CHAPTER LX: BEAUTY

   Warm needles had that morning twilight of fire of a Saturday in spring of the year 61. The sun announced itself far away on the east, but close to its birth, the sky was bleeding preparing another birth of flame for it. The Outskirt of the Torn Hand whispered in the leaves and the tongues of a bonfire which Nigel had lit, for he sometimes could not sleep and went to watch the morning twilight or dawn lighting a bonfire in the land of his neighbors and friends. I was unable to sleep too, and as so many times I started to walk to the home of my parents, and there I found, only him awake, the man that I called my father-in-law.

─ "Good morning, Nigel. Already awake?"

─ "Good morning, Elased - he said to me smiling. He used to call me always thus-. I spend hours remembering her. I like to think of her in the morning twilight. I feel her in the fire and in the dim lights of the sky."

─ "The photos that I've seen of her in your house always portrayed her as a very beautiful woman, but you know that I think a word is more valuable than a thousand images and your words evoke her to me more fairly."

─ "Changing the subject, how are you in the novel?"

─ "I already finished the prehistory of all, and I am finishing the chapters in which my father Nike was with beggars. I now go on August 6, when my brother was born. Then I will have to tell what my parents call the exile and will have to tell my father Nike chapters as a beggar. Then I'll tell the story of the Cave of Beggar Sally, how the Three and my family started, how they met you, and later my birth and all subsequent years. I still have to write. I hope I am constant and able to write all that."

─ "Courage, Elased, you are able."

─ "You are really thoughtful, Nigel, are you worried about something?"

─ "I can tell you. Look, Kirsten, dear, long ago I'm thinking about how to live the last years of my life. And in recent months there is an idea that takes me strongly. Richard has taught us another way. You can be a beggar and preserve the life you had. And I was thinking about doing the same. Years ago, I want to live the path of your parents. I would not get rid of anything. I have a child, your boyfriend, to think about, and his should be the house and the money that I have been able to earn these years. But I spend nights already here. It is true that I have dinner at my house to not take them what little they have. But I want to live like them. This idea already takes me so strongly that I want to talk to your parents. I want to sleep some nights in the country house, first of your father Nike, later of your three parents, next of Richard Protch, and since he sleeps with his wife now, again empty. I would spend some nights in my home in Millers' Lane. But I would often sleep in that tent. And I want to go to the streets, some days with Luke and Nike, which will be teaching me the basic things, and later alone. Bruce and John already go together. I could go some afternoons with Richard, dining here with everyone in the bonfires and then sleep in the country house or in Millers' Lane. I have to talk to your parents, but I think they will agree, although they may try to convince me that it can be crazy. But they can accept me. Look, Kirsten, the tenth motif by Verôme is death and it has accompanied me since I was very young, since I lost Shirley. I would live just as I have lived so far, I would continue working the time I still have because I am 61 years old now, as your parents, but I would live with them all afternoons and nights or half of them."

   But I noticed that there was something else that he did not dare to tell me. Now that I know it, I understand his scruples and I shudder. I could not see it because I had always seen him crying for Shirley and my mind was unable to go further. He spoke with my parents and their fellow mates and they really understood Nigel’s need to be the tenth beggar. He spent some days with Luke and Nike, until at the end he dared to talk to Richard and they were together in the evenings and after a few hours at the bonfire they returned to sleep at their respective homes. His son Peter understood the needs of his father, and talked with me, and we both nodded. Now they were seven and the veterans did not reproach Richard or Nigel or called them half beggars, but fellow mates. And Nigel lived with another face, being the tenth and sharing the life of those he loved.

   But a sunny afternoon of July I was walking to Meander Bridge with my still boyfriend Peter. On the road he was telling me his projects.

─ "Look, Kirsten, my dear, I've seen a house in St Alban's Road which is for sale. With your salary and mine we could afford it now."

   I had to stop him in his crazy dreams.

