{"id":4755,"date":"2021-08-27T11:56:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T18:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4755"},"modified":"2021-08-27T11:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T18:56:09","slug":"october-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4755","title":{"rendered":"October Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first day of October. Evening. Fall in full swing. No rain yet this season in the Mercy River watershed of northern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After supper at Ziggurat Farm, two\nmiles inland from the little coastal burg of Mercy, Lisa and Philip and their\nchildren Arturo and Vivienne find they are just the four of them in the\nfarmhouse tonight. Irenia, who is fifteen and shares a bedroom with Vivienne four\nnights a week, is home with her parents in Mercy, and Marcel and Andrea and\ntheir thirteen-year-old son Henri have retired to their cottage for the\nevening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the dishes are done, a game of\nHearts ensues on the living room floor in front of the fire with Alexandra, a\nsix-year-old Golden Retriever, and the pups Jargon and Cordelia and Max\nsprawled on the floor around the humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Vivienne slightly in the lead\nafter the first hand, the second hand dealt, Arturo, who turned fourteen in\nJune says, \u201cI really need a smart phone. It\u2019s imperative I have one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa and Philip have been\nanticipating something like this from Arturo for some weeks now, ever since\nschool resumed and Arturo got the lead in the play at Mercy High where\nhomeschoolers are allowed to participate in after-school activities. But Vivienne,\nwho is three weeks away from turning twelve, is shocked by her brother\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious,\u201d she says,\ngaping at Arturo. \u201cYou know we can\u2019t have cell phones until we\u2019re eighteen, and\neven then we won\u2019t be able to use them in the farmhouse when Delilah\u2019s here\nbecause microwaves make her physically ill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo she claims<\/em>,\u201d says Arturo, haughtily. \u201cAll<\/em> my friends say that\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell all<\/em> your friends are morons,\u201d says Vivienne, glowering at her\nbrother. \u201cAre you accusing Delilah of lying? Because if you are, I will never\nspeak to you again until you take that back and apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible<\/em> for microwaves to make her sick,\u201d cries Arturo, throwing\ndown his cards. \u201cHow could she even walk down the street?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know she has to be in the same\nroom with an activated cell phone to be adversely affected,\u201d says Lisa,\nfrowning at her son. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with me is we\u2019re\nrelegated to living in the Stone Age because one<\/em> person claims<\/em>\nmicrowaves make them ill? That\u2019s insane.\u201d He glares at his father. \u201cWhy can\u2019t I\nhave one? I\u2019m cut off from my friends, from society, from a vast treasure trove\nof information and cultural stimuli.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow are you cut off from your\nfriends?\u201d asks Philip, accustomed to his son\u2019s penchant for hyperbole. \u201cOr from\nsociety? Or from information or cultural stimuli?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t text my friends and they\ncan\u2019t text me,\u201d says Arturo, grimacing as if in pain. \u201cI have no way of knowing\nwhat they\u2019re doing or telling them what I\u2019m<\/em>\ndoing, andwe can\u2019t share videos. I\nmight as well be marooned on a desert island.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vivienne looks at her parents and\nsays, \u201cHe\u2019s clearly suffered some sort of brain damage. Maybe you should take\nhim to the emergency room. But I will have nothing to do with him ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that, she stalks off to her\nbedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArturo,\u201d says Lisa, who has a deep\nloving bond with him, \u201ctell us what\u2019s really going on. Okay? You can\u2019t have a\nsmart phone, and not because of Delilah but because we don\u2019t want you to have\none yet. You know you can use the telephone any time you want to call your friends.\nYou also know you are better educated than anyone your age in Mercy except for\nyour fellow homeschoolers. You also know perfectly well you are not being\ndeprived of anything except a portable device for accessing the internet, which\nyou can do from our home computer for an hour every evening. You can\u2019t text back\nand forth with your friends, but you certainly can send them emails. So tell us\nwhat\u2019s really going on and then please apologize to your sister for what you\nsaid about Delilah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t possibly<\/em> know what it\u2019s like not to have a phone when all<\/em> your friends have them,\u201d says\nArturo, his eyes full of tears. \u201cI\u2019m a laughingstock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d says Philip,\nshaking his head. \u201cWhen I picked you up tonight after your rehearsal you were\nsurrounded by admirers and having the time of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay I\u2019m not a laughingstock,\u201d says\nArturo, sniffling back his tears. \u201cBut I feel cut off, disallowed, life passing\nme by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is passing you by?\u201d asks Lisa,\nwho lived in extreme poverty for the first ten years of her life. \u201cWhat do you\nlack besides a portable computer for looking at videos and texting your\nfriends?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI lack being part of the modern\nworld,\u201d he says, his jaw trembling. \u201cAnd Dolores Ramirez\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa and Philip wait patiently,\nPhilip trying not to laugh, Lisa knowing this was the underlying issue all\nalong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about Dolores?