Cancel the Wedding, Queen Moves On novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: The Same Saturday

At noon on the Saturday, twelve pianos stood in Spalding Pianos with their lids open and their keys uncovered.

Four more waited out on Wickenden Street under the maples, because the shop could not hold them.

The baker had closed his ovens for the afternoon.

The tailor's wife had pinned the hem of my dress herself, with her mouth full of pins, and informed me it would never move.

It was a plain ivory dress I'd bought off a rack for ninety dollars.

The bodice let me breathe, and it did not move.

I stood at the back of the shop in the green light from the front window, with my hand on Pearl's arm.

Pearl wore a black judicial robe from a costume store, with silver sequins sewn along the hem, and a hat.

The hat was a small black cloche with a feather.

"No," she had said, when I opened my mouth in the flat that morning. "There's always a hat."

"You look like a magistrate at a funeral for a parrot."

"Thank you, baby. I worked hard."

Chairs filled the aisles between the pianos.

I saw the old widow in the front row with her cane across her knees.

The Hall's director sat in grey beside her, and the treasurer wore his tie done right.

I saw the baker, and the tailor, and the man with the basset hound.

I saw the loan officer from the credit union, crying into a paper napkin.

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