─ "Peter, look at me and tell me the truth. Do you love me?"

─ "That is not the important thing, my dear. For life we have been together and we have wanted to share our years."

─ "But I don't know if this makes sense, Peter. Sharing our lives without feeling love. If it is because of a home we could also live in Washington Street, in the house I own, but we are rather friends than a couple. I will always appreciate you. My affection will never leave you and I do not want to hurt you but..."

─ "Do you love me?" - He asked anxious.

─ "It is very difficult to tell you this, Peter. I'm in love, but not with you."

─ "There is another man in your life?"

─ "Yes, my dear. But I can't tell you who."

   But Peter was not silly and soon he found out.

─ "Does he have the age of my father?"

─ "Yes, my dear. And of mine."

─ "Holy heaven. I think that I already know who he is. So from being my girlfriend you can now be my..."

─ "Do not say it. He doesn't know anything. If I have to love him without hope, I must bear it. But imagine what hell it could be for you we living together and meanwhile I still loving that man. Ours has been a beautiful dream that has lasted many years, Peter. But let’s leave it here. It no longer makes any sense to follow."

─ "Are you telling me we should break our engagement?"

─ "You are strong, Peter. If we do not break it, it would end up hurting you more. Love is innocent. We could follow if there was no love on either of us. But not with a third party in our relationship. Live happily without me, Peter, and one day you will find a good woman who knows how to love you and does not hurt you. And to me, forgive me. My heart is already of another man. It will make much more sense to break our engagement now."

─ "I don't think I can try to convince you. Our engagement is broken. Leave me alone now, Kirsten, I need to think."

   Taciturn we all sat at the bonfire and everybody looked at me and they looked at Peter, believing that we were having a crisis. My parents hardly dared to speak to me, and in the same way Nigel looked at his son and looked at me and said nothing. Anne-Marie also noticed the tension. She came then without her husband. After a while I asked her to talk and we went to the low plateau.

─ "Something's wrong, sweetheart. What happens? You're not as usual and I suspect that your boyfriend is not as usual either."

─ "Dear aunt - years ago I had called her thus-. Today Peter and I have broken our engagement and I see him too pale. I don't know if I could do something for him. It hurts me to see him like that. He is strong, but my heart is crying seeing him desolate."

─ "What happened?"

─ "It happens that I've discovered that I'm in love with another man." - And I told her.

-"Peter will get over it, just as I overcame the fact that neither John nor Nike loved me. What you are telling me is very unorthodox, Kirsten, but you know that your entire family has always been. And even I never believed in what seemed to me like madness but they have spent years together and I think it will be forever. What you have just told me also seems foolish, but in your family everything that seems crazy later it works perfectly. Your parents will understand you if you talk to them, but if not, here you will always have to hear your confidences aunt Anne-Marie."

   And they left it there. They were strange days, but one hand washes the other and soon Peter matched Heather Norton, a very dominant and rather proud girl but it is clear that she loved him strongly and my old boyfriend needed someone like her at his side. He didn't love her at first; he only needed to forget me. But after a few months love really entered his kingdom and he spoke of Heather as his princess.

   So he who was my boyfriend had a partner now, but I had a thorn in my flesh which I had to get rid of. And one day in September I could not stand it anymore and told Nigel to walk up to Meander Bridge, for we had to talk. There we went and the road there was different to the road back. On the bridge, we had a conversation that would change our lives.

─ "Nigel, I have not called you for a normal conversation. It will be difficult to say what I have to say. But I must be brave. I can finally tell you why I broke with your son."

─ "That is not necessary, Kirsten, sweetheart. I guess you did not love him and that’s all. I can’t blame you for anything and I'm going to like you just as much as when you were my daughter-in-law."

─ "Peter didn’t love me and now he is happy with Heather. But in my case, you'll see... we have never loved each other in reality, but I - and finally I decided to tell him – I have been in love with another man for two years."

