Chapter Seventeen
I’M STARTING TO suspect that it’s not people who are silent on the bus, but me and Sid.
Now that we’ve set up our imminent divorce, it’s like he’s satisfied with the terms of our agreement and has nothing to discuss.
He stares out the back of the wagon, eyes unfocused.
I’m not brave enough to ask what he’s thinking about.
My nose is buried in a copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. So far, they’re talking about marrows, which is a British word for some vegetable. I haven’t a clue which kind, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not absorbing the story anyway.
Even with divorce on the table, we still have to live together for two years. Two years is a long time. People die in two years. Babies are born. Birth control being what it is, if Sid and I were actually married, within two years we would probably…
I pull the book tight to my face—too close to focus on the words, but I need to hide the heat in my cheeks.
There’s nothing to worry about. He’s counting down the days to our divorce just as much as I am.
But what are April and I going to do when the two years is up?
Take the bathmat and leave? Find a home somewhere else? I guess I’ll have a job by then.
Shit, I need to get a job. I need to find something to do with myself, so we don’t land on our asses when this is over.
But the only things I know how to do are foraging and hunting.
Neither skill is relevant in a place with full-scale agriculture.
And I already know the government has no interest in letting me handle a weapon.
If I’m going to keep living here, I need to find some new version of myself that provides value to this island. Some people aren’t made for civilization. Tom’s voice rattles in my skull. Who do I think I’m kidding?
We reach the acreage and unload everything we bought.
Sid runs ahead to get the guys to help with carting furniture into the house, while I guard the pile.
After a minute, a chorus of shouts reaches my ears, indistinct but excited.
Sid’s sharp bark punctuates them, not matching the jovial tone of the others.
I take a few steps to the right and crane my neck so I can see down the hedge row that leads into the acreage.
James is running towards me, waving what looks like a flag in in one hand and wearing something on his head.
Horns? Yes, that’s exactly what they are.
Bright red, bedazzled devil horns, attached to a hairband.
“There’s the lady of the hour! I’ve brought your headdress.” James holds out the item I mistook for a flag, though I still can’t tell what it is. Not until James pushes back my curls and ties the white fabric behind my ears.
A veil. He cut up a pillowcase to make me a wedding veil.
And running after him, roaring like an avalanche, is Sid, trailed by Wendell, who’s trying to force him to put on a plastic top hat. Behind them are the other boys, dying with laughter.
“Leave her alone! She doesn’t want to deal with you!” Sid yells.
“Oh, come on. You two can’t do something so brazenly stupid and expect us not to celebrate it.
” James spins me around, grabbing each of my shoulders so that all I can see is his magazine-worthy smile.
“What do you say, Kayla? Silas splurged for a couple bottles of real wine. Carlos even attempted to bake a cake.”
“It’s not an attempt, it’s a cake! A pound cake,” Carlos protests, his indignation a little less effective since he’s sporting a baseball cap with a spinner on it.
“A real, honest-to-goodness cake. I think we’ve got ourselves a wedding!
” James throws his arms out and the boys cheer.
Every one of them is wearing some sort of ridiculous headgear: Silas has a Santa hat, Wendell is in a pink fedora, and Young Tom has a pair of ears I recognize as belonging to Mickey Mouse, thanks to picture books.
The brothers DomBert are in a spikey green crown and a foam maple leaf.
“She hasn’t even had a chance to tell her sister!” Sid yells.
“Well, it’s a little late for that.” James shrugs, like he knows he technically screwed up, but doesn’t care.
“April knows?” Shit. I’d been hoping she was still at school and I would have a chance to gather my thoughts before confronting her. How much time did Sid and I spend dicking around at the exchange? I really need to learn how to tell time.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Didn’t know it was a big secret.”
“Then where is she?” Not in the… wedding party?
“Back at the house. I think she wants to talk to you about it,” says James, as if this is all perfectly normal. Nothing to worry about. “But she did accept a flower crown.”
“Well… at least I don’t have to think of a way to bring it up.”
“See? That’s the attitude! You are going to be so good for him.”
“James. Leave her alone.” Sid is still fending off the hat, which bears the words HAPPY NEW YEAR in gold lettering. Seriously, this is so—wait.
A grin springs onto my face as I catch onto the vision. “This was so thoughtful of you!”
