Lilacs, Cherry Blossoms, and Sand

Julia and Bob danced in front of the reception crowd and everyone was having a blast. The DJ played “Atomic Dog” and that got a lot of people out of their seats and onto the dance floor. Julia and Bob got down, shaking their rumps and laughing.

Carole and I were at our table in the reception hall, which was catty corner to the open bar. We took turns getting a drink and watched the crowd dance. Everyone else who sat with us got up to dance, except for some of my older relatives who were content with admiring the rest of us celebrate.

“Just play it cool,” Carole said. “At least we made it to the reception.”

“True,” I said. “But we missed the wedding. Cousin Julia was very insistent that we get there on time.”

“Look, we got lost. We didn’t know that the church was on Lilac Avenue, not Lilac Street.”

That was completely my mistake, but Carole always made it a “we” thing instead of a “me” thing or a “you” thing. One of the reasons why I loved her, and I adopted that habit as well.

“All the time I lived here, I never knew there was a difference,” I said and took a sip of beer. “If my brother would have said it was Lilac and Dearborne, look for the gas station at the corner, then I would have found it, no problem. But no. He said, ‘Jesse, you know this town like the back of your hand. I don’t have to remind you.’ This town is like a tattoo in my brain. The major streets are the thick lines. All the fine detail, the smaller streets, have faded in my mind.”

“I’m sure Julia will forgive you,” Carole said and sipped her margarita. “Ooh, this is good. Wanna try it?”

I sipped the margarita as my cousin Willie walked past.

“Hey, hey, Jesse!” he roared. I looked over at the dancing crowd. Julia and Bob were busy spinning each other around amongst the crowd. “Where were you in the church?”

“Oh, I was over near the back corner, close to the door,” I lied. Carole gave me a side-eyed glance. “We ran into traffic just before we hit Dearborne.”

“Oh, I see,” Willie said. “Did you see when they kissed and the cherry blossoms fell gently around them?”

“Yes, that was so beautiful,” Carole chimed in, then it was my turn for a glance. “It really was sweet.”

“It was,” Willie said to her. “So, when will you two get married?”

Carole and I shared a look. We were in absolutely no rush to get married, even though we’ve been together for four years. I planned to pop the question a year and a half ago, but Carole’s grandmother passed away then. She was really close to the grandmother - her mom’s mom - so she really took it hard. And I decided to wait for when the time is right.

“Oh, everyone will know,” Carole said and held my hand. “We’ll make sure you find out.”

“Awesome,” Willie said. “Are you gonna go out and dance?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Maybe in a couple of songs, one that we both like.”

“Cool. I’ll talk to you soon, cuz.”

“All right,” I said and raised my beer. “See ya.”

The DJ then played “More Bounce to the Ounce” and that dragged a couple more wedding guests out of their chairs. Carole and I sat and tapped our feet to the tune.

“Lilac Street is an industrial area,” I said. “I knew something was off when we saw an iron works factory where there should have been a church.”

Carole chuckled. “Right? But thank goodness for cell phones. Your sister sent us the pin to follow, and that got us there.”

“Yeah. Sally is a gem,” I said. “Only wish we didn’t have to park so far away. I felt bad for you, because you had to walk in heels.”

“Eh, I’ll live,” Carole said. “Just get me another one of these,” she added and shook her empty plastic margarita cup.

“With pleasure, babe,” I replied and kissed her on the cheek. I got up and walked back to the open bar.

“Another margarita, and I’ll have a Shiner Bock,” I said.

“Good call on the Shiner,” the bartender said. “There’s a lot of these left. No one’s asked for them.”

“Shocker,” I said. “I grew up here, and Shiner was my college beer. So whenever I’m back in town, I’ll order it wherever I go with my girlfriend.”

“Nice,” the bartender said as he finished preparing the margarita. The rim of the glass was perfectly salted, just enough on top without sliding into the drink itself. The Shiner came in the bottle, the goat on the label looking into the distance, the same as always from my college days and times I had it during different levels of intoxication.

“Thanks, man,” I said and floated a couple of bills into the tip jar.

“Thanks to you, sir,” the bartender said. I walked back to the table and stopped to admire Carole in her outfit as she spoke to one of my uncles who sat at our table. She wore her hair up, with tendrils of hair framing her face. She had on a lavender dress with a matching stole that sat draped gracefully on her shoulders. To me she was the most beautiful woman in the reception hall, no disrespect to my cousin Julia. My cousin was always attractive, and she had her fair share of boyfriends. And Bob, her new husband, was the right man at the right time, even though I thought the guy she dated before him, Mike, was pretty cool. But Mike got into some trouble and did some time, and that was it for him, as far as Julia was concerned. Bob came into the picture a couple of months after she and Mike broke up for good. He is very laid-back, a perfect counterweight to Julia’s outgoing personality.

“Your drink, my love,” I said and put the margarita in front of Carole. My uncle looked at me and smiled.

“Thanks,” she replied. She picked it up and we tapped the glass to the bottle and took a sip.

“Hey!” I heard Julia shout toward us. Carole and I just stared, unsure how to react.

“Yes, you!” Julia shouted to us. “Come on up here!”

“Busted,” I muttered under my breath. I took off my suit jacket and draped it on the back of the chair. Carole removed the wrap from her shoulders and set it in the chair, next to her purse. She slid out of her heels and we both headed to the dance floor.

