Strangers in the Night

   Strangers in the Night

Suzanne Marsh

Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night was played softly; I remember because I never cared much for the singer but apparently my cousin did. I was at her wedding, bored out of my mind. I watched couples dance and sat like a bump on a log. I was still attempting to figure out why I had even been invited to share in this event.

The whole wedding was a shambles, it snowed, and the bride in her not very infinite amount of wisdom wore a short-sleeved gown, with an ermine cape. Lovely except that she was almost blue by the time the wedding started. Blue was never her color, to begin with, somehow the maid of honor managed to thaw her out in time for my uncle to walk her down the aisle. The flower girl saw her grandpa and dumped the entire basket of flowers in the middle of the aisle. This was not going well!

My cousin is the klutz of the family, she tripped over her wedding gown, and my uncle caught her just before she hit the floor nose first. The organist hit a chord that still sends shivers down my spine whenever I hear the “Bridal March”.

Somehow my uncle and cousin made it to where he gave her away to Hank Mitowski the groom. The priest cleared his throat and began:

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today for the marriage of Melinda Pruitt and Hank

Mitowski.”

I snapped a picture as Melinda pitched forward on her stiletto high heels, Hank is six foot eight, and Melinda is four foot nine, they look like Mutt and Jeff from the comic strip. It was difficult not to laugh every time I saw them together. I took stock of the best man now there was a hunk a hunk, blond, blue-eyed six foot two. His biceps bludged under the pale blue tux, this was totally not fair. I hoped Melinda would have the grace to introduce us, which she did after the champagne toast all over her and the groom. What a night this was turning out to be if all began to go well for me.

The band began to play Strangers in the Night, once again, I wish Melinda liked other types of music but oh well it wasn’t my choice. I was sitting there at the table when hunk a hunk strode over to where I sat:

“You look bored to tears, Melinda sent me over to ask you to dance, so would you like to

dance?” I looked up at him with a rather strange look or so he said later:

“Yeah, sure, why not? I am bored to tears,”

We began to dance to Yep Strangers in the Night, I wondered if the band knew any other song. His name was Matt Mitowski, the groom's brother, good thing I didn’t make a wisecrack about the skinny groom. We ventured over to the band leader:

“Do you the Hokey Pokey? Or Hava Nagila this wedding needs some pep.” I was pretty well on my way to being drunk and Matt was not far behind. The band leader spoke to the clarinetist who strangely looked at him. The band leader said they knew which one we would prefer first.

Without hesitation, both Matt and I said the “Hokey Pokey”. Things were finally beginning to improve, Melinda must have had some sort of match-making streak. Matt was the man of my dreams; tall, blond, blue-eyed, and muscular. Suddenly the “Hokey Pokey” stopped and Hava Nagila began, with Melinda in the lead, being the klutz she is she slipped on the hem of her gown, tumbled missing the cake by less than a foot. I almost felt sorry for Hank, actually, I did feel sorry for him Melinda was a sweet person until she got aggravated then the best thing is to get out of her way and stay out of her way until she has cooled off.

Matt asked if I would like another glass of champagne, it sounded good to me. I motioned Melinda over:

“Where have you been hiding, I haven’t seen Matt, he is supposed to give the toast,” I informed Melinda he had just gone to get two more glasses of champagne and would be here momentarily. I had really begun to enjoy myself:

“Melinda, why did you keep Matt hidden until now?” She giggled:

“I knew you two would hit it off, so I did.” I guess that made sense in some sort of Melinda way. Matt noticed Melinda and me speaking, he handed me a glass of champagne and then headed for the microphone, he began in a wonderful deep baritone voice;

“Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to make a toast; to Melinda and Hank on this very special

day. We wish you health, wealth, and many wonderful years together.”

We all toasted the bride and groom. Matt returned to where I stood, flushed from finding himself the one to give the toast:

“Matt, you did a beautiful job with the toast, it was short and so very sweet.” He smiled at me in such a sweet warm way. I’ve heard of love at first sight but I never believed in it until today. We danced the night away, Matt asked if I had my own car, and I informed him that I did, why? He smiled:

“I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of our town since you are a big-city kid.” I turned to him with a huge smile:

“I would enjoy that.”

We decided he would follow me back to my hotel where I could park my car, then we would take his SUV up into the mountain. It was so beautiful with the snowflakes dancing to earth and the warmth of the car. We stopped at a small cafe where we had donuts and coffee. Matt asked me if I would like to go on a date? He would drive up to where I lived on Saturday, and we could have the whole two days.

We married a year after meeting at Melinda’s wedding, that was forty-five years ago, I am glad I went to the wedding, I still dislike “Strangers in the Night” but we still dance to it.