There is an epilogue and I will try and get it posted tonight but it might be Monday. Just keep checking if you are interested.
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Chapter 105
“Merde! Did you just say what I thought you said?!”
I winced. “Em, turn it down a bit.”
All anger turned to concern, and he asked, “You got another migraine? That’s the fifth one this …”
“No lectures. If it makes you feel better, I already have an appointment to get the damn hearing aid adjusted again.”
He snorted. “Finally.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. But you have to admit I have a doggone good reason for a headache this time.”
He was quiet for a moment before grumbling, “Sounds like a damn ghost story like we told around the campfire as kids.”
“Tell me about it.” I scratched my head, the remnants of the last round of migraine tabs making the skin on my head feel like it was crawling away. “I can’t believe Pa-pere would dump this on me. I had enough trouble with the ones before, what the heck am I supposed to do with all these?”
“Anything you want to Sweetheart.”
“Does tossing them in Bayou Teche count?”
“Anything pretty much covers that option.”
I heard in his tone that Em wasn’t touching what I’d found. Over the next couple of weeks he wasn’t just not touching them or the subject, it seemed to be creating some distance between us. And not by my choice. I kept myself as busy as I could because the next month he seemed to be unavailable most of the times that I tried to vid call him and it felt like I was losing him. He’d text me back, usually a day or two later, saying work was a bear but that was it. The few vid calls he looked like he wasn’t sleeping well and had serious cases of acid indigestion. He was trying to hide it but something was making him fritzy but he wouldn’t talk about it. I put it down to maybe him being called up by those who we didn’t talk about. Not like I didn’t have my own work to do as well and to that end the day finally arrived that Phase 2 was to start.
“You sure about this Cap?”
“Higg, you and Howard are perfectly capable of handling things here in New Orleans. I have full confidence in you.”
She snorted. “I have full confidence in us also. I’m talking about you. It’s going to be a month before a crew can get to your job and you’re going to be alone. What about your migraines? What if there’s an accident and there’s no one around to check up on you? What if …?”
“One, the doc fixed the short circuit, migraines are down to regular ol’ headaches.”
“But …”
“Two, accidents happen. I’ll be as careful as I can and keep a phone on me.”
“But …”
“Three, we can what-if things to death but … it’s time Higg. I hang around anymore and people are going to think I’m too scared to cut loose. That is not an impression I want to give anyone, especially not the crews or the people we contract with.”
She finally agreed but still she found nearly a dozen things I needed to do before I could climb into the recently purchased RV which is what I planned to live in until I could get around to figuring out if I still had a dream to fulfill in Breaux Bridge or not.
I was in my former office filling out the last page of the last set of forms that Higg had said were an absolute necessity. I was wondering whether I would make Breaux Bridge before dark at this point when I heard a commotion in the waiting area.
“What the?” I wondered when it sounded like a herd of elephants were doing the fandango.
I picked up the forms and opened the door to hear Higg in high cranky mode, “Could you cut it any closer?! I had to dig up the worst crapwork to try and keep her here. When Cap is ready to go, she’s ready to go.”
Walked out saying, “Damn straight so what … is …… the …….” What I was seeing did not compute. “
Que se passe-t-il?”
Men that I didn’t recognized mixed with men and women that I did … until I realized those men had once been boys that I
did recognize. I looked at Higg who said, “Wasn’t my idea Cap but he insisted.”
Next, my eyes found Zeb who was trying not to laugh while Denise was all but pounding on him and telling him to stop before he made me run off and ruin everything. In the back I saw an obviously overwhelmed man and his wife … Thib and Vadie … who seemed to just add to the twilight zone feeling I was getting. Then a boy – young man really – pushed his way to the front. “Hi Ava! Recognize me?”
I jumped like I’d been goosed. “Fabrice?! Yeezus, what are you doing boy? Sleeping in fertilizer every chance you get?” I yelped causing several people to snicker.
That’s when the hugging and handshaking started and I was on the raw edge of panic by the time everyone had got at me.
“My turn.”
I blinked and there stood Em and if possible, he looked even closer to panic than me.
He said in a rush, “You can forgive me later, but this is the only thing I could think of that would prove that I was serious … about you … about us.”
“Uh … serious?”
He took a deep breath and then got down on one knee. “I had a whole damn speech memorized but I can’t remember a god cursed word of it, so this is going to have to do. Ava Maxine Thibodaux, will you marry me? And for the Mother of God, please say yes. I feel mais quel con!”
