No Word for the Sea. Diane Glancy
“What difference does it make?” Gretchen said to me. “I’m going to marry him. Do you have something against the name?”
“Are you pregnant?” Soos asked.
There were four phones in house. Solome, her mother, Soos and I could talk at once.
As long as Dennis was her boyfriend, and they were getting married, it didn’t matter. Gretchen had several boyfriends during her long college career, which began at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and ended in New York. Solome said she knew Gretchen probably lived with them at one time or another. She left that thought in the category of things she didn’t want to consider.
“Are you going to be Gretchen Kamrar?” Soos asked when her first question wasn’t answered.
“No, I’m not pregnant. And yes, I will keep Savard as my name.”
Would Solome call the church first thing tomorrow morning and find a date in June when they could have the wedding? Gretchen also wanted the reception at the St. Paul Club.
“What’s wrong with the University Club?” I asked, but my question went unanswered.
“June?” Solome asked. “Gretchen, it’s the first of March. You can’t prepare for a wedding in three months. Especially with you out of town.”
But Gretchen insisted it could be done.
“It took six months for Soos’ wedding.”
“I’ll help you, mother,” Soos said on the phone from the other room.
Soos stayed on the phone after Solome and I returned to the table. Brian was holding Susan on his lap. Mark and the girl he brought with him, Jean, were gone.
Solome told Brian that Gretchen was getting married.
“I heard,” he answered.
Solome’s mother brought coffee from the kitchen when she hung up the phone.
“Did Mark leave?” Solome asked.
“They’re standing outside,” her mother answered. “Jean is smoking.”
When everyone returned to the dining room, Solome served dessert. As we ate, I saw Solome look at the yellow wallpaper with turquoise flowers.
“The risk you took with the paper is beside the point, isn’t it?” I said.
They looked at me, not asking what I meant.
Solome Savard
Solome called Jane Mead the next day. They had raised their children together, though Jane had only one daughter, Soos’ age. They attended birthday parties and dance recitals. But the girls had gone to different schools and hardly knew one another any longer.
“Gretchen is the one I thought would remain single,” Jane said. “I’ll tell Cathy. She’s one who would like to get married.”
On Saturday morning, Solome called the church. Every Friday and Saturday evening in June was taken for weddings. The St. Paul Club was booked too. Solome called Gretchen who flew into a panic. She would not settle for that.
“Try Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning. We’ll have a picnic on the lawn of the club, if necessary.”
“There was a reception at the Historical Society last year.” Solome told her.
“I don’t want my reception at a museum.” Gretchen said flatly. “I want the club.”
“The St. Paul Club is booked. The University Club?”
“No.”
On Monday Solome called the church again. There was no time. She asked Reverend Croft to review his calendar in June.
“Do you have any afternoons?” She finished.
“I have a wedding at 2:00 every Saturday afternoon.”
“Early on Friday evening? A 6:00 wedding?”
“I’ll give you to Martha.”
Solome would regret a 6:00 wedding. An early wedding meant a sit-down dinner at the reception. You couldn’t have people for a light buffet until after 8:00.
“No, 6:00 is too late,” the secretary said. “He has an 8:00 wedding on June 21st.”
“Why is that too late?” Solome asked.
“The wedding parties come to the church at least two hours before the wedding. They want time to get ready. The photographer takes pictures. You can’t overlap weddings.” Martha explained. “You can’t have one party arriving as the other is leaving.” Solome heard her impatience too. She knew it was true.
“5:30. 5:00?”
“There’s a possibility on Friday, June 6th.”
“June 6th is too soon. Is there a Saturday morning later in June? 11:00?”
“I have an opening on Saturday morning the 28th, though I’ve already had another inquiry—”
“We’ll take it,” Solome said.
Gretchen was not happy about a Saturday morning wedding.
They could postpone the wedding, Solome suggested to her. They could have it at another church.
No, Gretchen wanted to be married in the church she’d attended as a girl. She wasn’t getting married in a church she’d never attended.
No, she wanted the wedding in June and not August because they would be interviewing for jobs and she would be writing her dissertation. Dennis already was teaching at New York University, though his job was not permanent. They wouldn’t hire her, Gretchen said. The same institution usually didn’t place both husband and wife.
Solome tried to persuade Gretchen that June was too soon for a wedding. It would be too much of a strain. Impossible, really. They could have a July wedding.
“No,” Gretchen said.
Soos’ wedding had been large. Solome had planned most of it. Soos was struggling in school at Cobson and didn’t care about the details. Solome always felt that Soos married Brian in a fit of desperation. Maybe it wasn’t true, but there was an impatience in Soos to move onto something else. A marriage, for instance.
Gretchen, on the other hand, knew how she wanted the wedding. She was busy with her studies, but she would take time to plan it. Solome would help her. Dennis’ parents would take care of the flowers, the rehearsal dinner, but Solome would have to make arrangements with the florist and decide on the restaurant. Solome and Stephen would pay for the wedding, the music, the reception, the invitations and stamps. Then there was Gretchen’s dress, veil, shoes, and a hundred things they hadn’t thought of yet.
“Just find a place for the reception,” Gretchen said.
An 11:00 wedding would have to do.
“At least, she wants to be married in a church,” Solome told Stephen.
Solome called the St. Paul Club again. Could a wedding brunch be arranged at noon on June 28th? No, the club was booked. They were sorry. There was nothing they could do.
“We could remove our membership,” Solome said.
They made no further apology.
“A canopy on the lawn of the church?” Solome asked Gretchen.
“No.”
She called the St. Paul Club again. “We’ve been members for 15 years. We need a place for a reception.”
June was a busy month. There was nothing they could do.
Solome called the University Club and booked it before they could turn her down.
Gretchen came home the following weekend with Dennis.