Chapter 33

The long awaited event was about to begin and Henry was as nervous as a cat at a dog show. He kept fidgeting with the sleeves of his coat, pulling on them as though he were plucking feathers. His stomach threatened to empty what little food he had been able to down at breakfast. He grumbled, “It’s all your fault.”

Chuckling at the comment, Jerry glanced into the church to see if they were ready for them. People were seated, but the preacher wasn’t up at the front of the room yet. Bill and Melissa were sitting next to Abe. The boys looked bored, but Sharon’s sister and her husband were sitting between Abe and Martin to make sure that Abe didn’t get into trouble. That was keeping Bill out of trouble, as well.

Looking lovely as always, Jenny was seated next to Melissa. His daughter looked tense as she looked around the room. At least the dye had worn off and she wasn’t green. Well, she was still a little green at the eyebrows, but that was hardly noticeable after the makeup. The peroxide job and then dying her hair brown had gotten rid of the green in her hair. Jerry thought she looked better as a brunette rather than a blond.

Turning back to look at Henry, he saw that it was his big friend who looked a little green. Sweat broke out on the big man’s head as his hands flew to his stomach. Henry groaned, “What did I do?”

Jerry shook his head guessing what was going to happen next and grabbed his friend’s arm. After reaching the bathroom, Henry took one look at the toilet and bent over to make an offering to the porcelain god. Cringing at the sounds of the big guy retching into the toilet, Jerry rubbed him on the back and said, “You’ll be okay.”

Neither man heard the noise in the room behind them. The preacher had come in to get them and then stepped out again to give them a few minutes to recover. There was a reason he put grooms in his office. More than one had visited the attached bathroom before making their appearance at the front of the church.

Stomach empty, Henry stood up and said, “Shit. What am I doing here?”

“You’re getting married to the second greatest woman in the world,” answered Jerry with a grin.

“Second greatest?” asked Henry still feeling a little sick to his stomach and a little confused by the answer.

“Of course, my Jenny is the greatest,” answered Jerry with a laugh. He went over to the medicine cabinet and opened the mirrored door. Just as he had expected, a bottle of mouthwash was perched on a glass shelf. No doubt the preacher kept it there so that he would have fresh breath when dealing with some of the more attractive parishioners.

Henry noticed what Jerry was doing and joined him by the sink. He rinsed his mouth out with water from the faucet before taking the bottle of mouthwash from Jerry. Opening the cap, he took a swig of the liquid and swished it around his mouth. The strong astringent mouthwash was as good as a jolt of smelling salts in clearing his mind. He spat the mouthful of mouthwash into the sink.

“She’s the best woman in the world, no offense to Jenny,” rebuked Henry.

Chuckling in his deep voice, Jerry replied, “I might be your best man, but I guess we’ll just have to disagree on this particular topic.”

Henry’s chuckle joined Jerry’s. The deep rolling sound carried into the church and the preacher entered the office. In a calm voice, he announced, “We’re ready to begin now.”

“Alright,” replied Jerry as he steered Henry towards the door.

“Oh, God,” replied Henry as he looked through the door at the crowd in the church.

Laughing, the preacher said, “Talking to God is my job.”

Steering the big man with his one good arm, Jerry positioned his friend in the proper spot at the front of the room. It wasn’t until Henry was in place that he figured out that the preacher had been joking. By then, it was too late to laugh aloud, but his lips curled into a smile.

The two huge men standing at the front of the room were hard to ignore. A number of the attendees had not been aware that the best man was white and a small murmur of exchanged comments floated through the room. As Jerry took care of Henry, particularly when the big man started to sway, most of the people decided it was good that the best man was just as big as Henry. He’d squash a little guy if he tipped over and it sure looked like Henry was about to go down to most of the people in the audience. More than one bet was made about when he would faint.

Music filled the room and everyone turned to watch the bride walk up the aisle. With a radiant smile, Sharon walked up the aisle looking gorgeous as all brides do. She hung onto the arm of her stepfather who marched with a proud step. Behind her was the maid of honor, a black woman whom Jerry did not know. The progression up to the front of the church seemed to take a long time, but it was less than a minute.

