“Thank you…both of you.” I shook hands firmly with Ossie, and I hugged Edith like I would my mother.
“…and in these tryin’ times, God knows we all need more unions like this one…” the reverend continued.
As I stood next to Thais, and the reverend performed the ceremony, I thought of my mother and my sisters, wishing they could all be here with me.
“Wait!” someone shouted, and every head in the crowd turned simultaneously toward the voice.
Reverend Raymond grumbled. “Now, I said before I started that I didn’t want anybody interruptin’ with objections.”
“No objection, Reverend,” Ona said as she broke through the crowd, out of breath, and ran up carrying a bouquet of wildflowers wrapped and tied with a yellow ribbon. “The bride’s bouquet!” Her smile was radiant, her face filled with sweat and happiness.
“Thank you, Ona,” Thais said, beaming, and she took the bouquet and then kissed Ona’s cheek. “Thank you so much.”
“Oh, you’re welcome! Can’t be having a wedding without a bouquet.”
After a second of awkward silence, Reverend Raymond cleared his throat and said, “Is that all, darlin’?”
Ona’s face flushed. “Oh! So sorry!” She walked backward to get out of the way, and went to stand next to her grandmother.
Reverend Raymond turned back and said, “Now repeat after me…”
And I, looking into Thais’ eyes, repeated after him:
“I take you, Thais, to be my wedded wife. I vow to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live, to have and to hold from this day until my last day, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, until death do us part.”
And then Thais, looking into my eyes, repeated after the reverend:
“I take you, Atticus, to be my wedded husband. I vow to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live, to have and to hold from this day until my last day, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, until death do us part.”
(I nearly cried.)
I nearly cried.
Reverend Raymond held out his hand, palm up, and said after clearing his throat again: “Should I skip the ring part?”
Realizing, I released Thais’ hand and fumbled inside my pocket for the rings Edith and Ossie had given me.
(My eyes grew wide with surprise when I saw the rings sparkling in the palm of Atticus’ hand. I looked up at him, back at the rings, wondering where he got them, but so happy he’d managed the gesture somehow. I would have been happy with anything, or nothing, but this sure made my heart flutter.)
I took Thais’ hand, and I smiled, and I waited for the reverend to get on with it because I was more than eager to get the ring on her finger.
Reverend Raymond continued, and I repeated after him:
“Thais, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you. With this ring, I thee wed.” I slid the ring onto her finger, and tears cascaded down her cheeks.
Thais took the other ring from him and she held it and took my hand into hers and she repeated after the reverend:
“Atticus, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you. With this ring, I thee wed.” She slid the ring onto my unbroken ring-finger, and I choked back the tears that almost cascaded down my cheeks.
“You may now share a kiss,” Reverend Raymond said.
With my hands upon Thais’ cheeks, I pulled her close and kissed my wife for the first time. And the crowd hooted and hollered and whistled and cheered and clapped and the music started again in celebration.
After Thais blindly threw her bouquet, and a young wearing a hijab caught it, we danced more, and we ate more and drank a little until the first chance we got we slipped away unnoticed so we could be alone.
69
ATTICUS & (THAIS)
Thais and I had our own tent for the night; Edith and Ossie had given us theirs. It was tall and spacious like the medical tent I had woken up in, with a high cloth ceiling and thick cloth walls that moved when the breeze hit them. A single lantern gave the space light, just enough we could see each other’s faces as we lay next to one another, Thais curled up in my arms; two thick blankets beneath us kept us off the hard ground.
“What’s the first thing you’re going to do when we get to Shreveport?” Thais asked.
I thought on it a moment, watching the shadow from the lantern flame dancing largely against the wall.
“I’m going to lift you into my arms and carry you over the threshold.” A wave of heat covered my face; I felt embarrassed saying such things—meant it absolutely, but felt uncomfortable saying it out loud.
(I saw the red in his face. I smiled, and kissed his lips.)
“What about you?” I asked her.
“Well, first I’m gonna be carried over the threshold,” she said playfully, and she poked my chest with her knuckles. “And then I’m going to fall to my knees and kiss the ground. Atticus, it’s been such a long journey—feels like a lifetime we’ve been out there. It’s going to be…surreal when we’re finally there. I…well, I wonder if I’m even going to believe it right away.”
“Me too,” I said, and tightened my arms around her.
“I hope the people are as good and kind as my mind has made them out to be,” Thais added. “It will be the biggest letdown of my life, if they turn out like Lexington or Paducah.” She laid on her back, and looked up at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought. “But just being good and kind isn’t enough, is it? The world has never really been without good. It’s just that the bad always seems to outweigh it. The scales have always been tipped in the wrong direction. And it’ll always be that way until…well, I guess until enough people rise up and change it.”
I stroked her hair, looked up at the ceiling with her; I was uncomfortable with where the conversation seemed to be going—because it took her away from me—but I would never tell her that, or show my discomfort, because it was increasingly important to her, and that was what mattered most.
Instead of changing the subject, like part of me wanted to do, I stoked it.
“Why do you think it’s so hard?” I asked. “I mean, for the scales to tip in the other direction?”
Thais looked at me, her head laid atop my arm.
THAIS
“Fear,” I answered. “It’s always been about fear. Fear of persecution. Fear of torture. Fear of losing everything one owns. Fear of death.” I paused, letting the nightmarish memory of the mass grave pass through my mind. “Fear is, and always has been, Evil’s most effective tool.”