A Decade For Nothing novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Friday at the Courthouse

The county courthouse had a marble hall, a metal detector, and a clerk who did not care who we were.

I liked her immediately.

We had six guests, which was the number Lydia had chosen.

Nan wore her good cardigan and a corsage that Joel had pinned on her crooked.

Joel wore a suit that did not fit and stood next to her the whole time.

Lydia's oldest friend had come in her scrubs from a night shift and cried before we had said a word.

The bridesmaid in the pink dress stood beside her, holding a small bunch of grocery-store daisies.

My manager from the hospital had taken the morning off.

The dairy farmer had driven in from Medina in a clean shirt, with his hat in his hands.

"I haven't been inside one of these since my divorce," he told me. "It's much nicer when you're not in it."

Joel stood at the door with a wicker basket.

"Phones," he said. "Everybody. Nobody films this. It's the only rule."

Six phones went into the basket, and then mine, and then he went looking for Lydia's.

"I don't have it," she said. "I gave it to Ada."

Nan held up her big black purse.

"It's in here," she said. "Turned off, with the rest. I won't have anything buzzing today."

Lydia came down the hall at ten to ten.

She wore a green dress, the color of the coat I had bought her one December.

Her hair was loose and still wet from the shower.

Her hands were empty.

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