Barefoot Brides (21 page)
Authors: Annie Jones
O
n the day after Christmas a twenty-four-page plus extra photo insert edition of the
Santa Sofia Sun Times
hit newspaper stands. In it, along with biographies of all past and present staff members, award-winning and sentimental favorite photos and the top news stories spanning the paper's sixty-three-year history, was a letter from the editor.
To the Good People of Santa Sofia
R. Hunt Diamante
Sun Times
editor
First and foremost I must say thank you to our subscribers and advertisers for the support you have given to this paper and to me personally. I will never forget how you have rallied around our cause. In doing so, you have restored my faith in the power of the fourth estate to touch people's lives. You have convinced me once again of the basic human dignity and decency of those people who so often the tension-hungry pop media overlooks.
Next I want to thank not just my staff, but also to acknowledge everyone who ever worked on this fine enterprise. Your tireless efforts aimed at keeping the public informed despite every kind of obstacle from natural disaster to national syndication buyouts, through wartime, peace, prosperity and economic turmoil are among the noblest of uses of the power and influence of any form of media.
On a personal note, thank you to the friends and makeshift family that I have made here in this lovely town for helping me find my sense of direction and keep my sense of humorâeven if they did convince me to lose my beard, which I still miss horribly. Thank you to Vince Merchant, a good friend and sounding board. To Travis Brandt, my new pastor and sometimes surfing buddy. To the Cromwell family and Billy J Weatherby, who fed me and gave me a home away from homeâin other words, a real home. And to Maxineây'all know who I mean. Nobody really thinks I would use this paper to post a written profession of my affections or my plans regarding her, do they? Besides, if anyone really has any questions about how I feel about that girl, just watch the way I look at her. 'Nuff said.
Last, I find myself in one of the most awkward and frustrating situations a newspaper man can encounterâbeing at a loss for words. It has been a long and winding road to this day. I wish I had some clever or breathtakingly wise words to impart that might stand forever as a monument to my skill as a writer and my passion for the people of this fine community. I just can't think of anything more to say than thank you, Santa Sofia, you are the best.
It was the final edition of the
Santa Sofia Sun Times.
Y
ou are cordially invitedâ¦
“I think it should have said, âyou are casually invited,'” Hunt whispered to Moxie as they stood as part of a small semicircle of onlookers gathered on the beach on a warm January afternoon watching Kate and Vince take their vows.
They had decided against the maid of honor and best man type of wedding, opting instead for their families to gather around them to all share in the moment. Kate wore a diaphanous dress in a warm white shade called candlelight. The gathered skirt ended five inches from her feet so it did not drag in the sand but also did not hide the purple cast on her foot from her latest surgery. It was classic in style with a gorgeous hand-embroidered and beaded belt. She wore daisies in her hair, and the biggest smile Moxie had ever seen on her tanned face.
Vince looked great, too, in canvas-colored jeans and a pale blue shirt with a smudge of chocolate cookie on the shoulder from holding Fabbie as they had all made their way to this spot.
“Sorry about not being more clear about what to wear,” Moxie whispered back to the man in the suit and tieâ¦and shoes. The only person in attendance wearing any of those. “I thought you'd know that a wedding on the beach is always barefootâespecially if the bride is in a cast!”
“Guess the pages of my wedding etiquette book with that info on them were stuck together or something,” Hunt shot back.
She turned to him and smiled. “You are so cute.”
“I don't feel cute. I feel overdressed.”
“Shh.” She patted his arm. “They're taking their vows.”
Travis, who had railed a bit against the traditional wording of the service the couple chose, raised the book with the vows in it and began, “Do you, Kateâ”
“Yes!”
“Finally!” Vince grinned.
The group laughed.
Travis was taken aback for only a second then embraced with gusto the way this pair was going to make the traditional vows their own.
“Vince?”
“Me, too. Um, I do.” He held both of Kate's hands in his and never once let his gaze stray from hers as he asked, “Can I kiss the bride now?”
“Don't you want to give your vows?” Travis asked.
“Of course, sure.” Vince nodded. “It's just that we're not kids who don't know what we're getting into. We love each other, we honor each other, we're committed to one another. We're a family.”
“And you said you couldn't write your own vows.” Travis chuckled then turned to Kate. “You agree with everything he just said?”
“Absolutely, but I do want to add one thing.” She looked up at Vince and spoke with a new firmness as she promised, “I will never leave you. You are stuck with me. No running away on my part and if you try running yourself, I will follow you.”
“Fair enough.” Vince started to lean down to kiss her.
Travis stuck his hand out. “Hey, we're not at that part yet.”
“Can we get to that part then? You know the quicker we get done with this, the quicker it's your turn at this wedding thing and then⦔
“Cake!” Jo intervened before her almost brother-in-law reminded everyone again that they all had honeymoon reservations.
The group laughed. Travis wrapped up the ceremony and they all moved to the chapel to do it all again, only with Travis and Jo. A few other attendees donned shoes for the event.
Jo was among the shoeless, however. It was symbolic, she said. And everyone felt moved by her choice when, after coming in from the sandy beach, the couple followed the example of Christ and washed off the feet of their guests before they entered the sanctuary.
Jo was lovely and Travis handsome. They took their vows in the quiet of twilight enveloping the chapel. By the end, they spoke their vows by candlelight so dim that they were only outlines to their guests. Outlines standing so close that they appeared as one form and it was clear they saw only one another, the glow of the candles and the gleam of the cross on the altar before them.