─ "But that’s a fact of life, Elased, and I would never reproach you for not being in love now with my son. On the contrary, I have to thank you for the years you've been with him and if I can no longer call you my daughter-in-law, I can keep calling you sweetheart."

─ "I have to tell you much more, Nigel. One of us has to be brave, because I suspect that the same happens to you, but I will be first - he then looked at me with an apparent fear-. I'm in love with you, Nigel. I have loved you deeply for two years. Now you know."

─ "Holy heaven, sweetheart. You have left me speechless. I could never imagine something like this. You must also know the truth. I do not know where this madness will lead us. Kirsten, look at me, I've loved you ten years. Did you have any suspicions?"

─ "I guess my heart sensed the truth in a glance, a smile, a gesture, a few affectionate words and long ago I suspect that I am for you more. Embrace me, my darling. This is the first of the three vocatives of my parents, that of my mother and Luke. But hug me, I beg you. And if you dare to go one step further, kiss me."

   We embraced and we kissed and our looks said so many things that it was not necessary to say with our lips. But we were afraid. To scare off our fears, he asked me.

─ "How did you call my son?"

─ "Sweetheart. And he called me sweetheart too. We never used any other words."

─ "Kirsten, my life. It's true that we love each other. But what sense does all this have? I am 61 years old, the age of your parents. I saw you being born. I am a beggar. This cannot be right. Think that in a very short time you could be the widow Matts".

─ "And you have been all my life the widower Matts. Think about the love story of my parents. Where have you seen something similar? Nobody would have bet on them, and yet there they are, loving one another passionately. And there is nothing sure in life. Remember that I have the name of an aunt who did not live 20 years. I could also go before you. And if not, we could be happy at least, for fifteen years? I want to live them with you. We now even have three homes."

─ "Three homes?"

─ "Millers' Lane, 15; Washington Street 21; and even the old tent of my father Nike, the "country house". Because I could be and I want to be the eleventh beggar. After all you are helping me enough; I try to create and the eleventh motif by Verôme is creation. Richard has shown us another way. And the last three could have a home, go to our work, beg in the evening, dine with them, and then go to Millers' Lane, for example, to live our life as a couple. Nigel, we love each other. Tell me that we could live together. And we can even get married."

─ "My love, I see you very much in love and as far as I can and as long as I live, I will try to make you happy. I don't know if this can be successful, but if you wish, we can be a couple. What do you think that your parents, your brother, my son, all of them will think...?"

─ "They will understand, Nigel. For your son it may be a little difficult, but he already has a partner and he loves her. It could be difficult for him to know I am his stepmother. And as for the others, I don't know if they will have any problems in admitting me as your partner or as a beggar. But as for the first thing... Nigel, my love, what would you think if tomorrow we are going to a court and seek a date for our wedding, that is, of course, if you want to marry me?"

─ "How am I going to say no, my darling, if I have loved you for ten years? Now I'm the happiest man in the world. If you want to accept this old man who has been your father-in-law all your life, then we should live together. Tomorrow we're going to a court and we will decide. Perhaps it would be better to inform everybody with the light of the sun and spend tonight at the bonfire quietly."

   And we went to the bonfire and learned to hide what we were feeling. It was a crowded night. In addition to the eight beggars, eight if I counted myself now, there were my brother with Ermelinda and my nephew Regulus, who that night seemed determined to not fall asleep. There were also Armand Protch, my uncle James with Rosa de Lima, and my uncle Gerald, who now came almost every night. He felt good with his niece, her two husbands, her children and her fellow mates. Richard asked my parents, who were still waiters in the Thuban if it was true what he had heard: that Harold Blessing was going to retire. John was really attentive to Nike’s answer.

─ "Harold did not want to die at work as Norman Wrathfall did and retired. Samuel Weissmann passed away. So now the Board of Directors consists of the President Anne-Marie Jones, Joan Weissmann and the resistant Walter Hope and Thaddeus Barrymore. And two other women: Grace Bigham and Megan Denver."