Jerry spent most of the ceremony keeping Henry upright and exchanging the vows. He did notice the amused grin on Sharon’s face as Henry swayed and Jerry kept him from going over completely. When the time came for the ring, he produced it without a problem. Henry didn’t seem to snap out of it until it came time for him to kiss the bride. At least he managed that part of the ceremony without any help from Jerry. That would also be the only part of the ceremony that Henry would be able to remember.

Following the Bride and Groom down the aisle, the Maid of Honor walked beside Jerry. She was about a foot smaller than Jerry and, in comparison, she looked very petite. About halfway down the aisle, she said in a stage whisper, “Damn, you’re big.”

It struck Jerry as funny and he started to chuckle. His whispered response carried through the whole room, “Thanks, little lady, you’re a might bit on the small side.”

A number of people in the room laughed at the comment. Jenny grinned and shook her head thinking that he had no idea what he had said. She knew a little history about the Maid of Honor and her long fight with her weight. Being called little and small had to be a great compliment. Jerry just lumbered on down the aisle totally unaware of the effects of his words. There were times when Jenny just loved him to death.

Jerry and Jenny found themselves sharing a table with Sharon’s sister and brother-in-law, Cathy and George. The couple had a hard time looking at Cathy without blushing. It was difficult to look at her without thinking of the photographs found within the house and had served as a subject of a great night of sex.

“So you are living next to Sharon,” said Cathy attempting to start a conversation.

Jerry replied, “Yes. I moved into your old house after you were forced out.”

A look of real anger crossed Cathy’s face as she said, “Praise the Lord that that godless heathen landlord is dead. He was the devil.”

George snarled, “He stole something that was very important to us. You did the world a great service when you killed him.”

“I don’t remember doing that,” replied Jerry uneasy about his role in the death of another human being. He still didn’t remember anything of that day past the time when he had been shot.

“Well, I hope his soul rots in hell,” said Cathy.

Jenny looked over at Cathy understanding what was bothering the woman. She turned to look over at Sharon wondering how to rectify the situation. She wanted to kill Jerry when he asked, “You really sound angry at him. What did he take?”

George answered, “Some pictures.”

“Oh,” replied Jerry. He didn’t know what to say now that he understood what the valuable possession was. The pictures were sitting safe in Jenny’s house along with the pictures of Jenny in exactly the same poses.

Changing the subject, Cathy said, “I’m glad to see that my sister has reformed and is getting married. It always bothered me that she had two kids out of wedlock.”

“That bothered you?” asked Jerry. He knew that Sharon had called her sister a holier-than-thou bitch, but he had discounted it as a symptom of sibling rivalry. No wonder Sharon had taken delight in the fact that some naked pictures of her sister had shown up.

“Lord Almighty above, it bothered me. A good girl wouldn’t have gotten knocked up like that.”

“I like the boys. She did a good job raising them,” argued Jerry defending his friend. Jenny looked over at Cathy a little surprised at her attitude.

“It wasn’t their fault that their mother sinned,” said Cathy. She realized that she sounded overly judgmental. She said, “Well, that was in the past. I’m happy to see her with Henry.”

Allowing the tension around the table to ease, Jenny said, “They really make a cute couple. You should have seen them the day he proposed to her.”

“You could hear her scream of surprise all over the park. For a moment there, I thought she had stepped on a snake,” commented Jerry.

“So you guys go places with Sharon and Henry?” asked Cathy surprised that the white couple would go out in public with her sister. There was still a lot of prejudice in this world.

“Not so much. I work Saturdays. Sharon often works Sundays at the hotel. When we all have a day off, we might go out for a picnic, movie, or something.”

Jenny said, “Jerry and Henry are together a lot. Friday nights they work together on their business. Sundays they usually do something, even if it is just sitting around the front yard talking while the boys work on their cars or motorcycles. If Sharon has a Saturday off of work, she and I go shopping while Jerry is at work.”

“I’m going to miss having Sharon and Abe living next door,” said Jerry. It made him feel a little better knowing that Sharon was next door and could watch over his kids while he was at work. Abe was a good kid and it was nice that he was next door for Bill.

Wondering how a white man happened to move into a black neighborhood, George asked, “So how did you end up living there?”

