6 The Wedding (12 page)

“Ivanovitch-Jones,” he corrected. “Someone must lead couple
to scenic view to watch fireworks display. Mr. Goodhead and I will be down by
lake to launch fireworks display.” Sasha shrugged his shoulders to express the
opinion that he could be no clearer.

At first Ricky looked disappointed. Then his face took on a
lighter expression as he considered the possibilities.

“You mean
,
I get to show the
fireworks display to Butterscotch and the Mountie?” Ricky thought out loud.

“I think the term is Master of Ceremonies,” Horace added,
winking at Sasha. “We’ll tell you exactly what to say.”

“I’ll do it,” Ricky had announced enthusiastically.

“Okay, here is a walkie-talkie. Have you used one before?”

Now Sasha and Horace were waiting. They’d set up their
display well before the wedding during the early morning hours. The wedding
itself was beautiful, though not what anyone had expected, but still the two of
them couldn’t wait to run down to the lake to be with their precious creations
until nightfall. Now it was beginning to get dark, the perfect time to start
the display, but they had yet to receive the go-ahead from their young MC. The
walkie-talkie finally crackled to life.

“Squad Leader to Gunnery Officer,” a young voice chimed.

“Squad Leader?
Gunnery Officer?”
Horace questioned Sasha. “Did you work this all out with the Kid beforehand?”

“Preparation is the key.” Sasha scowled at Horace and picked
up the walkie-talkie. “Gunnery Officer Ivanovitch-Jones to Squad Leader, all is
ready and waiting your command.”

“Begin ignition on my count,” the Squad Leader snapped quite
authoritatively. Then the countdown began.
“Three, two, one,
ignition.”

*
 
*
 
*

The Mountie and I had barely ended our dance when the first
explosion happened over the lake. We all filed outside to watch. This time
there were oohs and
ahs
of wonder instead of yelling
and threats of dismemberment.

“I wondered where Dad had gotten to,” Chuck muttered.

Ricky came running through the crowd and skidded to a stop
in front of us. He had a walkie-talkie in his tiny hand.

“Squad Leader reporting for duty.
Butterstotch
, you and the Mountie are supposed to come with
me.”

I looked over at the Flowers to see if she was upset at
Ricky’s role in the fireworks. Though pale, she had come away from Big John’s
bed to rejoin the festivities.

She smiled and said to her stepson, “Lead on, Squad Leader.”

*
 
*
 
*

Horace and Sasha had consolidated and timed their fuses such
that they only needed to light ten bundles at key times for the entire display
to go off without a hitch. They lit the first four fuses in a prescribed order.
Then they waited some more.

It didn’t take long before the pinwheels
ignited,
all ten of them. The night sky lit up. Then the firecrackers began to explode,
producing brilliant flashes and concussive sound waves. The fountains came next
spraying their colored sparks into the sky.

Horace and Sasha began
dancing,
alternately linking opposing arms so they could spin in a circle. They hooted
and hollered as they danced, sparks landing all around them. Then the time came
to set off the next batch of fireworks. They ran in opposite directions but
rejoined each other after their fuses were lit. More sparks flew. The shore of
the lake had now become such a chaotic display of sparks that neither of the
men could distinguish the sparks coming from one display from that of another. The
night was on fire.

And out of the night, Ricky came running, straight toward
Sasha, his new father figure. The Kid pulled up short as Sasha stopped dancing.
They considered one another carefully. Then Sasha crouched down to address the
boy.

“Come. We have rockets to launch,” Sasha said with a smile.
He had been waiting all day for this moment.

Horace watched the entire scene in wonderment. Sasha whisked
Ricky up onto his shoulders as if the boy weighed nothing. He stopped to smile
off into the night and wave. Horace followed the direction of this gesture and
saw the Flowers standing just out of spark range. Horace was afraid she was
going to kick their asses. Instead she smiled and waved back. Sasha turned and
ran into the world of raining sparks with Ricky riding on his back. Eventually
they came dancing back out of the sparks with Ricky laughing. Horace had not
witnessed the actual lighting of the rocket fuses, but he didn’t mind. Some
things should be shared only by a son and his father.

As the sparks began to die down and the rockets were away
into the sky, the three triumphant aeronautics engineers turned and walked
toward town, arms flung high in a sign of victory. The Flowers appeared out of
the dark and joined them, linking arms with Sasha and kissing his cheek. The
beach and most of the town was alight as if it was daytime when the rockets
exploded into huge blossoms of color in the night sky. People were streaming
down from town toward the beach, cheering and hollering, rushing to greet the
makers at the conclusion of one of the most spectacular fireworks displays
anyone had ever seen.

“I hope someone warned Seven Forks about this, or I’ll be
getting a call,” the Mountie said to Anatoli.

In the last of the light from the exploding rockets, the
crowd had stopped thinking the display over and thought they’d better get back
to the light of town before the last of the sparks gave out. Sasha and Horace
cautioned them to hold their places.

“Do not go yet!” Sasha called. “There is climax.”

The crowd hushed.

“Wait for it,” Horace instructed, extending and arm and
twisting to point back toward the lake.

The massive explosion that followed produced a large orange
and red fireball that lit up the night sky, but it did more than that. The
concussion from the blast knocked the hats off men and women alike. It singed
the eyebrows off those closest to the shore and sent them staggering backward.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, not even Ricky who was hidden by
Sasha’s bulk.

“It wasn’t supposed to do that,” Horace commented, scrubbing
his face.

“No, that was not planned,” Sasha agreed. “We fix next
time.”

*
 
*
 
*

“Dad!”
Chuck exclaimed. “Are you
guys alright?”

“We’re fine, son. Practice has made us almost perfect.”

“And almost burned down the town,” I muttered, but with no
real anger. There was too much joy in my heart. Chuck was here, whole and
happy. Big John was going to be fine. My adoptive family was all together. I
asked for nothing more.

“There is just one more thing we need to do,” said Fiddling
Thomas. “I just wish Big John was here to officiate.”

The women exchanged glances and began to leave but the men
stayed behind, and I had a sudden premonition of what was going to happen.

“Guys, not tonight!”
I protested.

“It has to be done,” Fiddling Thomas said. “It should have
happened before the wedding.”

“Yeah, we’ll take him up to the Moose so Big John can
watch,” the Wings said.

“No! Not tonight!”

“What? What is it?” the Mountie asked as he was hoisted onto
the shoulders of the Wings and Fiddling Thomas with a grinning Anatoli bringing
up the rear.

“I have heard of this ceremony,” the Russian said.

“What ceremony?” Chuck asked.

“Don’t worry, son,” Horace answered. “It’s nothing. And the
dye will wash out in a few weeks.”

About
the Author

Melanie Jackson is the author of over 50 novels. If you enjoyed this
story, please visit Melanie’s author web site at
www.melaniejackson.com
.

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