─ "My Uncle Harold has always placed money before his family. But I think that now I will visit him one day. I don't know if he would gladly receive me."

   But perhaps the closeness of death would still make uncle and nephew talk and even Harold gave him his condolences for Miguel’s death. Now they would see each other from time to time.

   That very night, Nigel dared to tell Peter, who came with Heather.

─ "I have to talk to you, my son."

─ "About Kirsten?"

─ "How do you know?"

─ "She left certain things very clear to me and I assumed that you would have already talked."

─ "Tomorrow – he swallowed – we will search for a date for our wedding."

─ "Dad, I've always loved her and I understand that from being my girlfriend she will be now my stepmother. But I hold no grudges and I'm always going to love her. And I've been thinking that you are very lonesome and that you need a good woman by your side for life. And rather than a stepmother, she may be a friend, my father’s wife. Kirsten is great for you and I want you to be accompanied. It may not be easy for me, but I've had time to get used to the idea. Count on me. And hug me."

   It had been easier than expected. Now they should talk with the three parents of Kirsten and her brother. The next day, once we were out of work, we looked for a free date in the courts and we chose Tuesday, October 4. When that night they talked to Peter, it turned out that Heather and he were also willing to marry and opted for the same day. It was so how Peter and I did not finally get married to each other, but we did in the same date. That night, after talking with my brother, and my three parents I wrote to Inverness to invite Grandma Maudie and her friend Selma.

   Coming out of the courts I found my mother in the outskirt. Both my fathers had not returned yet from the bar of the Thuban. I told her that I had to talk to her and we should go to Meander Bridge. The picture was very similar to that of years ago, when my mother spoke with my grandmother at the same place and they were with Paul in their arms. Now we were going to the same place with my nephew Regulus in mine.

─ Tell me, my daughter -My mother encouraged me once we arrived at the bridge.

─ "This morning we have been in the courts looking for a date for the wedding and I'm getting married on October 4. That was the day Dad Nike came to the street; a year later he told Dad Luke the tale of Dirt; and for the third time it was important when the second operation of Dad Luke, the day that aunt Anne-Marie donated her kidney. And now for the fourth time it will be an important day, the day of my wedding. But I would like to know, mum, if I may count on you, on my brother and my other two parents".

─ "My daughter. I often have been slow to sense things with you, because sometimes you are as transparent as your parents, but not always. For after all you were still with Peter and I thought that I was wrong. But now I think I was not. I have thought that for two years."

─ "Probably I’ve been in love for two years, mum, but I only saw it ten months ago."

─ "You haven’t told me who your future husband is, but now I think I know it. It is not the son, but the father. It is Nigel, isn’t it?"

─ "Yes, mama."

─ "Are you happy?"

─ "I'll be much more when I know what the three of you and my brother think."

─ "What do you think your mother can tell you, Kirsten? You have always seen that we were three and we have spent our lives on the street. Your grandmother was convincing me that a family does not have to be orthodox; it will only succeed if you choose and desire it. And your heart has chosen. You know that your future husband is our age, and that one close day you may become a widow."

─ "I know, mum. But I'll be unhappy if he’s not by my side."

─ "Maybe you have a child. My mother survived because she had me and one close day, if the cycles of life are fulfilled, you can lose your husband and your parents. But you can be comforted with a child. But for the moment, be happy, Elased, my dear. Nigel is a great friend and a great man. And I now realize that he really loves you. Only you have the right to choose your family, and your parents have the right to congratulate you. When you talk with the others you'll see that you will be understood by your parents, your brother and his wife and our fellow mates. Now hug me."

