Chapter 40: The Wedding

The Millbrook courthouse had not changed in a year, and neither had the clerk.

She sat behind the same counter with the same blue screen.

She looked up over her glasses when the door opened.

"Well," she said. "It's the Ross boy."

"Good morning, ma'am," Ethan said.

"And Evan Green."

She took off her glasses and looked at the two of them in their dark suits, and then at the old woman in the church coat between them.

"Divorce papers go to the county seat, you know."

"We're not here for that," Evan said.

"I can see that. You've got flowers."

He had.

Gran had made him buy white carnations from the stall on Main Street.

He had pinned one on Ethan's jacket himself, on the courthouse steps.

His fingers had been quick and kind.

He had not planned that.

"We'd like to be married again," Ethan said. "If it's allowed."

"It's allowed. It's just not usual." The clerk looked at him. "Is anyone watching this time?"

"My grandmother."

"Good. That's the only audience you ever needed." She put her glasses back on. "Where's the paper?"

Evan handed it across.

It was the one sheet, with two crossings out.

At the bottom were two signatures, one in tidy black ink and one in Evan's cramped printing.

The clerk read it from top to bottom.

She read it again.

"This isn't a marriage license," she said.

"It's what goes with it."

"I've never seen a license with a term seven."

Gran made a small noise, and put her handbag over her mouth.

"Mind if I read it out?" the clerk asked. "I like to know what I'm marrying people to."

"Please," said Ethan.

It was the third time.

Evan felt it go through him, and he did not look at Ethan, in case he lost his place.

The clerk cleared her throat.

She read the terms in the dry, unhurried voice she used for deeds and dog licenses.

She read that nobody owned anyone's lease, seat, shares or time.

She read that each man kept his own work and his own money.

She read that code was not to be read without asking.

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