\u201d asks Lisa, speaking\nquietly to encourage her son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said she won\u2019t\u2026 can\u2019t\u2026\u201d He bows\nhis head and sobs. \u201c\u2026go steady with me if I don\u2019t have a phone.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the fourth day of October, after\ntwo days of Arturo histrionically refusing to attend home school classes,\nPhilip drives Arturo to Mercy High where they meet with the principal and\nArturo is given an aptitude test, the results of which suggest he will learn\nnothing in high school he doesn\u2019t already know, and he is enrolled as a junior,\nhis first day of school tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fifth day of October dawns sunny and warm, the coast clear of fog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is Delilah\u2019s twenty-eighth birthday.\nShe has lived with Nathan and Celia in their little house on the outskirts of\nMercy for fifteen years and intends to live with them until they die. Nathan is\neighty-eight, Celia eighty-two. Delilah is a musician, artist, and teacher.\nNathan is a retired tree pruner and locally renowned poet, Celia a retired\nnurse, now a housekeeper and gardener. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Delilah\u2019s birthday breakfast,\nCelia makes pancakes while Delilah sets the table for four, their friend\nGabriel Fernandez to join them. Gabriel is thirty-four and has been a fan of\nDelilah\u2019s music since he first heard her play thirteen years ago, and in just\nthe last two weeks he and Delilah have begun exploring the possibility of\nembarking on a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celia assisted at Gabriel\u2019s birth at\nMercy Hospital, and Nathan remembers Gabriel as a determined little boy going\ndoor-to-door asking for empty pop and beer bottles to redeem for money at the\ngrocery store. When Gabriel\u2019s father died, Gabriel dropped out of high school\nand went to work for a landscaping company to help support his ailing mother\nand younger siblings. Nathan planted fruit trees for that same landscaping\ncompany and Gabriel was often assigned to work with Nathan, a pairing they both\nenjoyed. When Gabriel turned eighteen, he joined the Army and was sent to the\nwar in Afghanistan. Upon his return, after recovering from the post traumatic\nstress, he opened his now-thriving business as a backhoe operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel, tall and handsome, his long\nbrown hair in a ponytail, arrives promptly at nine and presents Celia with a jar\nof his homemade blackberry jam and gives Nathan a new pair of leather gardening\ngloves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo you won\u2019t be jealous of what I\u2019m\ngiving Delilah,\u201d says Gabriel, handing Delilah a small white box adorned with a\nmagenta rosebud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGads,\u201d says Delilah, blushing\nbrightly. \u201cIt\u2019s not a ring, is it? We hardly know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel laughs. \u201cNot a ring. Don\u2019t\nworry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat if it had<\/em> been a ring, hija?\u201d says Celia, comically slapping her\nforehead. \u201cThink how embarrassed he would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t be embarrassed,\u201d says\nDelilah, giving Gabriel a coquettish smile. \u201cHe\u2019s too suave to be embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been called many things in my\nlife,\u201d says Gabriel, confiding in Nathan, \u201cbut never suave<\/em> until now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah she calls me things I would\notherwise never be called, too,\u201d says Nathan, laughing. \u201cOne of her many\ntalents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Delilah opens the box and finds two earrings,\neach a long slender turquoise stone clasped in silver, the stones nearly\nidentical but not quite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh their exquisite,\u201d says Delilah,\nher eyes brimming with tears. \u201cThank you, Gabriel. I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy sister Carmelita made them. I\nbought the stones in New Mexico a year ago when I went to see the aspens turn\nyellow in the mountains near Santa Fe. I got them from a young woman on the\nplaza there. Un Indio. They are not too heavy, so I think they will be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow were the aspens?\u201d asks Nathan,\nwistfully. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been, though we always meant to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYellow beyond yellow beyond\nyellow,\u201d says Gabriel, watching Delilah take off her small silver earrings and put\non the turquoise. \u201cWhole mountains covered with a golden yellow only nature can\nmake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, while Celia is\nmaking supper\u2014Delilah spending the night at Ziggurat Farm\u2014Nathan kneels on the\nhearth building a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cHow did the sketching session go today?\u201d he\nasks, having spent the afternoon fishing with Celia\u2019s brother Juan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had fun,\u201d she says, pausing in\nher chopping of green onions. \u201cAll the women and girls from the farm were there,\neleven of us and baby Jenna. We wore skirts and T-shirts with the sleeves\nrolled up. In Daisy\u2019s book the women wear skirts and shirts without sleeves, so\nthis was as close as we could get to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid Connie direct?\u201d asks Nathan,\nreferring to the very British Constance who lives next door to Ziggurat Farm\nand usually takes charge of anything she\u2019s involved in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d says Celia, shaking her head.\n\u201cI thought she would, but she only made a few suggestions. Mostly Joseph and\nDelilah directed us. But first they served us wine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was wine?\u201d says Nathan, amused.