   It was a heartfelt hug that made me notice again my mother’s beauty. But immediately I could see my father Luke’s beauty. He came down the place that we had always called Polaris Street, but he was alone. Since my parents no longer had to take care of my brother and me they used to beg even all three together. In the morning my mother went alone while my parents worked in the bar of the Thuban. When they came out they appointed to meet all three in the corner with Riverside Avenue, begging all three together on the campus or they went to The Holy Ghost Church or St Stephen. At five o'clock my mother went to the Templar neighbourhood since she started at the hair salon at 6. She would usually return accompanied by my parents, who then went to the Basilica, St Mary, St Mark, the Umbra Terrae Boulevard or even Wall Street and the area around the hospital.

   I went to talk to Dad Luke and found him almost on the alley that had always been known as Alder Alley. I asked him about Dad Nike.

─ "We came back together but he was very thoughtful and told me that for a while he was going to Mill Bridge and then to the lake, for he needed to think."

─ "That’s better, Dad, because I want to speak with each of you separately. Look, let’s get in the alley."

    It was still visible the old graffiti that years ago my father Nike had watched when he left the disco, but there were many more now and the walls were filled with insults to people or with hearts with two names together. We sat in a doorstep next to the alley, and I started to talk to him.

─ "Dad. I hope you understand. It is not easy to tell you what I'm going to say –and then I told him-: I am going to get married. Indeed it is only a few days now. It will be on October 4. My husband and I have chosen the church where my grandparents Paul and Margaret, your parents, got married, in St. Mark."

─ "With Nigel?"

─ "Yes, Dad. Mum has also figured it out. I must have it written on my face."

    And he was for 10 minutes praising his future son-in-law. A man, he told me, like me: sensitive and intelligent. But I had something else to tell him.

─ "We want to live in Millers' Lane. My house in Washington Street will be so far for Peter and Heather. I will be the owner, but they will not have to pay me any rent. And they will be neighbors of Paul’s and Ermelinda’s. But I have to tell you something else, Dad. I want to join Nigel also in his life as a beggar and I want to be the eleventh of you. In the morning we would both go to our respective jobs. In the evenings we would beg and then we would dine with you at the bonfires. Only then we would withdraw to sleep at Millers' Lane. Tell me, please. I don't know what you think of all this."

─ "When Paul was not even born, one day I told your father Nike that for my children I would accept any life they wanted to live, provided it was not unworthy, as the one that one day I had. It is a pleasure to know that your brother and you are far away from those temptations. Even so, it would be difficult to now accept that my daughter changed her life as a Professor at the University to come to the street. But as you've described it to me, I think it is good. You continue with your life and your husband continues with his. You have more than one place to live. And as you've always been going back and forth to our outskirt, it is normal that you like some of this life and you want to know at least the freedom that has owned the existence of your parents and their fellow mates. Whatever road you choose, my daughter, your parents will accept it. May you be very happy."

   And we also embraced. I said goodbye to my father Luke telling him I would go to Mill Bridge and then to the lake in search of Dad Nike. He was so absorbed that it took me to make him listen.

─ "Hi, honey. I had not felt you."

─ "What were you thinking that made you so absorbed?"

─ "So many years later, you won’t believe me, I was thinking of the prophecy and Mistress Oakes. Look, I knew her enough to know that she was always right. And this evening I have started to think that she was not wrong after all. We just did a misinterpretation of her words. We have been in Uncle James’ house and he told us a lightning has destroyed part of a school, fortunately in hours when there was nobody in. It burned a tree which fell on the left wing, destroying it. And then, when I heard this, I joined two words: lightning and left, and as I was doing that, my eyes stayed fixed on a wall mirror. Look, we all know her words by heart, those of that vision she had that night in late July. She said this: “some things I have seen looking in another mirror, in another thought, in what someone still has not thought”. The mirror was my future thought, remember. And when she spoke of the lightning that burned the trunk that everyone understood it stood for Dad Luke, she said: "another ray that falls furious. It has just burnt one of the trunks: Yes, the seventh one if I count on the left." That may have been the mistake: she was looking in a mirror and however she counted on the left. Now think. She said 4, 7 and 1. It should have been then 1, 7 and 4, but on the right. Thus I am number 1. And it is true that nothing happened to me, but I was thinking of taking my life just before living the most beautiful night of my existence. But for number 1 she did count on the left and she was the first one. And then count on the right. Next it was number 7: your grandmother Olivia and then number 4: Miguel."

