Chapter 17: Eighty-Two Place Cards

The lodge dining hall was set for a wedding that never happened.

Ten round tables stood under the pine beams, with white cloths, gold chargers and a small card folded at every plate.

Brooke had written every one of those cards by hand a month ago.

The lodge manager had left them exactly where they were, because the contract said not to touch anything.

I stood by the door at eleven-thirty and watched people come in.

My aunt came first, in a navy dress, and hugged me so hard my ribs creaked.

The florist came, who had once been owed three hundred dollars by someone in the room.

Then the fishermen walked in from the parking lot in clean flannel shirts, eleven of them, with the bearded man at the front.

"Where do we sit?" he asked.

"Anywhere. There's a card at each plate."

He picked one up and read it aloud, slowly. "Table four. Bride's cousins."

"Those people aren't coming," I said.

"Then they won't mind me," he said, and sat down.

By noon the hall was loud with talk. Most of the eighty-two had come, and they were angry about different things.

Some of them were angry at me for the lunch. Some were angry at Brooke. Most were angry because they didn't know yet.

Hattie stood near the kitchen door with her laptop.

Ingrid stood at the very back by the wall, in a clean shirt, with her arms crossed.

She had driven two and a half hours down the shore and left the yard with the old man.

She caught my eye and nodded once.

Dalton was not in the hall. I did not know where he was.

Brooke's mother came in at twelve past noon.

Keep reading free with an account. Start An Anonymous Confession Game Ruined My Wedding from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.