\n\u201cEleven drunk women in the garden of Eden. That\u2019s probably the real story, not\nthat nonsense about Adam and Eve and a snake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHenri and Marcel poured a glass for\neach of us, including Vivienne and Irenia and Alma, and then Joseph posed us in\nfront of the snow peas. He had two easels with big canvases, and Henri and\nDelilah had their big sketch pads, and the three of them sketched our first\npose for maybe five minutes and then Joseph posed us another way and they\nsketched us again and Delilah took pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd all the while you were drinking\nwine?\u201d asks Nathan, lighting the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. Marcel kept filling our\nglasses, except not so much for Irenia and Vivienne and Alma who got very\ngiggly after just a little.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish I\u2019d been there,\u201d says Nathan,\nsmiling at the thought of the female bacchanal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen Delilah posed us in groups of\ntwo and three and took lots of pictures while Joseph and Henri sketched, and\nwhen we were sleepy in the sun, Gabriel arrived and Delilah posed him with\ndifferent women and took lots of pictures. Then Daisy wanted a picture of\nDelilah with Gabriel, so they stood together and Daisy took lots of pictures\nand so did Joseph. I can\u2019t wait to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid Gabriel take off his shirt?\u201d\nasks Nathan, joining Celia in the kitchen. \u201cWasn\u2019t that the burning question of\nthe day? Would he or wouldn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe did,\u201d says Celia, smiling as she\nstirs the beans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd?\u201d asks Nathan, arching an\neyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you would say, marido, he was\nnot even a little bit unbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late morning on the tenth of\nOctober, Delilah is playing her piano in her bedroom, practicing the music she\nwill play for the processional and recessional at the wedding of Raul Neves and\nCaroline Darling three days from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raul is the famous Portuguese chef\nand owner of Ocelot<\/em>, a world-renowned\nrestaurant on the headlands in Mercy, for which Raul buys copious quantities of\nvegetables and fruit and flowers grown in the Ziggurat Farm garden and\ngreenhouses. He also teaches culinary history to the homeschoolers and is the\ngodfather of Caroline\u2019s niece Jenna, who is nineteen-months-old and lives next\ndoor to Ziggurat farm with her parents Michael and Daisy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caroline is a former professor of\nBotany and deeply entangled in the life of Ziggurat Farm. She teaches natural\nscience to the homeschoolers, takes dance classes with Delilah at the rec\ncenter, and is the hostess and manager of Ocelot<\/em>.\nShe is Michael\u2019s younger sister by two years, and the older sister by ten years\nof Thomas, a professor at Cornell who was in a relationship with Delilah\u2014the end\nof their liaison six months ago severely traumatic for Delilah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phone in the kitchen rings and\nDelilah stops playing to go answer. Nathan and Celia are working in the garden,\nand Celia comes in to answer the phone, too. There are no cell phones in the\nhouse, the old landline phone sufficient for their purposes\u2014microwaves toxic to\nDelilah\u2019s nervous system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello?\u201d says Delilah, answering the\nphone a moment before Celia comes in from the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDelilah,\u201d says Thomas, calling from\nNew York. \u201cIt\u2019s Thom. How are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing Thomas\u2019s voice, Delilah drops\nthe phone and bends over in agony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho is it?\u201d asks Celia, holding her\nbreath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThom,\u201d says Delilah, hurrying down\nthe hall. \u201cI\u2019m gonna vomit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celia picks up the phone and says\ntersely, \u201cWhat do you want, Thom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to come to Caroline\u2019s\nwedding and she said I can only come if Delilah says it\u2019s okay. And\u2026 I want to\ntry again with Delilah. I made a terrible mistake breaking up with her. I was a\nfool. Can I please speak to her?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, Thom,\u201d says Celia, listening to\nDelilah retching in the bathroom. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t want to talk to you. She was\nsick for a long time after you broke up and she\u2019s just getting well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease Celia. I really need to\nspeak to her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. She has a new boyfriend now. Don\u2019t\ncome to the wedding. Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October eleventh, still shaky\nfrom Thom\u2019s call yesterday, Delilah meets with Caroline and Raul at Constance\nand Joseph\u2019s house to play her music for them on Constance and Joseph\u2019s\nmagnificent grand piano, and Caroline assures Delilah that Thomas will not be\ncoming to the wedding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish I wasn\u2019t such a wimp,\u201d says\nDelilah, grateful for Caroline\u2019s assurance, \u201cbut I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI should never have told him to ask\nyou,\u201d says Caroline, furious with her brother for interfering with her wedding.\n\u201cI didn\u2019t want him to come. I should have just said so. He\u2019s never cared about\nme. He was just using this as an excuse to come beg you to take him back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad you told him to call me,\u201d\nsays Delilah, breathing a big sigh of relief. \u201cI needed to vomit him out of me,\nonly I didn\u2019t realize it until I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