Dodie cried at both weddings and Billy J whooped both times he heard the pronouncement, “You are now husband and wife.” Adding the second time, “Two down, one to go!”
Moxie was mortified.
Hunt just laughed.
She tried not to read too much into that. After all, the paper had folded just ten days earlier and he still hadn't divulged his plans.
“So what's next for you?” became a familiar refrain at Billy J's Bait Shack Seafood Buffet, where they naturally held the receptions.
Hunt always deflected the question amicably, making a joke or spinning an outrageous tale of what lay ahead for him that caught the listener up only until they realized he was giving them the plot of some adventure movie involving pirates and treasures!
By nine o'clock that evening the couples had made the dash to their respective cars and headed off for destinations unknown. Well, Dodie didn't know them, which they insisted upon. Moxie knew but promised she'd never tell.
“So where are they going on their honeymoons?” Hunt held open the door of the Bait Shack so they could go back inside after the taillights of the decorated wedding cars had disappeared.
“I'll tell you that if you'll tell me what you plan to do now that the paper has folded.”
“I am going to tell your sisters how easily you gave them up, girl.” He shook his head.
“Hey, I'm the baby sister. I'm allowed a little brattiness, aren't I?” She leaned in close, cornering him as he stood there with the open door at his back. “So tell me, what's next?”
“If I haven't told you now, after two months of dating, thenâ”
“Then it's high time you did,” she concluded for him.
“You'll figure it out soon enough,” he told her. “In fact, you should get a pretty good idea tomorrow morning when I come around to your office to ask you if you want to advertise in the
Santa Sofia Home and Away Alternative Press Weekly.
”
“Theâ¦You got a new job?” Moxie tried to picture the publication he'd mentioned. “Alternative, doesn't that meanâ¦?”
“Free.”
“What?”
“In this case it means free. It's a free weekly aimed at locals and tourists.”
“You got a job with a free magazine?”
“Worse. I am the publisher of a free tabloid-style weekly.”
“The publishâ¦Oh, Hunt! You're starting a business in Santa Sofia?” She threw her arms around him.
“Not only that, I'm starting a business to
serve
Santa Sofia,” he said. “And I have you to thank for it.”
There were so many questions she wanted to ask but finally settled on the thing she most wanted to hear from him,
for now.
“This means you're staying?”
“I'm staying,” he confirmed. “If you don't think having another person who cares about you around won't crowd you too much?”
“I think I can learn to live with it,” she said softly.
“Good.” He leaned in to give her a kiss.
Whap!
Billy J slapped him resoundingly across the back. “Time for that kind of thing after you take the plunge yourselves! For now, we have a restaurant to clear out and get cleaned up to open in the morning.”
“Neither of us works for you,” Moxie called out to remind the man with the rolling gait and the captain's hat she thought of as the best dadâand biggest busybodyâin the world.
“Doesn't matter,” he bellowed back. “You're family. Family pitches in when in needs pitching.”
Hunt looked at her and mouthed that phrase as though that might help him make sense out of it.
Moxie laughed, stole a quick kiss and took him by the hand to lead him into the Bait Shack. “As convoluted as that is, I think I like it better than the old Weatherby motto. Especially the part where he calls us family.”
- Moxie had mixed feelings about suddenly being a part of a family she had never known. What did you think of her reaction to her situation? How did you imagine you would have responded to a reunion with lost family members as an adult?
- Jo had big plans for a women's group, but was ill-prepared to lead one. Have you ever tried to start a group? What kind of preparation did you go through personally? Or what would you do to prepare yourself?
- Kate feared that she would not be able to ever be a real part of Vince's family. Do you think her concerns were valid?
- Vince found it difficult to let go of his grown son and see him move away. Can you relate that to how you have struggled (or found it easy) to let go of a loved one or even a good friend moving away?
- Travis had very set ideas about the things a person needed to do before trying to lead others in a Christian fellowship. Did you agree with his thoughts? Why or why not?
- Hunt was brash but learned quickly about the importance of serving others. How important do you feel serving others is to personal growth?
- Jo felt invisible to or at least overlooked by others. Do you think this is a common issue for women? How do you think it affects Christian women?
- On the beach, Jo considered her footprints disappearing in the sand as symbolic of how little an impact she made in the world. At first she found this painful, then later she reflected and saw it as a reminder that in service our selves disappear so that others might see God in us. What did you think of her conclusion? Have you ever had an experience like this, where something imprinted on your thoughts and later took on deeper meaning as you considered it in context of faith?
- Did you find the town of Santa Sofia the kind of place you'd like to visit? Why or why not?
- Which of the characters would you say you are most like and why?
- Kate reunited with her first love after many years, but Jo met, fell in love and married Travis within a six-month period. Moxie took about that time to fall in love, but with no solid commitment to marry. Do you think the beginnings of their relationships will have an effect on the success of their marriages?
- The story is set in an aging town, once thriving, but still filled with hope. Do you find this symbolic of anything?
- The overt message of the book was about family. If you were to sum up what you took away from the book about the nature of families, what would you say?
- Just for fun: what is your favorite type of wedding? A beach wedding? Chapel wedding? Or other? What kind of wedding do you suppose Hunt and Moxie will have?