Chapter 24: Hartwell Chapel

The organ started at two, and the double doors opened on the same aisle.

There were no three hundred guests this time.

There were forty in the front pews, in whatever they had been wearing when I called.

My mother sat on the bride's side with her tissue.

Maddie sat in the front row in her black jumpsuit, with her good boots crossed at the ankle.

Rhys sat across the aisle with his glasses off, polishing them on his sleeve for the fourth time.

Harvey's mother sat beside him in navy.

She gave me a small nod, and I gave her one back.

Clarence held out his arm.

"Ready?" he said.

"I think so."

"Good. Now remember. I'm slow."

"I remember."

"I'm seventy-five, and I have waited a year for this walk. I'm not going to rush it for anyone."

We stepped onto the carpet.

He walked as slowly as a man can walk and still be moving.

Maddie started to laugh, and then someone else did, and the sound ran down the pews.

The carpet was soft under my shoes.

The flowers smelled sweet, and a little sick, the way I remembered.

I held my bouquet in front of me with both hands, and the ring lay hidden between the stems.

At the end of the aisle, at the altar, stood a man in a black tuxedo with his hands at his sides.

He had found the tux.

The bow tie was crooked.

His eyes were red, and his face was wet, and his hands were shaking so hard that I could see it from the back of the chapel.

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