I put my finger in my bad ear and tried to see if my hearing aid was playing tricks. Most everyone thought that was hilarious, but I wasn’t playing. Em looked like he was about to pass out.
Slowly, trying not to make a fool of myself, I asked, “Did you really just ask …?”
“Yes! For God’s sake Ava …”
I looked at him and then around at all the others in the room … from those I’d known since Cubbies to those men and women that were on my newest crews. Then I looked back down at Em who was turning an alarming shade of gray.
“Don’t you dare pass out Emerick Jeansonne. I’m gonna enjoy this is if kills us both.”
“You sure?”
Slowly I let the smile bloom on my face, the one that seemed to have gone out of use even before I left Florida the first time. “Yes.”
“What?”
“I … said … yes.”
He kissed my hand as well as any Prince Charming has ever even thought about then startled me by saying, “Great. Now please don’t kill me. I just refuse to risk any more delays.”
For the second time I wondered if my hearing aid was acting up, but I didn’t have long to wonder … or to threaten to kill him very dead and then some.
I was dragged off by Higg, Denise, and Vadie up to my sometimes sleeping quarters. “What the?!” was all I could say second time running.
Denise couldn’t stop laughing. Vadie was a more sober version of her old self but even she was smiling. Higg reminded me of an admiral about to launch a major campaign.
In no time they had me out of my work clothes and into several bits of nonsense. “Where did this come from?!” I complained. “I don’t look like myself.”
Denise said, “Sure you do. It’s just the self you keep hidden.”
“It makes me look … like someone else!”
Higg snorted, “Well you aren’t, but you aren’t wearing beige wallpaper to the church so deal Cap.”
It was a wedding dress … and one that Em had picked out himself. All three women sighed and said that Em had great taste and was a true romantic. I have to admit they were correct. I just wasn’t so sure where the idea for this particular dress had come from because not even in my wildest dreams had I ever worn anything like it. The gown was a floor-length fantasy from the 1920s, embellished and gilded with just enough tassel to suggest the lady wearing it was also had the independence of a Flapper. There was also a thigh slit reminiscent of some of the reigning queens of the silver screen. Somehow the three women managed to work magic with my hair and I didn’t look like an Irish Setter with a bad perm despite the haywire corkscrews they refused to let me iron out. Instead of a veil there was a headband with sequins and feathers that somehow managed to look just right.
It was like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole. They kept telling me to just go with the flow. Every objection I made was barely half-hearted if that, and more out of habit than anything else.
When I walked down the stairs people were so busy socializing that no one notice. Out of habit I gave my “signs up!” whistle to cut through the noise. Every head turned my way and quite a few mouths fell open and silent. It was embarrassing and I could feel the sweat start popping out in places that I didn’t want it to show. I shrugged. “So … are we doing this or what?” I asked looking for Em. Possibly to kill him, I hadn’t quite decided yet.
There was a different kind of noise at that point, one that reminded me of wound up cubbies at a District Jamboree that had eaten way too many sweets. Zeb stepped up and said, “C’mon before Em expires from the heat. Man he’s crazy.”
Trying to figure out that bit of hogwash I was nearly carried on a sea of my old and new friends out the door. I had to blink and this time wondered if the migraines hadn’t finally short circuited my brain completely. Pulled up to the curb was a horse and carriage like used to take tourists around the French Quarter and standing beside it was Em … an Em that was dressed in a coat and tails from the same era as my dress. And yes he did look like he was about to pass out from the heat, but his face looked like a big mouth bass and for some reason all I could think of was that silly fish Dad used to have in his shop. “Don’t worry. Be happy.”
I looked at him and started grinning all over again. “Yeah, yeah. I’m a girl, so get over it.”
Carefully, doing his best not to crush the bouquet of flowers he held in his hand, he took me in his arms and said, “Not in this lifetime or what comes next.”
Getting up into the carriage was nearly a girly show with all the leg I was showing. It generated enough wolf-whistles to be heard all over the city. Zeb told Em, “Meetcha there!” I only had a moment to wonder before the carriage started off.
“Em?”
“Just tell me I’m not making a mess of this,” he asked once again gray faced, this time with worry. “We’ll do it your way if this …”
“I never imagined this part Em. Never dared. I’m willing to follow your lead on this part so long as we go partners the rest of the way.”
“Gawd yes,” he whispered, taking my hand in a near death grip, like he was afraid I might decide to climb out of the carriage while it was moving.
