Who Loves Her? Page 4

  “But why?” Susan was shocked.

  “I am very sorry, miss. I can see you are very disappointed.”

  “Disappointed? Do I look disappointed to you? This is not disappointment ma’am, I am literally freaking out!” The woman grew visibly calmer as Susan shrieked in her surprise.

  The older woman looked at Susan in a stern way. “I have already explained myself.”

  The younger clerk came closer; her eyes growing in surprise as the girls began to gather around their bride. Like a flock of hens laying eggs, the girlfriends clucked at one another about the news of the lost dress.

  “They don’t have her dress!”

  “What? How is that possible! Did she pay for it?”

  “Oh no! Her dress was stolen?”

  “NO the dress was not stolen, the store made a mistake!”

  “Well if the store screwed up, they have to fix it!”

  Finally, nearly in unison, three or four voices spoke. “When will it be ready then?”

  Nina stepped up to take over as she noticed the faint but distinct trembling of Susan’s hands. “Ma’am ,I don’t think you understand our situation. The wedding is today, and if we have no dress, then we will have no bride.”

  The younger clerk hurried over to offer her help to the upset bridal party. She turned to the older clerk and spoke urgently in a hushed tone. Susan could discern a few words that suggested perhaps Susan could take an alternative dress…one that was already available in the store.

  The older clerk hissed at the young woman, “absolutely not” as she shook her head.

  The woman from the counter was either irritated by the situation or she was embarrassed by her situation. In either case there was nothing she would do to help. She looked at Nina and stated quite clearly: “You and your friends will have to leave if there is nothing more I can help you with. The wedding gown will be available after our next shipment.”

  “When will that be?” Nina felt foolish for even asking.

  “Who knows?” she said, shrugging her wide shoulders, “at least by summer.”

  Chapter Five

  “What?” Susan stood frozen. A look of disbelief etched onto her face. A hushed silence stopped all the girls in their tracks and you could have heard a pin drop.

  Nina broke Susan’s frozen stance and icy silence. In a quick rush she took up position firmly beside her friend as she turned on the saleslady. In a low, overtly calm voice, she hissed, “Did you say this summer?” Susan lost it, throwing her purse on the ground and knocking the bow-tie display onto the ground. The clerk’s eyes got wide as Susan trembled, “Listen ma’am, I NEED MY DRESS!” she shrieked. Her girlfriends backed away as Nina tried to bring her waving, swinging right arm around Susan’s body. Susan didn’t fight Nina, but she kept ranting at the clerk.

  “Today is my wedding day! I back-ordered this dress six-months ago to get married on Valentine’s Day! We have vanilla cupcakes melting with red frosting! Look! I have the receipt, and I do believe my aunt knows the repute of this store. She was the one who suggested it; she is a friend of the owner! I demand my dress right away!” Susan had the most bittersweet smile on her face as she let Nina hug her from behind. Curiously, a wave of relief came crashing down around her in that bittersweet moment. Relief? How strange she thought to herself.

  The other girls all watched in shock as Nina and Susan stood arm in arm--united against an enemy they could not define. Somehow the clerk had become the one who had personally destroyed the dress. Susan somehow got the idea this cold old woman could make the dress magically appear if she so wanted. Between wringing her hands and shuffling through inconsequential papers, the younger clerk gave the clear impression she was both incompetent and weak. The clerk stammered helplessly, “I will see what I can do.”

  Others in the store just stopped and stared as Nina rubbed Susan’s back; her low voice providing confidence that Susan did not feel. With the respite provided by the unusual sense of relief, Susan’s wits returned to her. In a moment of emotional desperation, she tried to bribe the clerk.

  “Maybe you have misplaced the dress; perhaps filed it under the wrong name?” As she recalled her previous reverie she pointed in earnest at the clerk, “I know! Someone else took the delivery and you simply did not know the dress had ever arrived!” She pulled twenty dollars from her purse. Susan’s voice calmed.

  “Look, I know how hard jobs are. Perhaps we could settle this another way.”

  “Ma’am I am just so sorry. I wish I could help you but she…” the younger clerk’s voice trailed away as Susan continued undeterred. As if by some magical miracle of the almighty dollar, Susan decided to buy the dress into existence.

  “I don’t care how much it costs. Just tell me what you want and it is yours!” Susan opened her purse again and pulled out more bills, ignoring the total value, but smiling wider and batting her eyes.

  Insulted or just exhausted, the clerk stiffened and without responding to Susan’s impossible offer, she quickly walked away. As she carried a bow-tie display through a door marked “Employees Only” she pronounced with authority. “There is no dress--nothing can be done.” With that, she disappeared from their sight. The girls looked at one another in angry disbelief. At some point, a worried giggle escaped Anna’s body and the other girls jumped as if to protect her from Susan’s inevitable angry response.

  Amazingly, Susan did not turn on Anna’s mirth in anger. Instead she looked into her sister’s eyes as a slow smile crept across her face. “You are exactly right little sister! This is funny!” The other girls instinctively stepped away from Susan and her sister as one instinctively avoids a crazy person.

  “And because it is my wedding day and this cruel joke has happened, I am going to get the last laugh!” Susan paused a moment and looked out across the room as if planning a course of attack.