“I left my wife and needed a cheap place to stay. I read about the house in a newspaper ad and stopped by to check it out. I ran into Abe and he talked me into moving in. One of the better decisions I’ve made in my life,” answered Jerry. There had been a number of times when he wondered how things would have turned out if he hadn’t moved into that house.

“You really like living in that house?” asked Cathy in disbelief. Her memories of living in that house were horrible. She hated that neighborhood and the poverty of the people living there. Just thinking about that neighborhood was a reminder of the hard times they had gone through a year earlier.

“Yeah, I do.”

“I hated living there because of that bastard landlord,” commented George with a frown. The man could have given them a couple more days to come up with the rent. Instead, he had locked them out of the house and sold everything they owned. It was tough enough having been laid off of his job, but to lose everything else was just too much. He spat, “I’m glad that you killed him.”

Quiet settled over the table until Jenny said, “I need to powder my nose. Would you like to join me, Cathy?”

Surprised to be invited to the powder room by a woman that she had just met, Cathy shrugged and answered, “Okay.”

Jerry watched as Jenny and Cathy went on their way to the bathroom. Confused, he said, “I never understood that.”

“What?”

“Why they all go off to the bathroom together,” answered Jerry.

Chuckling, George replied, “One of the great mysteries. If we were to do that, everyone would figure we were comparing the sizes of our cocks.”

“That’s probably what they are doing,” replied Jerry with a chuckle.

“What?”

“Comparing the sizes of our cocks,” said Jerry as he broke out into laughter.

George started laughing and slapped his thigh. Shaking his head, he said, “Henry said that I would like you. He was right.”

The two men talked about cars, women, and life in general while the women were in the bathroom. After about fifteen minutes, Jerry commented, “They sure are taking a long time.”

“Ah, here’s Sharon,” said George as the bride walked over to the table.

Sharon stopped at the table and said, “Did your ladies run off already?”

“Yeah,” answered Jerry, “maybe you can explain to me why it is that when one woman goes to the bathroom, all of the women at the table leave with her.”

Sharon didn’t have a chance to answer before Henry showed up at the table. He set a massive hand on Jerry’s shoulder and said, “It’s all your fault.”

Wondering what the problem was, Jerry asked, “What’s my fault?”

“First, I get engaged because of you. Then, you hold me up through the whole ceremony so that I end up married. Now that I’m married, my bride is ignoring me by coming over here to talk with you,” said Henry with a smile.

“You’re right. It was all a plot on my part,” answered Jerry with a wink at Sharon. Looking up at his big friend, he said, “I wanted the two of you to get married so that she’d get interested in me. You know that old saying - the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Now, I’m on the other side of the fence.”

Sharon laughed and retorted, “If that was the case, then I would have gone after Melissa. She’s the greenest one that I’ve seen around here in ages.”

Everyone except George burst out laughing at the comment. Fortunately, Melissa was far enough away that she didn’t hear the joke made at her expense. George asked, “What’s this about some woman being green?”

Jerry explained how the kids had decided to punish his daughter for insulting one of the girls in the neighborhood. George laughed through the whole telling of the story. Jerry thought the man was going to hurt himself from laughing so hard.

When Jerry was done and he had finally recovered, George said, “Gives a whole new meaning to the term Colored Person.”

“Yes, it does,” commented Jerry.

Sharon and Henry moved onto another table to talk to the Maid of Honor. George watched them walk off wondering if this was a sore subject with them. He asked, “So is she still calling people that?”

Jerry shrugged his shoulders and answered, “I don’t know. No one has said anything to me about it, but I don’t think she’s changed her opinion about people any.”

“I take it you don’t hold the same opinions as she does.”

“That scrawny guy over there that married Sharon is the first friend I’ve ever had. I don’t care what color he is, I’m proud to be able to call him a friend. He’s a good person; one of the best I’ve ever met. My ex-wife was a horrible heartless bitch. She was white and one of the worst people that I’ve ever met. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the color of a person’s skin doesn’t tell you much about what’s in their heart.”

George considered the big guy sharing the table with him. He had heard about how the man had taken out people opening the drug house that was down the street from his old house. He also knew that Jerry had helped Martin and Abe get jobs. The boys talked about Jerry as if he was some sort of superman.