It wasn’t a far ride, but it drew attention. Or the horse and carriage did, or maybe it was just the general spectacle of it all. Despite how long ago the war had ended, New Orleans was still recovering, and the economy and population wasn’t what it once was. I realized we were pulling into Jackson Square and up to Saint Louis Cathedral, those location of one of the first contracts that I’d won when people finally started taking me seriously.
“Emerick Jeansonne, what are you getting us into? I feel like Cinderella.”
“No, you aren’t a princess.” I turned to look at him. “You’re a queen and deserve to be treated that way.”
“Queen of Crapwork, that’s me,” I said thinking it was a good joke.
But Em said seriously. “Naw. Queen of my heart. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head from the day I met you and you just some crazy girl child thinking you could ride a bike all the way from Florida during a war. Then somehow, some way, you climbed into my soul and you’ve been there ever since Cher. No one could or will ever take your place.”
Well what does a girl say to something of that level of romantic nonsense?
We got out of the carriage and I was met by Zeb and Denise. It was Denise’s job to make sure everything was still where it was supposed to be and Zeb’s job to walk me down the aisle. Finally it was time.
Zeb drew breath and then said, “Look, you’ve given lots of great advice since we were Cubs but maybe, this time, I can give you some.”
“Ya think?” I asked him.
He’d changed into his retirement version of dress uniform. “Yeah. Um … look. Marriage is great and all. It’s like locking down all the paperwork and the project to make Eagle. But to be an Eagle … little more to it than just the project. Er …” He made a face. “Geez this sounded better when I first came up with it.”
I chuckled and looked through the doors to see Em standing nervously down the aisle. “No. I get it. And … it’s just right. So say it already.”
Zeb relaxed. “No. I don’t think I need to.” He said giving me a serious going over with his eyes. “You get it already. It’s not about making Eagle … it’s about being Eagle. Just … on the hard days … you give me a call. Maybe I can help, maybe I can’t, but at least you know I’ve been there and … and … well … I always will be. Best friends forever and all that.”
“Don’t you dare make me ruin this make up job you goof. There’s a couple of fems already giving us laser beam eyes.” We both chuckled a little damply and we got the show on the road.
I gotta admit I don’t remember much about the service except all the kneeling and Latin the priest seemed to need to say over us. Good gravy, it is like he’d been saving it all up for quite some time and I was to find out it was the first full house wedding the church had seen since the war ended. And boy was there a full house.
As we walked out, after getting our pictures taken by what felt like ‘leventy dozen photographers, there was no bread crumbs, rice, or birdseed thrown – food, even for animals, was still something that wasn’t anything your wasted. Not to mention that pigeon was on the menu and most no longer congregated where humans could trap them. There was still a crowd of people. Seems like news travels fast as it ever did, and everyone wanted … needed … a reason to celebrate.
We finally managed to climb in the back of what looked like a renovated taxi from by-gone days but which I could, by its smell, tell had been converted to biodiesel.
“Lookin’ good Cap!”
I was a bit surprised. “I thought you were supposed to be on the Jacksonville crew George.”
“Am. We came back for the weekend. None of us wanted to miss this.”
I looked at Em and asked, “This?”
He just smiled despite being a shade of pale that wasn’t entirely healthy. “Er … you’ll see.”
And indeed I did. About midway through Em pulled me to a quiet corner … relatively quiet corner … at the Convention Center banquet hall. “Sorry. I had just planned a small party but … someone said something to someone else and then other people heard and wanted to help and … then Ma Mere got involved and called the rest of the old ladies and they called old friends here in the city that called your new friends and … it kinda got away from me.”
“Relax, it’s all good.”
“Is it Cher? I … didn’t rush you?”
“Rush? I feel like I been waiting on you my whole life.”
“Do tell,” he said finally beginning to smile and lose the worry that’d been hiding in his eyes ever since we left the church.
“Just did,” I told him.
“Er … even … uh …”
“I’ve faced plenty of battles in this life, but your mother turns out isn’t one of the enemy.”
“But she said …”
I snorted. “Stop worrying it to death. She’s not going to run me off. And … in her own way she just wants the best for you. I agree with her on that. Everything else? We’ll take it as it comes.” The noise level was only going up. “Any chance we can get out of here sometime soon? We did the proposal, the church, photographs, reception, and cake. We got the rest of our lives to get started now and I’d like to get to it while we’re both young enough to enjoy it.”
Finally he was laughing. “Now that’s a plan I can get behind.”