─ "Holy heaven, Dad. I think you're right."

─ "I don't know, but if so, she saw what would happen even beyond her death. But you've come to tell me something, right?"

─ "Yes, Dad. I have already spoken with mum and Dad Luke, and both have given me their approval. Now I have to talk to you and then to my brother."

   And taking courage I told for the third time my future wedding and what was more difficult: explaining I wanted to be, though half, the eleventh beggar and again we could be eight in the Torn Hand.

─ "Elased, my dear - My father told me-, I have known Nigel from shortly before your birth and I know that he is a wonderful man. I've been feeling that you loved him for two years and I know that you can be very happy at his side and that you've already thought about the risk of him having our age. As for being half a beggar, to start with, no half beggar at all. A beggar does not have to be for 24 hours. And I've always liked you so much that it will be a pleasure to see you every night having dinner with us. And after all you follow with your life. And your life is literature. Nothing better to write about beggars than living with us and like us and your husband will help you, I'm sure. In life, you must be certain what it is you really want and you must set aside whatever prevents happiness. You know that is what we call motif by Verôme. And if you have just found your own, who are your three parents to be against our daughter being happy with the life she wants to live? If your happiness depends on your parents, you now know that you can count on the three. Embrace me, sweetheart."

   It was happiness to be understood by my three parents and the fact that they didn’t reproach me anything. It was wonderful to behold the beauty of my father Nike, who asked me where I was with the novel.

─ "I am in the night in which Dad Luke told you his tale in the Cave of Beggar Sally. I have just finished the tale and I still have the rest of the night and all that you spoke later that made our family begin. I still have work."

   My father Nike encouraged me to take it easy and not to give up. I said goodbye to him and I went to Meander Bridge, where I met my brother and his wife, and my nephew Regulus in his arms.

─ "What were you doing, Paul?"

─ "You know that all our names are written on an elm tree on Knights Hill. We have come to do the same here, to this last ash tree overlooking the bridge before the alders begin. And look at this new heart.

   I looked at it. Inside I could read Paul and E. Andrea and then an arrow where you could read Regulus. An ash and an elm tree. I thought that if Nigel and I one day had children we should write their names in an alder. But I took away that thought. I had gone there when I saw the silhouette of my brother and his wife to inform them about something.

─ "On October 4, little king, I will become Mrs. Matts."

    He looked at me bewildered.

─ "But I thought that you were not dating now."

    But Ermelinda understood it right away.

─ "It is not the son, but the father, isn’t it, you empress?" - My sister-in-law also called me by that name.

─ "It is Nigel. We love each other strongly."

─ "Come here, Elased, my dear and hug me. And of course you can count on your brother. And how has Peter taken it?" - He asked me while we hugged. I told him that he had taken it very well, and Peter and Heather would also get married the same day, and now I had to return to the Torn Hand to inform the others.

  Bruce was back now and Richard and Nigel had not returned yet. I told Bruce I wanted to talk to him and asked him to come with me to Menhir Bridge. I told him all in a quarter of an hour. And at the end of that time he embraced me really moved. I also suggested one thing. If I was now going to go to the street with Nigel, Richard would be alone and I told him he could go now with him and John. He nodded and embraced me again always congratulating me. Dear Bruce.

   Richard already knew something because Nigel had told him. He accepted willingly to go now with Bruce and John and he also warmly embraced me.

   Shortly before the fire I saw John again. He was reading a new book and I asked him about it.