  The wedding was later that day, and they still had to drive to St. Olaf’s. Susan wheeled around and began searching through the dress rack. The clattering sound of metal hangers on aluminum poles and scratchy sounds of taffeta being jostled about without care prompted the girls to retreat even further. Nina and Anna looked at one another and gulped before Anna whispered, “Uhm Sis? Exactly what are you doing?” Susan exclaimed triumphantly as she finally pulled a dress from the rack: “I am finding my wedding gown!” The girlfriends all looked at each other in confused disbelief and fear.

  Susan disappeared from the store and into the din of the mall; silently they watched her back before leaving. One by one they hurried after her, unsure of what to expect. Anna took a couple steps slower than the rest, checking for signs of the returning clerk. No one could believe what they had just seen. As they came to a stop outside, Nina blew one stray curl out from in front of her face and looked up at the ceiling for a divine intervention or a hint as to what to do. As the girls rushed from the mall, they stopped in the bright sunshine and waited.

  Adelle’s car pulled into the parking lot with the rest of the girls because they had gotten stuck in traffic. Because they had not witnessed the bizarre dress--stealing breakdown, the others provided a calming influence to Becky, Nina, and Adele. Becky was waving her arms and ranting, her red hair flying back and forth as she frantically went from screaming at Susan to looking behind them for the shoplifting cavalry. Susan and Nina were laughing triumphantly and imagining the look on the clerk’s face. Anna, however, was level and calm. With an intent stare and a voice dripping with concern, she whispered.

  “What do you think you are doing, Susan?” Anna asked her sister.

  “I hope this is not too scary, girls. They deserve it. It’s my day!” Susan replied.

  “I am scared. You are scaring us, Susan, and do you know that it is robbery, to be precise?” Anna asked in a conspiratorial tone.

  “Shoplifting,” Nina corrected, then giggled.

  When Susan came out of the shop’s front waiting area into the mall, she had noticed an increase of commotion. Suddenly, there by th
e curb, the noisy commotion grew louder. With shock, the girls realized it was a small marching band setting up for a light performance at the entrance of the mall. Susan persuaded her friends to have a cold drink before heading home. For some strange reason she was quite thirsty, but even more importantly she wanted to hear this band. The excitement of her new status as thief was in some ways rewarding and exciting. In that one moment of grabbing the dress and fleeing, she felt alive and in control of her destiny.

  Susan looked at Anna and laughed. “Anna! Don’t you realize if I had not taken the dress then I would not be marrying Harris today! I had no other choice.” Although her voice sounded happy, Susan was disappointed when she listened to her own voice. Maybe she should not have taken the dress, a soft voice whispered inside.

  Anna finally got rattled, “Yeah, a drink is what we need now. Why don’t we just jump up and down and scream? Why don’t I just wave that dress that Susan shoplifted and yell at the mall cops: ‘Over here! Come and get me here!”’ Anna rubbed her temples as she ordered drinks for everyone. The girls began to look for the safest seating to retain their privacy.

  “Listen girls, we are outside now. Obviously no one saw us or they would be out here with us. There were no cameras and no security guards. I think we are in the clear.” Susan looked back toward the mall doors.

  “Don’t worry, let’s have the drink and think it all over. If security comes outside,

  then we’ll just explain that I got confused or something. What do you say?” Susan insisted.

  “Besides,” she continued, “we’ll put the dress in my car and no one will ever know.”

  Becky grabbed the dress to put in Susan’s trunk as the others walked toward the coffee shop. They sat down at a table giving each other looks of concerned disbelief. The hiss of the coffee maker almost drowned out the pounding in Susan’s temple. Anna walked back to the table with the drinks and looked through the window into the mall toward the bridal shop. As Susan watched the band, a bemused smile on her lips; Nina noticed a man leaving the bridal store. All of a sudden she realized he was accompanied by several well-dressed men, and they were heading straight to the girls’ table. One approached Susan and asked if he could give her a nice Greek Wedding. Playfully the men mimicked the bad, singing and clapping as they all finished their coffee and drinks.

  It turned out the men were performers. Susan and Nina were delighted when they walked up with the band and began to perform. The tallest of the men stayed behind. As he spoke with Susan in a warm, protective voice, he offered their talent for her wedding.

  “We will provide entertainment so you will forget all about the mishaps of today. You can have a great celebration,” he said. The dancing and singing group sang in chorus, really awkward, but very funny. Adele winked at Nina and smiled. Susan replied, calling over her shoulder as Nina dragged her away, “Well, thanks guys, but I have to get back to the church.”

  Susan wondered if it occurred to anyone how unusual to have a wedding band sharing drinks and song with the wedding party after an insane bride has just stolen her gown. Susan could not shake a growing sense of disaster that something was just not right.

  “What a strange town I am in,” she thought.

  “Susan! What are you doing? We have a wedding to get to,” Nina shouted and motioned for their friend to join them.

  Chapter Six

  The others left the mall soon after, starting to make jokes again. Nina wanted to pull Anna aside and asked what she did, but there wasn’t time or space without Susan noticing. With the dress all neatly packed in the trunk of Susan’s car, the girls tried to persuade her to call Harris and have him join them.

