Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
“Time for a changing of the guard.”
Will had never met Abby’s mother before last night at the hospital, but a lot of things about Abby and Becca began to make sense once he did.
Starting with the fact that after telling everyone that Abby was going to be okay and that, since only family was allowed to see her after visiting hours, they should all go home to rest, she said, “That includes you, Becca. No one with a skull fracture needs to listen to your mishegas.”
Becca’s high-pitched “Moooom!” had only been met with a, “Yes, exactly that. That’s not going to be helpful. She needs her whole head intact to deal with that kind of noise.”
The encounter, though brief, put a whole lot of things about the Meyer sisters into place.
“Visiting hours are starting,” her mom continued, standing in the door of the waiting room. “They’re still planning to release her this afternoon, so I’m going to head home to get the guest room ready so she can stay with me for a few days. But you all should head in.”
She had barely finished her sentence before everyone bolted out of their chairs and scurried down the hall like a cluster of pinballs, bouncing off one another. When they reached the door, Naomi paused to knock, but before her hand hit the door for the second rap, Becca had opened the door.
Needing no more encouragement, Naomi raced into, clearly overjoyed to see her friend awake and smiling back at her.
Will slowed down to let Riley and Becca get in closer, but even at the back of the group, he could see Naomi begin to go in for a hug and then pull back.
Instead, she leaned forward and inspected the gauze wrapped around Abby’s head as if to make sure that her hugs wouldn’t inflict any further damage.
Abby looked more or less the way he had expected. A little worse for wear, but in full Abby style, underneath the weariness and the bandages, her eyes still held the resilient sparkle that he had come to know.
“How are you?” Naomi asked. “They wouldn’t let us in to see you any sooner!”
Becca made a harumph noise and crossed her arms as she dropped onto the foot of the bed. “They wouldn’t let you in any sooner. I was allowed because I was family, but Mom said I might not be ‘helpful’ and went in without me.”
Abby squeezed her lips together in an unsuccessful effort to hide her laughter, and Will couldn’t tell if Becca didn’t see it or was letting it go. She wasn’t much of a letting-go kind of person, so he assumed it was the former.
Riley stepped in closer, filling in the space where Becca had been standing. “Your mother tells us they’re releasing you today?”
“Finally!” Abby said.
“Finally?” Naomi repeated, giving the word her own horrified intonation. “You’ve been here twenty-four hours and literally have a crack in your skull.”
“But,” Abby held up a finger to correct her, “the non-dangerous kind.”
“I don’t think that’s a thing,” Riley said.
“Okay,” she said, directing her statement to Riley, “Well, the less dangerous kind. The kind that requires brief observation, which has occurred, and then rest at home, which I happen to be exceptionally good at.”
“Then, if you’re feeling up for it, we were wondering …” Naomi glanced over her shoulder, and her excited eyes met his. It took him a second to realize what she was queuing up for, but then it clicked, and with it, a jolt of nerves and excitement.
He took a step towards Abby’s bed, taking his place behind Naomi. “We were wondering if you’d like to marry us.”
Somewhat unexpectedly, at least to Will, it was Becca who had come up with the idea.
“I take it you two are not getting married today, then,” Becca had said as they ate their dinner in the waiting room last night.
Naomi had let out a curt laugh at the suggestion. “I don’t know about Will, but I’d prefer not to have my anniversary also be the day that Simon got arrested and sent my best friend to the hospital.”
It was still strange to hear her talk about Simon.
Yesterday was only the second time he had heard her use his name.
But she now said it with a familiarity of a past that he still knew very little about.
And each time she did, it sent fire and ice through his veins simultaneously, knowing that she had suffered for so many years but that now, hopefully, she was on her way to a new life.
“We’re on the same page about that one,” he’d said.
“ I can imagine a lot of court documents and proceedings will refer to this arrest date, so I think I’m good not also making that our wedding date. ”
“Besides,” Naomi added, “I can’t get married without Abby.”
“You should just get married in Abby’s hospital room tomorrow,” Becca said, punctuating her sentence with a yawn. “You two have the worst luck; if you wait any longer it may never even happen.”
Will had started to laugh, but then had stopped as the idea sank in. He looked at Naomi, who looked back at him, an expression on her face that suggested she was having the same thought that he was.
“Is there any reason we couldn’t?” he asked, his voice filled with equal measures of curiosity and excitement.
After a moment, Naomi shook her head. “Not that I can think of.”
“Is there any reason we shouldn’t?”
Her eyes sparkled as she replied, “None.”
He wasn’t entirely sure Abby felt the same way, though, as he now watched a variety of astonished looks cross her face. “Here? Now?” she asked.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this, it’s that I can’t let Simon or anyone else hold me back,” Naomi said.
Standing behind her, his hand on her shoulder, Will couldn’t see her face.
But he could hear the smile lifting each word.
“If I’d listened to you from the beginning, maybe we wouldn’t be here today.
But here we are, and I don’t want to put my life on hold anymore.
I don’t want to let one more thing interrupt our future. We want to get married. Right now.”
