Borrow My Seat novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Certified Copy

The Milwaukee County courthouse had a metal detector, a line of people holding folders, and a clerk's window at the end of a long hall.

Tobias walked beside me, Greta behind us.

At 3:20 we took a number.

At 3:41 it was called.

The clerk was a woman in her fifties with reading glasses on a chain and no interest in drama.

"How can I help you?"

"I'd like to know whether I'm married," I said.

She looked up over the glasses.

"Name?"

"Ingrid Eklund. And Lane Raskin."

She typed.

I watched her face, and it did not change, and that was almost worse.

"Do you want a certified copy?"

"Please."

"Eighteen dollars."

I paid it with Tobias's hand resting against my back, steady as a wall.

The printer in the corner hummed.

The clerk came back with a single sheet of heavy paper, stamped in blue, and set it in front of me.

I read it.

Marriage certificate, Milwaukee County, the fourteenth of March.

Lane Raskin.

Ingrid Eklund.

My signature on the line, and it was mine, with the loop on the g.

A second signature on the line for the witness.

Marjorie A. Raskin, in her round, church-committee hand.

My knees went light, and Tobias caught my elbow.

"Is there any divorce on file?" I asked, hearing my own voice from far away. "For either of us."

"None. No divorce, no annulment, nothing. You are married to Mr. Raskin as of that date."

Greta said a word I won't repeat.

Behind us, heels clicked on the marble.

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