  “Hey, why don’t you ask your hubby to come here and join us?” Becky asked her.

  “Why? ” Susan replied back. “Stop pestering me! You know he can’t see me the day of the wedding. Teasing is one thing, but honestly, Becky!”

  “Why not Susan? He might be here with his brothers.” Nina laughed.

  “This is really getting on my nerves, Nina, and is not at all funny. Now please, let’s just leave,” Susan declared.

  Nina and Susan decided to travel in separate cars. Because they were all running late, the others would take Adele’s car to pick up flowers and the wine. Susan and Anna would follow Nina as far as the church before heading to their mom’s house to get ready for tonight. Susan had to follow because she tended to get lost when she got all keyed up like this. Anna and Susan had a small debate as to who would drive, but Susan was in a mood, and demanded the keys. Nina was already on the road before Susan could get her seat belt on. Squealing tires pulling into traffic provided the unspoken prediction that things were not going to go so well following Nina to the church.

  In fact, following was not easy at all. The pace of the traffic picked up as various cars darted in and out to interrupt her connection to Nina. Because Nina drives so recklessly and traffic was rather thick, Susan and Anna did not have a chance. Soon they both noticed that Nina was nowhere to be seen. Anna grew irritated again and began to mumble future instructions to herself to avoid such a debacle during the next wedding. Susan was confused and disoriented. She had literally no idea where she was going or even in which direction they were traveling.

  “Now what? Which highway are we supposed to take?” Susan asked herself and nobody in particular. Anna knew not to try and help give her directions, so she started counting signposts and hoped this would all be over soon. Not knowing where in the world she was, Susan pulled off onto a side road. After checking that the car was well off the road, she slipped the car into park, and then looked for her phone. She tried calling Nina first. The phone did not even ring, and the calls were getting dropped. Each click in her ear heightened her anxiety. In an absent-minded move, Susan started scratching behind her ear. She looked around and cursed unseen mosquitoes.

  Anna watched Susan’s developing anxiety and teased her about the incessant scratching. Unlike Nina, Anna was unaware of how serious this anxious habit had become.

  “It is Minnesota, but not everything is a mosquito bite, Susan,” Anna replied

  “Shut up, Anna. Here it is, the most special day in my life and I’m sitting her with no bars on my cell phone.” For an instant, Susan wondered if Sam would stop to help them if he had happened by their way. In irritation she pushed him from her mind and spoke sharply to her sister.

  “Are you sure your battery is charged?” asked Anna.

  “Yes, my battery is charged.”

  “Well you don’t have to bite my head off, Susan! I am just trying to help. Besides, I am so thirsty and it is hot!” Anna’s words trailed off in frustration.

  Susan hated it when Anna started to patronize her. It was getting hot in the car. As Susan’s frustration grew, Anna noticed the Second Street Bistro was open with some tables under orange umbrellas set up for outdoor seating. There was a young man and young woman sitting there. With Susan mumbling about weddings without a bride, Anna excused herself from the car and walked to the bistro. Susan was immediately glad she had decided to join her as she felt a light breeze blow over her. Anna looked up at the sky for either signs of rain or some magic message written in the clouds that would tell her what to do next.

  Susan brought a wadded folder from the glove box with her and started sifting through it. Now it was Anna’s turn to search for divine intervention. As Susan’s anxiety blossomed out of control, Anna’s gaze from the sky to the activities on the street led her to speculate about the type of people who might live in the area. Dismissive of Susan’s troubles, Anna began her search for a ladies’ room without any word to Susan or the helpful woman.

  Looking for other phone numbers, some notes blew away in the wind. Susan growled in a thick, hot mix of anger and desperation. She jumped to retrieve them as they spread further apart with each new step she took. The woman sitting at the other table, yelled and pointed, trying to be helpful, but the four-and-a-half inch heels made it impossible for chasing er
rant papers or clucking chickens.

  When Susan came back to the table where her purse was, she quickly discovered that her checkbook was gone. Anna was still on her quest for a ladies’ room and was not around during the time of the theft. The lady with the heels had disappeared along with Susan’s valuables, and as an afterthought, Susan noticed that Anna too had disappeared with the lot.

  “Oh no, this is not real! Why is this happening to me?” Susan was mumbling.

  Susan sat down and started crying. Now she'd have to contact the bank to stop payment on checks. And didn't she just write some for the wedding? “Can we go home now, Susan?” Susan jerked her head up and looked about sharply for the source of the familiar voice. No. No, there was no sign of the missing sister nor anything else. Suddenly Susan felt weary. She lay her head down on the coolness of the table top and felt the blood beating in her temples.

  “What day was it?” Susan was confused. “Wasn't it too cool to be summer?”

  A door slammed. Then she woke up. With her mind foggy, lost somewhere between a dream and reality, she wondered, “When was my wedding?” A door slammed on the passenger side.

  ***

  “Skylark Motel, how can I help you? Yes, the rate is seventy-nine ninety-five plus tax. We have a few rooms. I guess they are good size. One queen bed and a T.V. A view of what?”