October thirteenth is a glorious day on the far north coast of California, warm and sunny, the afternoon sky brilliantly blue with puffy white clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a born again Ziggurat Farm\nperson,\u201d says Raul, as he and Caroline walk hand-in-hand on the path from the Ziggurat\nFarm garden to the pond at the northeast corner of the farm. \u201cI was a\nnarcissist among narcissists until I fell in love with Andrea and Lisa and their\ngarden, and Marcel and his wine, and the beautiful farm children adopted me as\ntheir uncle, and Philip became my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was born again here, too, and\nthey are my family now,\u201d says Caroline, both she and Raul in their wedding\nfinery, Raul in a magnificent white suit with a turquoise tie, his shaggy gray\nhair somewhat tamed, Caroline in a long white skirt and a fiery red sleeveless blouse,\nher short brown hair festooned with tiny white flowers placed there by Vivienne\nand Irenia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stand on the shore of the\nrecently revived pond that Caroline and Michael are restoring with the help of\nthe homeschoolers\u2014the water cold enough for trout they hope to plant here in\nthe spring, hundreds of mosquito fish patrolling the waters, frogs newly\narrived, water lilies multiplying, the shallow north end seeded with reeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI marry you,\u201d says Raul, holding\nboth of Caroline\u2019s hands and smiling into her eyes. \u201cWhat\u2019s mine is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI marry you,\u201d she says, her voice\nas deep as his. \u201cWhat\u2019s mine is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they stand together in joyful\nsurrender until they hear the gong sounding on the deck of Joseph and\nConstance\u2019s house up the hill from the pond, the gong their cue to come and be\nunited in the presence of their friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Raul and Caroline have exchanged\ntheir vows on the sun-drenched deck, Philip presiding, a hundred witnesses\nmoved to tears, Philip nods to Nathan who rises from his chair and recites a\npoem for the bride and groom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kindred Spirits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we just know, we do. It\u2019s\nnot a matter of <\/p>\n\n\n\n

