To be wed, or not to be...

Laina stared at me, letting the words sink in. Then she burst into tears and got up from her chair, moving away from me.

“How could you forget? After all these years... How?”

I could only look at the floor, trying to hide my smile. To look at her would only make her more angry. I knew that, in a little bit, she would see its funny side and laugh along with me.

“I’ll try to fix it as soon as I can. Honest!”

Laina and I had been happily married for almost sixteen years now. We had made our vows to each other in front of family and friends on the 23rd of May, 2004. It had been a spectacular morning: the birds were singing right on cue with the organ, the sun cooperated and shined through the tall cathedral’s windows, making the floor a beautiful mosaic of colors and shapes. 

She moved towards the door. I thought she was going to go to the living room, lie down on the sofa and rest. Instead, when she reached the door, she turned around to face me.

“Do fix it soon, please.”

“All right, dear. Now go lie down, I’ll make you some mint tea that I bought at the supermarket last week. I think you’ll like it.”

She nodded, spent emotionally over what I’d told her ten minutes ago, and went to do as bidden.

I heard the sofa’s springs creak as she lay down and waited until there was silence all over the house to move. Once I reached the kitchen, I set about making the tea. It boiled right on time and smelled very good. I added a spoonful of honey and stirred it in. It would help her to sleep and get her into a better mood when Junior arrived. Our son was well into his teenage years, and was very noisy, to say nothing of the smell. Maybe today he would see her and go quietly upstairs, although something told me that there were little chances that that would happen. 

“Here’s your tea, honey. Junior will be here soon, so would you mind asking him if he could rake the leaves in the backyard today and not burn them?”

Last time that Junior had raked the leaves, he’d also thought to put them on fire, to do us a favor and save us the time of setting fire on them later on the day. But his friend Mickey came to talk to him over the fence and convinced him that it would be cool to do ollies over the pile of flaming leaves. So that’s what they did... but they didn’t count on the fact that they could fall into the pile, and Mickey ended up having blisters all over his left hand, consequence of falling in headfirst and trying to protect himself.

My wife mumbled something in return, and I took it as a yes.

“Alright then, I’m leaving. I’ll be back at the latest by seven, okay? Love you!”

I went to the front door and opened it as quietly as I knew how, but the door creaked anyway. I made a mental note, as I always did when using the door, to oil it sometime soon. I closed it quickly, hurried to the car and got in. Aargh! I forgot the key! In my experience, there is nothing worse than preparing a good snack, getting all wrapped up in a blanket to enjoy a movie and remembering just when you were most comfortable that you had left the snack in the kitchen.

I got back out, walked up the path to the house, ran up the stairs, picked up the keys from the top of the bureau and turned to the door. That’s when I saw it. The offending bit of paper that had started all this. 

You see, I had been cleaning out the attic (spiders were trying to live there without paying rent, and at the end of the winter, it was my job to shoo them out to find another home) and I had spotted a box full of papers. Being the natural busybody I am, I grabbed the box and sat down on the floor to start poking into the mess of spiderwebs and paper. I found several letters Laina and I had written to each other; Junior’s birth certificate; our wedding invitation with all the swirly letters I’d always hated; some baby’s pictures from a calendar that Laina didn’t want to throw out and, at the bottom of the box, another paper. It was quite dirty, so I picked it up very carefully and turned it over on its right side.

As I read the contents, I’m sure that my face was changing between being red and white. You see, at the top of The Paper, in big, western-like letters, were those two words: MARRIAGE LICENSE. What on earth? Had I really forgotten to sign and take our marriage license to the registrar’s office? Really? 

My mind was now quite active and thinking back. Oh, yes, Laina’s mother had gotten a cake on fire right before I signed it and I had left it on the coffee table. When I came back, someone had spilled some tea over it so I had gone to get some napkins. 

I looked carefully at the paper again. Yes, there it was, just a faint outline, but there all the same. I picked it up and walked to the door, determined to end this once and for all.

Once I got to the registrar's, I asked for Mr. Gihold, who had given me this marriage certificate. Luckily, he was in, so I explained everything and asked him for a new certificate. When I had it, I thanked him and got back home. Laina signed it and so did I. Then she accompanied me back to the registrar's office to leave it there.

Mr. Gihold, chuckling over the incident, took it all in stride and congratulated us on our marriage. Laina smiled and thanked him but I could tell she was going to cry soon, so I did my best to get us out of the office as soon as possible. Once outside, I kneeled and smiled at her.

"Marry me... again?"