Chapter 7: Full Dress

"Because you weren't here," I said.

"I texted you."

"You sent me a thumbs up," I said.

"That was about the canoe."

"It was a thumbs up on a thread called REHEARSAL SCHEDULE."

I held up my phone.

"The Alpha attends all three runs. That was term one. Full dress is tomorrow at ten, with forty volunteers, and you will be in it."

Nils looked past me to Soren, who stood at the Alpha's table in his canvas coat with his hands at his sides, practicing nothing.

Nils's jaw set.

"Fine," he said. "Full dress. Let's see it."

The next morning forty volunteers filled the Long Hall.

Some carried gifts from the ledger and some carried folding chairs.

Twelve of them held water glasses, because Ulla had put something new on the Run Sheet.

It was ITEM 13.5. TOAST TO THE ALPHA-ELECT'S MOTHER. TO BE GIVEN BY THE MATE.

I read it twice.

"It comes right before Item fourteen," I said.

"The pack likes a toast," said Ulla.

"I'm to stand in front of the hall, praise you, and be rejected eight minutes later."

"It is a gracious gesture."

"It's an excellent one," I said. "We'll run it three times."

I had written the toast the night before, and it was my best work.

The first version was the one for the pack.

"To Ulla Hakala," I said, with my glass up, "who has never missed a detail."

The volunteers drank.

Ulla inclined her head.

The second version was longer.

"To Ulla, who measured the wobble on Table Fourteen."

"Who found the one card table in the lodge with a short leg, and knew I would want it by the dish pit."

Somebody coughed into a glass.

The third version was my favorite.

"To Ulla Hakala," I said, "who laminated my name in parentheses."

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