-"Your uncle James has lent me this book. He knows that now I can read novels which take place in Miguel’s country. It is called El Corazón de la Tierra (The Heart of the Earth), by Juan Cobos Wilkins. They are facts that happen not too far from Cádiz, Miguel’s city, in the mines of Riotinto. A series of true events fictionalized with great skill by the author which led to the year of the shots in 1888. I am enjoying it. I suppose you also want to read it. I recommend it."

    The Heart of the Earth. At the end I was captivated and I read it complete before the wedding. Times of abuse and exploitation and a legendary land in the hands of an unscrupulous company. I fell in love with its protagonist, the girl Blanca Bosco and I felt with her the passing of years and memories of days of blood and shots in response to a necessary strike.

   Once John was informed, it was a magic fire where all of them congratulated us again. In the next days Nigel and I were thinking about the guests. We requested Richard to invite Sarah, his son Armand and his daughter Crystelle and her husband, Tristan. I did not forget my uncle Gerald and my uncle James and my aunt Rosa de Lima. It was a shame my uncle Jairo couldn’t come. And a moving letter was sent to Inverness inviting my grandma Maudie and her friend Selma Dickinson. Both of them promised to come.

   But before the wedding I wanted to know the street and it is difficult to forget which day it was. It was on September 23 of this year 61, the day of the autumn equinox. Nigel and I spent the afternoon in the Basilica. It was a hard and tiring day in which we lived many things that my parents had told me, but unlike the first day Lucy-Luke, the first day Luke-Nike and the first day Lucy-Nike, my future husband and I did get enough to eat. In our case of half beggars it was not vital since we had food in Millers' Lane’s house. When it was dark, I said to the man of my life.

─ "I'll never be jealous of Shirley, my dear. And you can always live with me telling me about her. But I'm thinking something. Now I am a beggar and I can do it. If you're not a beggar, it was only you who did and one day you gave your son a star and another posthumous star to your wife. And after so many years, my darling, you don't have any star and that cannot be. If we have agreed not to give each other any present, since beggars we are, we always have the non-material things. And I want to make you a gift. It is incomprehensible that you still have been given no star. And you'll find it easy to understand that I want to give you the brightest star, Sirius."

   And that was how Nigel Matts owned the star Sirius, Alpha canis maioris, a star that together with Betelgeuse, owned by Armand Protch, and Procyon, owned by my uncle James Prancitt, made up the winter triangle. Also known as the Dog Star or the Christmas Star, it showed the time of the floods of the Nile. The brightest star in the night sky had to be as he is, my future husband and tenth beggar Nigel Matts.

   And finally Tuesday October 4 of our year 61 arrived. The day had dawned radiant and summer was in no hurry to go. The church of St Mark was a clean image with splendid rays on its huge cross. Nigel and I had decided not to buy any wedding clothes but go with our best dresses, but nothing more. He was wearing a beautiful blue suit and I was wearing a red dress, a colour that really suited me. Peter and Heather decided to do the same. She was beautiful in a blue and pink combination, enhancing her beautiful lines with her future husband, who was dressed in grey. Just before entering the church, I decided to talk to Heather.

─ "I hope you never have any jealousy and we love each other as sisters."

─ "We are the same age, but it seems incredible, Kirsten, we will be mother and daughter-in-law. But do not be afraid: I'm not jealous, and I know how much my boyfriend’s father and you love each other. You can always keep the affection that my husband and you have always had."

   A few seconds before I had greeted my grandmother-Maudie and her cousin Selma.

─ "It is incredible; Grandma, but you look great; and Selma too."

─ "I am 97 years old. Death could surprise me any day now, but my cousin and I could be 100 perfectly and even more. And it is a pleasure to be at my granddaughter’s wedding. I could not attend that of my grandson. Of course neither could your parents. But it is a pleasure to meet my great-grandson Regulus and Ermelinda Andrea. He reminds me of your brother the first day you came to Deanforest."

