Small Favors
Small Favors
E ven after the ceremony had been called off, Ebby was aware of small favors being bestowed upon her by the universe. Chief among them was the fact that there were no wedding gifts waiting for her at home. Ebby and Henry had asked for donations to a local charity in lieu of personal items. They had been born into families that had provided them with healthy trust funds and gifted them their first homes. They both had jobs but could pay their bills without them. There were plenty of other people who needed the extra support. The decision had been a no-brainer. On that point, at least, Ebby and Henry had been perfectly in sync as a couple.
When Ebby, too much in shock to register the full weight of what was happening on her wedding day, had insisted on walking downstairs herself to announce the cancellation of the ceremony, she immediately offered to pay back any guests who had wired funds to the nonprofit. But everyone shook their heads no .
“A donation is a donation,” someone piped up. Funny, Ebby thought, the person who had made the comment was someone she barely knew from the groom’s side. At any rate, there were murmurs of agreement all around, hugs from those who knew her well, and the blessed presence of her parents, who, having been unable to convince Ebby to stay inside the house, remained on either side of her.
She would be grateful, always, for the black hole in her memory after that. She would never remember how she ended up getting out of that garden, out of her dress, and into bed at her parents’ house that afternoon. Nor would she recall eating anything the next day, or the day after that, or getting into her car. She would remember only walking into her own place a few days later, thankful for a hallway and dining table completely free of any signs of silvery wedding-gift paper. She would remember flopping on the sofa and sitting there until the sun went down, still too stunned to weep, wondering what kinds of chemicals went into paper to make it shine like silver anyway, and whether any of that stuff might be toxic.