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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 66: Takano 105
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 21
The celebration ran late; Tommy left it early, having been chilled from helping Davey get cleaned up. Her sleeping bag smelled of him, which was a bit unpleasant, but she was too tired to care and resolved to wash and dry it tomorrow.
She was awake early, and found that someone had emptied her mess kit of its pot and cup, filled it with food from the party, secured it against animals, and left it near the coals of her fire. It was a bit tricky getting the hot pan away and cooling it with a bit of water, but the breakfast was tasty. It was a bit tougher than usual cleaning the pan under the tap, as some of the food had baked onto the sides overnight, but it was a small price to pay for a hot breakfast.
While she was cleaning up, she saw Varlax and Davey approaching. She called out, “Good morning,” when she thought they were in earshot. They looked at each other, as if trying to decide who was going to speak. Davey apparently won.
“We came to ask you,” he said, “if you would marry us--that is, if you would do the ceremony, the wedding, whatever it is, that makes us officially married.”
Tommy raised her eyebrows. This was completely unexpected.
“How would you have done it before we left the caves?” she asked. Varlax, of course, provided this answer.
“We went to the Ner, and told him that we wanted to get married. He took us to one of the altars, did something that had it ask some questions which we answered, and then told Technogy that we were married.”
“But there are no altars out here,” Tommy observed. “And our Ners, Sylwi and Peep, have been given different jobs.”
“And you’re the one who best knows the--the Bible, and what it teaches.”
Tommy had been to a couple weddings. She had cousins. She hadn’t paid that much attention, but decided she could probably do this.
“When?”
“Today?” Davey said.
Eager young lovers--at least, Davey was.
“Tomorrow,” she answered. “I need a chance to figure it all out, and you need to invite the entire tribe. In fact,” she counted on her fingers, “isn’t tomorrow our weekly afternoon meeting? That would be the perfect time and place. Let everyone know that I will be conducting a wedding tomorrow instead of whoever was expecting to speak; they can go next week.”
“Thank you, sis,” Davey said, and gave her a hug.
“Yes,” Varlax added, “thank you so much.”
They turned and left, and Tommy wondered if maybe there was a skip in their steps--and whether she was ever going to find someone for herself.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #506: Characters Involved. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