Sid’s rage shifts to pale-faced terror as he realizes what’s about to happen. “Don’t you dare gang up on—”
“Are you going to play your guitar for our first dance?” I ask James.
“I will serenade your love until the stars fall from the heavens.” He bows and plants a kiss on my wrist. I have never been so thrilled to see Sid’s face burning with irritation, a feeling which grows sweeter when he lets Wendell cap him with the top hat.
Really, he should thank me. Someday, when we’re divorced, he’ll look back on this moment and feel nothing but sweet relief that I’m out of his life.
But I’m here now. I’ve got two years to leave my mark.
“All right, groomsmen! We need to haul the bride’s dowry into the building. Hup, two!” James claps his hands and the younger boys holler, rushing to help.
I take this as a cue to lace my arm through Sid’s, so he can escort me. “Shall we, husband?”
“I thought we just talked about this. Not performing for each other?”
“You talked about it. Besides, we’re doing it for your boys. If they want to throw a party, I say why not?” I turn a cheeky grin up to him. “In fact, it would be far more unnatural for me to pretend not to want this.”
“You want this?”
“Of course I do! There’s cake. I’ve never had cake! You aren’t going to deny me my very first cake, are you Sid Charles? On my wedding day?”
“Fine!” He falls into step next to me. “How long are you expecting me to wear this thing?”
“Oh, you better keep it on all night.” I toss my head, so that the veil flutters. “I’m not taking mine off.”
He scowls. “Yours isn’t plastic.”
“Then you need to allocate more of your budget to James’s silly hats.”
“Are you kidding? This isn’t even the whole collection. He has a problem.”
“I think it’s delightful.”
“You haven’t had to live with him for twelve years.”
Twelve years. Was that when they immigrated?
There are still so many things I don’t know about Sid.
Even if our marriage is fake, I should know them.
Not that I haven’t tried asking, but I could try harder.
I run my free hand along his bicep and smile.
“How did you meet everyone? Where did you guys come from?”
His eyes slide over my hand, then back to my face.
The muscles in his arms are tense against my fingers, but he softens the longer I smile at him.
This ridiculous veil is proof that I’m being nice to his friends, which makes it harder for him to brush me off.
He can make fun of James all he wants, but his crew are family to him.
“Vancouver,” he says at last.
“Really? But that’s so far away!”
“I know. That’s where James came in. He was the only guy Silas and I knew who could sail a boat.”
“A boat? How’d you get your hands on a boat?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. And I want to tell you. You deserve to know, but… we’ve got other things we need to focus on.” He inclines his head down the gravel path.
That’s when I see her. April sits on the front steps, determinedly looking at no one, plastic flowers tucked into a braid that wraps around her head.
“Right.” I give Sid’s arm a parting squeeze and walk toward her, hoping the cloth headdress doesn’t make me look too ridiculous for a serious conversation.
“Hey, wanna talk?” I try to keep my expression light, not a small feat given the sharp pucker of her mouth.
“Oh, now you want to talk.” April rises, sticking her nose in the air as she heads into Silas’s apartment. At first, I think she’s trying to walk out on me, but she tosses a look over her shoulder. “Well, are you coming?”
“Fine.” I would rather talk to April without an audience, anyway. Once I’m inside, she locks the door. I take a deep breath. “First off, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything this morning. But I wanted—woah! What are you doing?”
April shoves a towel into my arms. “I’m taking you to the wash house. You need a bath. Then, we’re fixing your hair.”
“Excuse me?” I try to fight her, but she’s surprisingly forceful.
“And you’re wearing this.” She presses a flimsy dress covered in sunflowers into my arms.
“April, it’s too cold for this.” I only wear it at the height of summer. Half the time, I swim in it.
“I told James you would say that. But seeing as it’s the only dress you own, it’s what you’re wearing.” April pushes me down the hall towards the washhouse. “Don’t worry, they’re making Sid do this, too.”
“Fine,” I say. “But only because I’m so relieved you’re not pissed with me.”
“Pissed? Kayla, I could murder you! How could you do something like this without telling me?”
“Then why are you playing along with this whole wedding thing?”
“Because James let me have some makeup an old girlfriend left behind. He said so long as I dolled you up tonight, I could keep it.” She pulls two tiny tins and some thin brushes out of her pocket. “This one’s made with charcoal. And I think this is beetroot?”
“Why are you so easy to buy off?”