Family Be Mine

“Stay there, Mrs. Halverson. You fainted. I’m Sarah’s friend Julie. You remember me?” Penny nodded.

“I’m a doctor,” Julie went on, her voice calm but authoritative. “I just want to check you out before you try to get up.”

Penny swallowed. “I’m…I’m so embarrassed. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Julie peered into Penny’s eyes and felt around her head and neck for bumps. “Do you remember what triggered the fainting?”

Sarah’s head shot up. “Ah-h, I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”

Just then an argument seemed to erupt from the other side of the door. Julie frowned. “What’s going on in—”

Heavy footsteps coming down the hallway interrupted her words. “Is everyone all right?” It was Ben, Katarina’s husband. Despite his oversize physique, he looked very smart in a custom-made tuxedo. Katarina must have put the screws to him because he’d even gone and gotten a haircut for the occasion.

Katarina put her hand up. “It’s okay, sweetie. I think we’ve got it under control.”

He looked at Penny lying slack in her daughter’s arms. “Well, it doesn’t look that way to me.” His baritone was full-bodied.

Immediately, there was a large thump from the other side of the door, followed by more scurrying noises.

All heads turned, even Penny’s.

Ben pushed his way toward the door.

Sarah stood. “No, let me.” She brandished the key. “Julie, could you hold my mom?”

“Okay. But you’re sure you don’t want to let Ben check it out?”

Sarah sniffed, slipped her grandmother’s watch up her wrist, and stepped around her mother. “No, I think it’s more like cue the bride.” She set her jaw, unlocked the wooden door and pushed it open.

Katarina and Julie craned their necks.

“Oh, my God! I don’t believe it!” Katarina exclaimed loudly.

“What a total and utter schmuck!” Julie shouted.

A startled voice escaped from the other side of the door. “Sarah, I can explain.”

“No, let me,” came a second voice.

Ben took a step forward, but Sarah held out an arm.

“Oh-h-h…” Penny swooned for a second time. Luckily, Julie was still holding her.

Sarah closed the door, relocked it and faced her friends, leaning against the wall. “You saw what I saw, right?” Sarah looked from one face to another.

Katarina nodded. “If you mean that they were untangling their naked selves from a Revolving Half Moon Pose, I would have to agree.”

Sarah bit her lip. “Actually, I think it was the Downward Facing Pigeon.”

Ben coughed. “Where I come from, we don’t need that many words to describe what they were doing. What I want to know is who’s in there with Zach?”

Julie patted Sarah’s mother on both cheeks to revive her.

“It’s Ken, his partner in his yoga practice,” Sarah said.

“Sarah?” the male voice on the other side of the door sounded plaintively. Penny moaned.

Sarah looked down. “Mo-om…oh…Mo-om, I’m so sorry.”

“Was, Zach with—with…another man?” Her mother was almost too frightened to ask. “Here? In Grantham?”

Julie blew air between her pursed lips. “And they would have still been going at it, totally oblivious to the outside world, if we hadn’t made so much noise.”

“Thank you for pointing that out,” Sarah said. Silently, she rehashed her own lovemaking with Zach and came to the stark realization that they had never achieved such a passionate detachment from reality. Should that have been a clue? Who knew at this point? The only thing that was clear in her mind, and in her heart, was that she was broken. Utterly and absolutely broken. Crushed.

She placed her hand on her stomach to control yet another surge of indigestion. She tried to gather her thoughts, but the image of Zach and Ken kept interfering.

Still, she refused to come apart. She’d save that for later. “Well, let’s see…we need a plan,” she stated in a deliberate tone. “First…ah…the guests. They’ll need to be told that the wedding is off—I should probably do that.”

“I’m happy to do it.” Katarina stepped forward.

Sarah bit down on her lower lip and nodded. “Thanks, but I think it’s only proper that I should. In the meantime, could you let everyone know I plan to address them in a minute?” She looked over to Ben. “And could you do me a big favor? Could you go and tell my father the news? He’s outside. I know I’m being a coward, but I don’t think I could face him, not yet, anyway. And I certainly don’t want him back here. Who knows what he’d do?”

Ben straightened his shoulders. “I’ll be happy to. But first, with your permission, I’d like to deck Zach. I feel the need to inflict pain. You have to understand—it’s a guy thing.”

“It’s not just a guy thing.”

Her own gas pain reared up more violently. She breathed in deeply, if not a little noisily. It was New Jersey, after all, the pollen capital of America. “Thanks, Ben, you don’t need to punch out Zach. Just dealing with my father will be more than enough,” she said. She slanted her head toward the closed door. “First, I’ll take care of business here, then I’ll go tell the guests.”

She studied her mother. Penny had started to sob quietly.

Sarah reached in the hidden pocket of her wedding dress and pulled out a hand-embroidered handkerchief. It had been Grammy’s, as well. She handed it to Julie. “Here, you can pass this to my mom. I know she has one of her own, but this might be a source of added comfort.” Grammy had been a sensible woman. She would have understood.

Next, without missing a beat, Sarah clasped her left hand and began working off the engagement ring that Zach had picked out and she had always found too showy. She passed it to Julie while Katarina busily positioned the bouquet of ferns and lilies of the valley under Penny’s head to act as a cushion.

“Could you take this, too?” Sarah asked. “I don’t want it to get in the way.”

“The way?” Julie looked confused.

“I intend to slap a certain someone silly, but I have no desire to break any skin.”

“Sarah. Let me explain. Ple-ease.” Zach’s wailing voice penetrated through the door.

Sarah shook her head. “When I come back out, and after my mother has recovered—poor Mom—I’m not sure she’ll ever recover. Earl was one thing, but this…. Anyhow, when all the drama’s died down, do you think someone could scrounge me up some Tums?”

“Tums? I was thinking more along the lines of vodka,” Katarina said.

Sarah laughed a sad laugh. “Actually, vodka sounds like a great idea, but under the circumstances, I’m afraid it’s not such a good idea,” she said in a low voice, not wanting to further upset her mother. Penny’s eyelashes fluttered closed.