’d been married surrounded by family and friends; had a nice dress and flowers.”
“I want my wedding to be happy too. David and I want it small, but neither of our moms can cut the guest list. They’re afraid of offending people. But finals are coming up, then graduation, and David and I both have to find jobs. I just don’t want the stress of a big wedding.”
“Your mom says she’ll help. Maybe that’s a way to make it happy for everyone.”
“Maybe.” Susan looked down and added another brick to the structure.
The rest of the weekend was calm and when Susan left, the family arguments went back to the familiar everyday topics of Karen’s hair and Jonathan’s bedtime.
“Just because I like to experiment with color doesn’t mean I’m some kind of weirdo. I mean, it’s not like I want tattoos or anything,” said Karen.
“You’re not a weirdo,” said Jonathan.
“She just looks like one,” his mom sighed
“You’re too old to understand,” said Karen as she stormed out of the room.
“I’m not that old,” Jonathan’s mother shouted after her. Then she looked at Jonathan and said quietly, “I’ve only been forty-nine for two years now.” Then she scooped Jonathan up in her arms. “If I’m old, then you’re the joy of my old age. Get your PJs on and I’ll read you a story before bed.”
“Moooooom!” he wailed in protest.
After graduation, Susan and David both moved home, and wedding plans began in earnest. Susan, Jonathan and their mother went to the stores again, but not to all of them. This time Jonathan’s mother knew exactly where to go. She flipped through pages in the books, while Susan nodded and twisted her engagement ring around her finger. They reserved the church and talked to a caterer. “We’re expecting about three hundred,” said Jonathan’s mom.
Susan glanced away and bit at her nails. “I’d feel better about all this if one of us at least had a job,” she said.
“You and David can live in our
basement room for as long as you need to. Everything will be fine. You’ll see,” said Jonathan’s mom.
A month before the wedding, the Andersons came for dinner to help finalize the plans. David’s grandfather, who was visiting until the wedding, came too. After dinner, he and Grandma Hudson sat on the back patio talking and laughing in the warm evening, while everyone else sat in the living room. Jonathan didn’t fit in anywhere. He wished Karen would play with him, but she sat cross-legged on the living room floor blowing bubbles with her gum, her hair red all over now and spiky on top, listening to every word. Susan sat on the couch next to David nervously twisting her hair around her finger, her eyes darting between the two mothers as they discussed the menu for the rehearsal dinner. Jonathan wandered outside and listened to the grandparents’ private jokes.
“Remember that day at the little Northfork?” David’s grandfather said.
Grandma Hudson laughed. “I’ll never forget when Jonas Knudson jumped off the bridge.”
“He was crazy. I wonder what ever happened to him?”
“I don’t know. Probably still jumping off bridges somewhere.”
“We had good times,” said David’s grandfather. “We thought our little gang of kids would stay together forever. But then you met Bill, I met Emma, and we went our separate ways.”
“It’s hard to believe that both of them are gone.”
They sat suddenly silent, until David’s grandfather noticed Jonathan. “Well now, here’s a fine example of a young man.”
It embarrassed Jonathan