Abby’s stare at Naomi left him to guess at her thoughts. It wasn’t only impulsive, it was a lot to ask after all she had been through, and he held his breath as he waited for her response.
Then, breaking through the suspense, her laughter—tinged with joyful tears—filled the room. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do right now.”
He grinned at her gratefully and held up his phone. Unlocking it, he presented her with an online certificate from the Universal Life Church. “While we were in the waiting room, we took the liberty of registering you as an ordained minister.”
“I’ve still got the flowers from yesterday.” Becca scooted further up the bed to show Abby her handful of wilted flowers. “I would have gotten fresh ones from the hospital, but I’m saving that money for a stripper. Everyone is saying no stripper, but I think there’s a stripper in our future.”
Naomi reached over and took the flowers from Becca's hand. “Okay then,” she said, looping her arm through Will’s. She looked up at him, and her smile sent fireworks through him. “Third time’s the charm?”
He answered by squeezing her arm under his, like he was locking it into place at his side, where he always wanted her to be.
Abby swiveled off the bed to take her spot in front of them, but teetered unsteadily as she tried to stand.
Will reached out a hand to help her as she lowered herself back onto the bed.
“Oops, maybe I’ll stay seated for this.” She smiled and then glanced at her hospital gown.
“How do I look?” she asked, brushing out the unremarkable pattern of pale blue geometric shapes covering her legs.
“Perfect,” Naomi said in a tone that said she meant it. It wasn’t the wedding they’d imagined having, and it wasn’t even the elopement they’d tried for. But it was perfect. Right down to their officiant in a hospital gown.
Despite not being completely steady on her feet, Abby was still up for the task.
She directed Riley to stand by Will and told Becca to take her place beside Naomi.
Right when he thought she was about to begin, she held up a hand.
“Hang on.” With a resourceful twist, she pulled the hospital sheet from her bed, offering one end to Riley and the other to Becca.
“Hold your arms up. This won’t be your dream Jewish wedding, but at least we can have a makeshift chuppah. ”
Becca and Riley obeyed, raising their hands above their head to cover Will and Naomi in a wedding canopy. “I can manage for about sixty seconds, so you’d better get a move on it,” Riley said quietly, a slight strain in their voice.
“Great, let’s get you married,” Abby said so resolutely that Will assumed she would begin the ceremony. But then she said, “Now. Does anyone know what that means exactly? Like, what am I supposed to be doing here?”
Thankfully, as of 12:46 a.m. last night, Will knew the answer. “You have to witness us sharing our wedding vows. That’s it. I looked it up.”
“Like the ‘I do’ part?”
Will gave her an affirmative nod.
Abby let out a laugh, and Will couldn't help but join her, seeing in her delight a perfect reflection of the bizarre yet somehow fitting situation they found themselves in. Then, her laughter gave way to a bright smile. “Given your history with nuptials,” she began. “I feel like I need to get to that part really fast, but I really want to say something first. You two have overcome so much, and yet you’ve managed to still end up here. With each other. I can’t think of any couple more prepared to face life together than you two. ”
Her words were brief, yet they held immense weight, and he could feel a surge of happiness welling up inside him.
“So,” she continued, “Let’s make that happen already. I think it goes something like this—Will, do you take Naomi to be your lawfully wedded wife? Isn’t there more?”
“Something about honoring, cherishing, and dying, right?” Riley offered.
“Yes,” Abby regarded them with a solemn gaze that was unmistakably tinged with amusement. “All those things. Do you?”
He turned to face Naomi, his eyes tracing the familiar lines of her smile and the curve of her cheek.
As their gazes met, he saw in her eyes all the memories of their past that had gotten them to this moment and the endless possibilities of future memories yet to be made.
A lump formed in his throat as he declared, "All those things and more, yes,” he said with determination, knowing he would say these next words a thousand times over, without hesitation. “I do.”
“And Naomi, do you take Will to be your lawfully wedded husband? And all those things?”
“I do. Absolutely,” she said, her eyes overflowing with happy tears as she smiled.
“Well then, by the power vested in me by, I’m assuming, the state of Illinois, I now pronounce you husband and wife!”
Certain he knew what was coming next, he turned to Naomi, ready to kiss his new bride. But then he saw Abby’s hand fly up, accompanied by a, “Wait!”
He watched, puzzled, as she grabbed a Styrofoam cup from the lunch tray beside her bed and began guzzling down its contents.
As he was starting to wonder if this was an attempt to build dramatic tension before their first kiss as a married couple, she tossed the cup to the ground in front of him, turning his speculation into outright bafflement.
Then, it clicked.
This, like everything in his relationship with Naomi, was about letting go of the plan and finding the sweetness in crafting a life together with whatever came their way.
He never could have imagined the path that first step into the high school gym would set him on.
. He had experienced happiness and love and companionship and loss and sorrow and triumph and growth in ways he hadn’t even known were possible.
And every second of it was as beautiful as it was entirely different from what he had expected.
Like now.
He lifted his foot and, with a grin, welcoming a life with Naomi and everything that came with it, he smashed the cup.