Chapter 5 The Wedding Day
MAGDALENA
“Alright, class …” Scanning the room and finding every boy in a black suit and all the girls in dresses apparently had stolen Ms. Dubois’ voice. My heart drummed, wondering how we’d get away with our teacher not telling our parents.
“Please, settle down. Today is a special day because Killian has agreed to participate in a very important project. We are going to put extra effort into expanding our knowledge of different cultures from around the world. Today we will learn about the Irish Travelers’ culture and marriage ceremony.
” And there it was. I giggled at Killian’s ability to set things up to our advantage.
“What’s an Irish Traveler?” Beatrice asked.
“It’s just a poor Gyp—” Mael started to say.
“Mael, language. That’s not a nice term,” Madame Dubois warned with disapproval but then soften her voice again. “That’s a great question, Beatrice. Killian, you want to answer that?”
“My family comes from Irish Travelers, and no, Mael, we aren’t descendants of the travelers from India. But we do both share the culture of living our lives while moving around. We do not settle in one place all our lives. We are free and like to explore the Earth.”
The way he spoke so seriously of his people heated my cheeks.
This would be the same culture I would be a part of one day after we grew up and married for real.
I was excited to become his family. We’d travel to different countries, learn different languages, see the beauty of the world together: the mountains, beaches, fields of flowers, cities.
I couldn’t wait to meet the rest of his family, who lived in different places, and to learn all the myths, mysticism, and history.
Killian showed old photos of his family and the houses they lived in and traveled in, some of which he called caravans. They were my favorite out of the houses he showed, so cute, and I imagined having one and decorating it to our taste.
The way Killian stood and spoke demanded respect. It was the first time any of our teachers had looked upon him with pride. He hardly glanced my way, but I knew it was because he didn’t want to be distracted.
During lunch, while wearing the closest thing to white I could find in my closet—a long blush-pink dress Mom had bought me for a royal wedding we attended because of Dad’s job—I walked out into the backyard.
Everyone, including our teacher, stood around the bench where we always sat together.
Killian’s smile pulled a giggle from me that I covered with the flowers in my hand.
I hurried to him, then his arms embraced me, lifting me from the grass.
“So, what do Irish Travelers do in the wedding ceremony, Killian?” our teacher asked.
He stared so intensely into my eyes while explaining and tying the dark-blue string that was around his wrist to mine, binding us.
“Magdalena, my angel, I promise you will never doubt my love and devotion to you for the rest of my life. I promise to always be your friend whom you can trust, and to love every version of you.”
“Killian, no matter what we do, where we go, I will never forget you. I can’t imagine myself not loving you. I promise to remind you of the brighter days, the beautiful side of life.”
With his other hand, Killian slipped a ring, only this wasn’t the same toy he’d given me two years before.
When the light hit the diamond, it sparked a certain way.
It was obvious it was real. I didn’t say a word, but my widened eyes swept up to look at him.
Where had he gotten that ring? This one was too big on my little fingers. “You’ll grow into it,” he explained.
I didn’t say a word, but my eyes swept up to look at him. Everyone cheered, while we blushed and smiled at each other.
“Let’s eat cake!” one our colleagues yelled. Killian and I chuckled but there was no way for us to escape each other. We were trapped in the universes in our eyes.
“Thank you, Magdalena.”
“For what?”
“For giving me the most magical, happiest day ever.”
“You did the same for me. And it's just the first of many. Thank—”
“No. You don’t understand.” He shook his head and pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. Although he was smiling at me, there was a sadness behind that deep swallow, and in his eyes. "I wish I could make you feel my love for you. I wish you could feel it."
“Oh, Killian. I worry so much about you.” My heart ached as his eyes filled to the brim with tears that were then released to fall to the grass. “What’s wrong?”
“You’ve just made me completely happy. That’s all.”
“Killian come on, you’re worrying me.”
“Don’t. I’m fine now. This fixes everything.”
“A little boy once told me real friends tell each other what’s really going on, Killian. So now that we’ve done this. Tell me.”
“There’s nothin—”
“Don’t do that,” I said through my teeth but then took a big gulp of air into my lungs and let it out.
“Everyone lies to me but... please... you’re the one person who can’t lie to me.
I know something is wrong. I know someone’s hurting you.
Is it your uncle?” I paused and held his upper arms, dipping my head so that he would meet my gaze.
“If you don’t want to say it fine but don’t lie to me. ”
“I’ll tell you—”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“You promise?” I asked and he nodded. “Say it,” I demanded.
“I promise, angel.” We hugged for as long as Killian needed to hug which was a long time. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happen to me, Magdalena. If not for you, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
“It’s the same for me, Killian. I can’t lose you.”
“You’ll never lose me. I’ll always be your dragon.”
After, we danced around the pole in our dresses and suits, drank lemonade and ate cake that our teacher had baked for us.
For the next few weeks, we kept studying other cultures and countries, and on Fridays, we’d eat some food to celebrate those people. Killian and I made a list of the countries we were most interested in visiting.
India
Bhutan
Vietnam
Morocco
Madagascar
Cuba
Chile
Uruguay
Iceland
And of course, Ireland