An employee of the freight company, Wilber Chambers, who also happened to be the pastor of the Methodist Church in town, had agreed to officiate. He was a kindly, middle-aged man with a ruddy complexion and cherubic face. She liked him and thought she might join up with that tiny congregation. Their child would need to be baptized someplace, and Jordy was leaving things religious to her so long as she did not try to crack any whips at him. She had also learned that Grandpa Jack had quietly funded the small church building and that the pastor’s job with the freight company was essentially a subsidy for a congregation that would have been otherwise too small to afford a clergyman.
There were no chairs, so the guests stood, leaving an aisle between them for the bride and escort to walk through. Consuelo had made the bride a nice, pale-green dress for the occasion, Sierra having self-determined she did not qualify for white. She looked at Uncle Rudy standing beside her all clean shaven, his store-bought teeth shining like pearls and fixed in a satisfied grin and wearing a new black suit and polished boots. No man was happier than Uncle Rudy today. She and Jordy considered him as family, and the responsibility assigned to him would make it official.
Pastor Chambers at the opposite end of the grassy aisle nodded, and she took Rudy’s arm. They moved slowly because Rudy had abandoned his cane for the occasion. When they reached the front of the onlookers, she saw Jordy with Tige at his side and on the other side of the pastor, Tess, wearing a tasteful dark green dress. If only they could have had a double wedding today.
Jordy stepped over and took her hand, and they moved in front of the preacher. Suddenly she felt a strange presence, and she shivered. The ceremony was a blur after that. The vows were recited, but she could barely hear them. She hoped she said “I do.” She heard Jordy agree to take her and saw Tige handing him the wedding band, which he almost dropped. The band somehow got on her finger. The pastor pronounced them husband and wife, and then she was awakened by Jordy’s kiss, which she may have returned too passionately if the guests’ applause was any indication.
They turned to face the guests, and that was when she saw them. The only cloud in the sky above them began to roll and break apart. Suddenly Jack appeared. He was on one of the cloud fragments, that crooked smile on his face, his arm tucked about Thor, bright-eyed and tail wagging happily.
“Jordy,” she whispered. “Do you see Jack? Look at the clouds.”
He complied. “What are you talking about? I don’t see anything. Are you okay, love?”
She looked again. Nothing. They walked down the aisle to the awaiting buggies that would take the group back to the ranch house for a lunch and refreshments. Sierra remained shaken by what she had seen but jubilant, too.
She was greeting guests at the end of the imaginary aisle when Tess came up, hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear. “I saw them too, dear.”
About the Author
Ron Schwab is the author of the popular Western series, The Law Wranglers, The Coyote Saga, and The Lockes, as well as several standalone novels, including Grit, a winner of the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award for Best Western Novel, and Cut Nose, a finalist for the Western Writers of America Best Western Historical Novel.
Ron and his wife, Bev, divide their time between their home in Fairbury, Nebraska and their cabin in the Kansas Flint Hills.
For more information about Ron Schwab and his books, you may visit the author’s website at www.RonSchwabBooks.com.
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