Читать книгу Nicky & Lou - Nataniël - Страница 13

My mother has a cousin who has a daughter who got married the day after Christmas. My mother said although we were all adults, we should go to the wedding, it was always a lesson in life.

The wedding was held on a farm. The farm had a house and the house had a porch. On the porch were 24 chairs, two vases with dried flowers, a very small wedding cake and grey ribbons. The bride and groom were also wearing grey.

I sat next to a woman who was crying into her handkerchief. My mother said we were related in a complicated way.

Isn’t this moving? said the woman.

I said, Why is the bride wearing a sweater and a skirt? And in grey?

To blend in with the concrete, said the woman, It’s in honour of her father.

Is he dead? I asked.

No, said the woman, He’s just not here. That’s why there are 24 guests. With the couple and the preacher and the help we are 29. Thirty are too many, we’ll get noticed.

By whom? I said.

We don’t know, said the woman.

That’s why I live in the city, I said, This is too strange.

The woman dropped her handkerchief.

Oh no, she said, A city will kill you, none of us can go there, it’s not in our blood.

At least it’s normal, I said.

We were not made for normal, said the woman, Look at you! What do you want with normal?

I said, It’s fun to have a wedding with lots of people and a bride in a beautiful white gown.

It’s not in our blood, said the woman, We don’t say gown and we don’t live in the city.

The woman pointed at the bride.

Her father lived in the city, she said, His name was Pluto.

Isn’t that a dog’s name? I said.

It’s the name of a planet, said the woman, He never had a chance. He was a lawyer and he worked at a large company. Then his sister got married. It was an elaborate city wedding, with a large cake and hundreds of people, it was held on the roof of a large building. His sister got a famous designer to make her a dress, a huge white thing. When Pluto found out, he got very afraid, he told her not to wear that thing, he said it was too big, it’s too dangerous, but she said it was her dream.

All brides dream of big white things, I said.

Not for long, said the woman, At the wedding the weather got bad, it didn’t rain, but there was lightning and it hit a TV dish on the next building and then it bounced and the next white thing was the bride. They say it was just a second and then she looked like a tree trunk. And then the wind came and blew all her ashes away, like she was nothing.

That was a freak accident, I said.

No, said the woman, That is not what Pluto said, he said he had warned her, he said it was too big. He said the universe worked in a certain way, we were not alone, there were other things out there, and we should not disturb them. He said that was why all the trouble in the world got more and more, because we didn’t live like we should. We make everything too big, the cities, the buildings, the weddings, the cakes, the dresses. He said big things attract other big things and we’re too small to handle that.

What happened to him? I said.

He never slept after that, said the woman, He wrote letters to the papers and to the government. He went to building sites and told them to stop, he waited at weddings and begged the brides to wear something smaller, but they did not listen. And then came all the disasters with the big buildings, in America and in the East, aeroplanes and earthquakes. And the world nearly stopped. Pluto said he knew it was coming, it had to happen.

Just then the grey bride brought us grey cake.

You look lovely, I said.

The woman put her slice in her handbag.

After that Pluto got worse, she said, He said we were heading for the end. He couldn’t stop the buildings, but he tried to stop the brides. He said you couldn’t have children with something that was noticeable from outer space. One night he took a chainsaw and broke into a boutique and sliced all the wedding dresses in half.

And then? I said.

He’s up for parole in two years, said the woman, They’ll have to bring him straight here. He won’t make it anywhere else.

Then she held out her handbag and I put my cake in.

(from the Cathedral stage production, 2010)