figuring something out or uncovering\nhidden information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No great revelation need come to us,\nno cosmic event or <\/p>\n\n\n\n

scrape with death is necessary to\nconvince us. We just<\/p>\n\n\n\n

know, as naturally as breathing and\nthirsting for water, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the same way we dream of places we\u2019ve\nnever been <\/p>\n\n\n\n

except in our dreams. There is no\nmystery about how <\/p>\n\n\n\n

or why we know the other is a\nkindred spirit. We know <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the moment we hear them speak, the\nmoment we see <\/p>\n\n\n\n

them seeing us, and they know, too. So\nwhen you do<\/p>\n\n\n\n

recognize the other as the one you\u2019ve\nbeen waiting <\/p>\n\n\n\n

for without knowing you were waiting,\nand they <\/p>\n\n\n\n

recognize you in the same way, by\nall means<\/p>\n\n\n\n

marry each other. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Monday October 25 the five homeschoolers are gathered in the living room of the farmhouse about to begin the school day with an hour of working on math problems suitable to their various levels of mathematical proficiency, Delilah and Larry\u2019s father Arthur available for helping anyone desiring assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore we begin,\u201d says Delilah,\nstanding in front of the chalkboard, \u201cI would like to welcome Arturo back into\nour midst. He has decided to resume school with us after a three-week sojourn\nat Mercy High.\u201d She smiles at Arturo who is standing in the kitchen with Lisa\nand Philip. \u201cYour seat awaits you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arturo goes to the table he shares\nwith Alma near the chalkboard, but does not sit. \u201cMay I say something?\u201d he\nasks, fighting his tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease,\u201d says Delilah, sitting down\nto listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would just like to say\u2026\u201d he begins,\nfighting his tears \u201chow very sorry I am for the negative things I said about\nthis school and Delilah and living here on the farm. I was gravely mistaken and\nI regret any ill feelings I may have engendered in any of you, and I hope you\nwill forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWas it as horrible as Seventh\nGrade?\u201d asks Larry, who is fourteen and was literally wasting away in public\nschool when he was able to escape the nightmare of public school in Mercy and\nenter the educational nirvana of Ziggurat Farm School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTen times worse,\u201d says Arturo, who\nfourteen months ago begged his parents to create a home school. \u201cNay. A hundred\ntimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnimaginable,\u201d says Larry, who was a\nvictim of bullying for all his seven years in public school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do the other kids stand it?\u201d\nasks Vivienne, who has refused to speak to her brother for three weeks after he\naccused Delilah of lying about her extreme sensitivity to microwaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d says Arturo, unable\nto restrain his tears. \u201cThe teachers are all bitter beleaguered jailers\nspouting erroneous claptrap, the kids comatose or hyper, and I saw no evidence\nof anything that might be construed as learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy did you want to go there?\u201d asks\nAlma, who is thirteen and was deemed incapable of learning until she came to\nZFS and proved to be brilliant. \u201cYou knew in junior high what a nightmare it\nwas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the play after school\nthere,\u201d says Arturo, sniffling back his tears. \u201cAnd the Drama kids are great\nand\u2026 they hate<\/em> school. They live for\nthree o\u2019clock and the joy that follows, and I wanted to be part of their gang,\nand I still can be, I just won\u2019t have a cell phone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou called us stupid losers,\u201d says\nHenri, frowning at Arturo. \u201cYou said Delilah was a fraud and we were missing\nout on real life, that this was fake here and you were going where it was\nreal.\u201d He takes a deep breath. \u201cThat really hurt me, A. I won\u2019t speak for\nanybody else, but you really hurt me. I thought we were best friends and now I\ndon\u2019t know what to think. I mean\u2026 I\u2019m glad you\u2019re in a gang of kids who love\nDrama. That\u2019s great. But why did you have to say such horrible things to us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was desperate to be part of the\nbigger world,\u201d says Arturo, passionately. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry, Henri. I really am. I\ndon\u2019t know what got into me. I just\u2026 lost my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOkay,\u201d says Henri, going to comfort his\nfriend. \u201cI think we all want to be part of the bigger world, if only the bigger\nworld wasn\u2019t so ruined.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish all the Drama kids could\ncome to our school,\u201d says Arturo, embracing Henri. \u201cThey\u2019d love it here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot only the Drama kids would love\nour school,\u201d says Irenia, solemnly. \u201cAll <\/em>the\nkids would love to learn this way. We are so very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Wedding Song<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first day of October. Evening. Fall in full swing. No rain yet this season in the Mercy River watershed of northern California. After supper at Ziggurat Farm, two miles inland from the little coastal burg of Mercy, Lisa and Philip and their children Arturo and Vivienne find they are just the four of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5708,6966,6963,6968,6964,6969,6962,6961,6965,6970,4305,6967,6788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4761,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4755\/revisions\/4761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}