Today was her wedding day. She put her hair up and pinned it with the beautiful clip. Traditional weddings were for virgin brides. She certainly wasn’t a virgin bride. Lord knows the whole neighborhood went out of their way to remind her of that! She blinked back the tears. They were tears of shame and guilt; tears of heartbreak, tears that she’d held back for a long time now.
She had a three year old child. Carina had been her “last ditch attempt” at making Tim stay. She thought if she was pregnant, he surely wouldn’t leave her. He’d have to stay. He would love her again if she had his child.
Tim had started to pull away about a month after he found out about her pregnancy. By the time she was seven months pregnant, he stopped returning her calls. He left for the United States when his tour of duty was up. She’d sent letters and some pictures of Carina. But she never got a reply. He was gone forever.
She was very lucky to have found Jake. They met as Lana was leaving the hospital with Carina. Carina had been hospitalized with pneumonia about a month earlier. Lana had been there every day before work, and every evening after work. Katherine, Lana’s mother was there with the child during the day; as often as the doctors would allow her to be there. Lana had been afraid that she might lose her. Carina was all she had left of Tim now; Carina and his guitar. Lana sensed that he’d left it behind for his child. Jake had been there for her and the baby from the time they met. Carina had been just four months old.
The wedding had gone off without a hitch. No one suspected the pain and dejection that Lana was hiding-no one except Jake. He knew something was bothering her. Something had her upset. He decided to pull Rose aside and ask her about it.
“She’s upset because she couldn’t wear white; you know, have the traditional wedding,” Rose said. “This has been really hard on her. And they aren’t making it any easier for her”, she went on. “They’ve got her believing that she isn’t good enough for you.” “They have her convinced she isn’t fit for anyone anymore”, Rose said. “She is ashamed because she’s wearing light blue instead of white; and because she’ll have to keep her hair up tonight.” “Only virgin brides get to wear their hair down at the wedding celebration.”
The music started to play. Jake had requested “The Twelfth of Never” for their first dance. He could feel the icy stares of his new sisters-in-law, as he led Lana out onto the floor. He couldn’t figure out if those two were jealous of Lana, or maybe, they just thrived on being gossips and busybodies. They had to put their two cents into everything! You’d have thought this was their wedding. He and Lana hadn’t been able to plan any of it without their input. Well, they were about to get a big surprise. They hadn’t planned this!
“You ask how long I’ll love you”, the music played. Jake led Lana out into the middle of the dance floor. She felt almost like a zombie in his arms. She looked down at the floor as he put his arms around her. Then, without a word, he reached up and undid the clip that held her hair. All of it came tumbling down around her shoulders-glorious, sable colored tresses spilled down.
It sounded as if everyone in the room gasped at the same time. The two “biddies” looked as if they were about to fall out of their chairs. He lifted Lana’s chin and placed a soft kiss on her lips. As he pulled her close to him and glided across the floor with her, there was a tiny tear drop that trickled down her cheek. Jake had to blink just a little bit himself.