   And while Nigel and I became husband and wife there they both were two with stoic resistance. By their side, Armand Protch, as usual meditative and chatting with my uncle James and my aunt Rosa de Lima. Brandon and Anne-Marie Jones were next to my great friend Crystelle Grover and her husband, Tristan. Sarah Protch was with her husband. Richard was close to his fellow mates Bruce and John, and with them my uncle Gerald, an octogenarian now and maybe a bit tired but still with energy. My three parents very near the altar, looking proud the two weddings and my brother, his wife and my nephew smiling at us proud and radiant. Last of all was Joan Weissmann, perhaps future President of the Thuban Star although Anne-Marie still resisted. The ceremony was solemn and emotional and from there we got out two lady Matts.

   My mother came up and kissed me with tears in her eyes.

─ "Congratulations, Elased, now Kirsten Matts."

─ “Legally Kirsten Matts. But my husband and I have talked and actually I'm always going to have the name Kirsten Prancitt-Rivers-Siddeley Matts. And we don't know whether we will have any children or what name they will have."

   Dad Luke came to me and greeted me with watery eyes.

─ "I am very proud of you, Kirsten. After so many years I can see my daughter is already married..."

─ "My happiness today is because of you, Dad. Without you I would not have come to this world. I'm glad that you're now at my wedding."

   And Dad Nike congratulated us both at the same time.

─ "I have no words to express how much I love you, daughter. Take care of her, Nigel. For years we have been friends and now I leave a treasure in your hands."

   All my parents congratulated my husband. And then my brother came with his best smile, with my sister-in-law.

─ "Congratulations, Elased, dear. Both of us have been intelligent choosing our partners. And we will always devote ourselves to love the three people that have given us life. You can kiss your nephew."

    It was a touching kiss to the last blood of my family, who would continue us. At the end and before leaving the church, Peter, Heather and I kissed one another and congratulated one another and my husband cried of emotion embracing her daughter-in-law and without knowing what words to use to congratulate his son. But it was his son who spoke:

─ "Father and son have married the same day. Mama would be happy seeing the two Matts so happy. Take care of Kirsten, Dad, she is a great woman. And I promise you I will make Heather happy."

    We had also invited David Fieldman, who was still working on The Last Road, and in this bar we had an unceremonious breakfast, where we all went. At the time we were surprised by the entrance, not having been invited, of the cats Vera and Verôme, which were also there that day. I was congratulated by Bruce, John, Richard, my uncle James, my uncle Gerald, my grandmother Maudie, and my aunt Anne-Marie, who told me:

─ "Strange kinship, my dear. You call me Aunt Anne-Marie and for years I have been your husband’s brother-in-law’s wife. Be very happy in life, Elased. Who could have told me that I would appreciate you so much when I was in love with your father? And you're also now a relative of my husband. Congratulations."

   The celebration was radiant, opposite the Outskirt of the Torn Hand, two more couples as new furrows in the fertile land. It was time now to toast. I would be the first one to toast. Then it would be my husband’s turn, then Heather’s and finally Peter’s.

─ "I want to remember many people who would have enjoyed seeing us today. This is to my great-grandmother Madeleine Oakes. What advice you would have told me today, my dear great-grandmother. To my grandmother Olivia Rivers – then both my mother and my uncle Gerald began to cry-. To Miguel McDawn - solemn crying of his former partner John Richmonds-. To my grandfather Herbert Protch - my grandmother later confessed to me she believed to have seen him there for a second, smiling at me-. To Samuel Weissmann - Joan cried thankful because I had remembered her father-. And of course to the first Mistress Matts. I promise I will give all my love to your husband, Shirley, and he will always remember you - Nigel and Peter began to cry grateful and I knew that as long as I lived, I would be a friend of my ex-boyfriend and his wife. Later Nigel, Heather, and Peter toasted to the present ones and the absent ones. The Outcasts were also invited and Vera Lloyd was also remembered.

   The wedding celebration was cheerful and it promised beauty and happiness, happiness forever that would never melt in the grooves of the air.