Hot Tub Wedding, Late October

 

Hot Tub Wedding, Late October

High noon Napa Valley sunshine.
Juliet is cleaning her hot tub
when William calls from Coeur d’Alene.
Juliet: ‘Hey old man.’
William: ‘Hey old lady.’

William will perform a wedding
at mountain sunset. He says
puddles are frozen and a nasty
cloud is lowering overhead
so he’s cleaning the barn to hold guests
plus the horse and six chickens.
William: ‘The wood stove is smoking. You smell it?’
Juliet: ‘You smell the bromide I’m scrubbing?’

William always calls before weddings.
With a mail-order license he officiated  
his first, Juliet’s, five decades past —
hastily arranged in that same barn.
Later she learned: it broke his heart.
Which is why after college he stayed.

Juliet: ‘Fire weather here. It’s scary hot, dry.’
William: ‘Snow tonight. I’ll be pushing cars.’
Tonight, alone, she will soak under stars.

The calls always end the same:
William: ‘Stay safe.’
Juliet: ‘Keep warm.’
William: ‘I do. I always do.’

…..

First published in Windfall—thank you Bill Siverly and Michael McDowell, editors