“Cuz!” Julia shouted at me and gave me a big hug.

“Hey, cuz,” I replied. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a big smile. She gave Carole a big hug and kissed her cheek, then dabbed at it with her thumb. “Sorry, don’t want to leave my lipstick.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Carole said and hugged Julia back. Bob and I shook hands and hugged, then Carole walked over and hugged him.

“Why aren’t you out here dancing?” Julia demanded from us, just as the DJ started playing “Dancing Queen.”

“We were waiting for this song,” Carole said. “I love this song.”

“Girl, me too!” Julia said, and they started swaying in rhythm together. I’m not a good dancer, so I just bobbed my head up and down and swayed slightly in place. Bob joined Julia in swaying along with Carole.

“I know you guys didn’t make the wedding,” Julia said.

“I got lost,” I said. “I thought it was Lilac Street, not Lilac Avenue. But then Sally sent us the correct address.”

“Oh, good.”

“We saw you guys walk out of the church,” Carole said. “I’m sorry we missed it.”

“We saw Willie a moment ago,” I added. “We lied and said we saw your kiss with the cherry blossoms raining down.”

“You know, that almost didn’t work,” Bob said. “We asked one of the people at the church to be ready after the pastor said ‘You may now kiss the bride.’ In the rehearsal the little trap door wasn’t working.”

“But thankfully they got it to work,” Julia said and grabbed Carole to dance. Carole looked at me and laughed.

“Hey, but you made the reception,” Bob said and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “At least you’re here to help us celebrate.”

“Yeah. I’m glad we made it for this,” I replied.

So all in all, I think Julia forgave me for having missed the wedding ceremony since we did get to the reception. But it stuck in my craw the whole night. I grew up here in Valley Heights. It was a point of pride that I knew this town like the back of my hand. Any time I came back to visit I had no problem remembering the best routes to get to certain parts of town. My friends would marvel at my recollection of streets and the highway through town, how being away from the town only made it appear sharper in my mind. And to be honest, I had thought about moving back. But that was before I met Carole, and we got serious pretty quickly. When it’s right, it’s right, we would say. And four years together is testament to that.

But the address for the wedding threw me for a loop. Lilac Avenue, not Lilac Street. I knew about Lilac Street being an industrial area - my uncle, Julia’s dad, worked at a warehouse in the area, but on a different street parallel to Lilac. And I felt bad because it sounded like a beautiful ceremony, especially with the cherry blossoms raining down on the couple as they kissed as husband and wife. I think Carole would have really liked seeing that.

The next day, after we slept in for a bit and had the hotel breakfast, Carole and I drove out to White Sands. She had only heard about it, while I went once in college with a couple of friends. We took the road out to Alamogordo and then the state route into White Sands.

Carole wore a large-brimmed hat, oversized sunglasses, and a maxi dress. She was fair-skinned and was deathly afraid of skin cancer. Her mother had a couple of cancerous moles removed, no thanks to the constant sun exposure in Arizona. So Carole would try to cover up, but did so in floaty fabrics for this visit to the park.

We climbed to the top of a dune not too far from where we parked. Carole just gazed out into the distance with wonder. She pulled her phone out of her purse and began to take photos while I slid my finger over the soft gypsum atop the dune.

“Hey,” I said. “You might want to take a couple of photos of us.”

“Good idea,” she replied, and we posed for a selfie.

“Here,” I said and aimed her arm up. I wanted her to see the note I wrote in the dune: Will You Marry Me?

“What’s that say?”

“Turn around and take a look,” I replied. She lowered her sunglasses on her nose and squinted at the dune.

“Will You Marr Me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, shoot,” I said and reviewed my handiwork in the dune. “Forgot the Y.” I then got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of my pocket.

“Oh, my God, oh, my God,” Carole squealed and raised her hand to her mouth. I saw a couple of tears stream from behind the sunglasses.

“Carole Shaw,” I started. “I love you. I will always love you. You have made me become a better person and to keep on trying to be a better person. You are the oxygen I breathe, and I can’t live without you. So, here in one of the most beautiful places I know, with the most beautiful person I know, I ask but one simple question: will you marry me?”

“You mean ‘will you marr me,’ don’t you?” she replied with a chuckle.

“True, but the sentiment is there. So, Carole Shaw, what do you say?”

“Of course, of course,” she squealed and sobbed. “Yes!”

I slid the ring on her finger and got back up to my feet. We had a long kiss as I held her in my arms. Carole shook from sobbing and laughing.

“Here, let me take a photo,” I said and she held up her left hand, fingers spread. The engagement ring caught a glint of sunlight.

Julia and Bob showed up as Carole and I walked down the dune.

“You’re late,” I said to Julia. Last night at the reception, when Carole went to the bathroom, I told her I planned to pop the question the next day somewhere special.

“See? How does it feel, huh?” Julia replied angrily, then smiled. “Just kidding, Jesse. So, I believe there’s news for us?”

“Yep,” Carole said and walked over to her to show off the engagement ring.

“Wow, that’s so pretty,” Julia said. Bob peered over Julia’s shoulder for a look, then gave me an approving nod.

“Congrats,” he said.

“Thanks,” I replied.