Chapter 20: Say Yes

I found the repair tag when I finally picked up the phone from Dustin's pillow.

It was under the phone, in his tall thin capitals.

It said: I WENT TO HER SO SHE WON'T CHANGE THE PLAN. DON'T COME GET ME. CAKE TIME.

I read it standing in the spare room, and I did not know whether it was a plan or a goodbye.

I did not see him again until half past six, when he walked into the parish hall on Lacey's arm.

He wore the gray suit.

There was a sprig of green in his lapel, and his face had nothing in it at all.

Lacey wore the ivory dress from the conservatory under a dark coat.

Behind them came a tall woman in lilac, holding her purse in both hands.

She looked around the room slowly, table by table.

"That's her mother," my father said at my shoulder. "From Toledo."

Dustin's eyes crossed mine for a moment on the way to the head table.

I could not tell what was in them.

We ate roast beef at long tables under paper bells.

There were forty-three of us.

My mother sat at the head table in a blue dress.

My father sat on her right, and the place on her left was empty.

Lacey was seated across from me, with Dustin beside her and her mother on his other side.

Lacey smiled at everyone and cut Dustin's meat.

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