Kim Neubauer
Ms. Bavaro: “Knot Now”
Creative Writing
2/6/12
Knot Now
She adjusted his bow tie firmly. “Now you better keep this on and
behave at the wedding,” she said to her young son impatiently. He
squirmed and tugged at his bow tie and his tiny tux. “I’m serious, Jake!
You better behave! We better not have a repeat of what happened at last
year’s Christmas party.” You don’t want to make your Aunt Megan upset on
one of the most important and most expensive days of her life, do
you?”
“No,” Jake replied reluctantly. A car horn beeped outside.
“Good. Now get in the car. Your father’s waiting.”
Jake opened the front door and walked outside. As he walked to
the car he loosened his black bow tie. Luckily for Jake, his mother was
running a bit behind schedule, so she was still in the house and didn’t see
him. In the meantime Jake’s father
got him situated in his car seat.
“Daddy, why do I still have to sit in this car seat? I don’t like it.”
“Because you’re only five years old. You’re not big enough yet.”
“When will I be big enough then?”
Jake’s father sighed, “I don’t know, Jake. We’ll talk about this
later.” He got into the front seat of the car and beeped the horn. “Come on
Shannon! We’re already late! AND you’re the maid of honor! Plus, your sister’s a bridezilla.”
His wife came rushing out of house barefoot, with her pink high heels in her
left hand and her matching purse in her right.
“Don’t you think I know that, Dave? I can’t show up to my only
sister’s wedding looking like a mess. A girl needs time to get ready!”
She got in the front seat of the car and closed the door. Dave rolled his
eyes and pulled away from the curb.
“Happens every time we go anywhere,” Dave mumbled under his
breath.
The car ride was over an hour long—an eternity to any five-year-old
boy. He kept himself busy as best he could by looking out of the
window and napping.
“I hope Megan isn’t stressing out too much,” Shannon sighed, putting
on her heels.
“So do I. I love her like
my own sister, but she can really overreact sometimes—and today is a day that
she can’t let that type of thing ruin her,” Dave replied, sounding concerned.
Shannon moaned, “You’re right Dave. You’re absolutely right. I pray to God that everything runs smoothly for her!” Shannon turned around to check on
Jake. “Aww he’s asleep. How much longer to we have left to go?”
“About five more minutes, Shan.”
The family of three arrived at the wedding ceremony. There was a decent-sized crowd of family and
friends filing into the church. There were mostly adults attending the
wedding around Jake’s age except for the ring-bearer, but he was in the middle
of getting ready for his ring-bearing duties.
“I’m going to go and help out Megan, so I’ll see you two when the
reception starts. Let’s keep our
fingers crossed!” Shannon said to Jake and her husband.
“Alright. Jake, how about
you go and find us two a seat? I’m
just going to run to the bathroom before everything begins. And don’t go wandering around
anywhere,” Jake’s father said sternly.
Jake shot him a look. “Okay Dad.
I’ll go sit down.”
Jake found an empty pew in the back of the church but he didn’t stay
there very long. He heard a
commotion going on between the bride and another person over the phone.
“What do you mean your daughter can’t come to my wedding? Oh. She’s sick. I don’t care if all
four limbs are hanging off of her body! A flower girl is absolutely necessary
for a wedding!” All the while,
Jake’s mother, Shannon tried to calm her down.
“Megan, please stop yelling.
Give me the phone and I’ll try to work it all out,” said Shannon.
Megan pushed her sister away and continued to holler at the flower
girl’s mother.
“If you said she was
coming, then she should come!
Thanks for ruining my special
day. I hope you’re happy!” In a fury, Megan threw her cell phone
at Shannon and stormed off.
“Megan! Get back here!” Shannon shouted. She didn’t bother to run after Megan. She apologized to the flower girl’s
mother.
Jake, being the being the curious and fidgety child he was, he snuck
out of his pew and wandered around the church to see where his aunt had run off
to. As he meandered about, he heard someone crying. He was certain
it was his aunt. He followed the
sound and saw who was the one that was weeping. Sure enough, he was
right. He found her in a room by
herself with a basket of pink flower petals placed beside her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing Jake. I’ll be fine. Where are your mom
and dad?”
“Daddy’s probably sitting in the church and mommy’s talking to someone
on the phone. Tell me what’s wrong, Aunt Megan.”
Jake sat down next to his aunt. He noticed her tears were causing her
makeup to run.
“Well, the flower girl can’t come to the wedding. What’s a
wedding without a flower girl?” she said, putting her head in her hands.
Jake sat and thought for a moment. He wanted to help his aunt out and
make her day perfect.
“Aunt Megan, I could be the flower guy.” Megan looked at her nephew and started
to tear up again, and wiped her face with a soggy tissue. This time,
these tears weren’t sad tears; they were genuine tears of joy.
“Oh, Jake! You would do that for me?
“Yeah I would, Aunt Megan! —But on one condition…I am not
wearing a dress.”
Aunt Megan laughed and gave Jake a hug. “No, no, I won’t make you wear
a dress!”
“Good, ‘cuz you’d be on your own if you did!” Jake said jokingly.
“Thank you, Jake. You’re the best nephew any aunt in the world
could ask for!”
“No problem, Aunt Megan. Gimme those flowers!”
Aunt Megan took his hand and they walked out of the room. Megan
went to redo her make up as Jake went to get ready for his “flower guy”
duties.
When the two were waiting to walk down the aisle, Megan noticed that
Jake’s tie was a bit askew.
“Wait a minute Jake!”
Megan leaned down to adjust it.
“What is it?”
“There you go, bud.
Lookin’ good!” She gave him
a thumbs up.
“Thanks Aunt Megan!”
And there Jake went, holding a white wicker basket while lightly
tossing pink flower petals to the ground. Everyone sitting in the pews smiled and laughed at his
cuteness. Jake wasn’t embarrassed
one bit. He embraced all the
attention he was getting. He was
the comic relief that he knew his aunt needed. To make her laugh even more, he daintily picked out
each petal and flicked his wrist each time and then bowed when he was all out
of petals. Everyone cheered
and clapped. Tears were brought to
Jake’s mother’s and aunt’s eyes.
As handsome as the ring bearer was and as beautiful as the bride’s maids
were, no one could compare to the gaiety that Jake brought to the church.
Then there was the moment everyone was waiting for; the bride began to
walk down the aisle with her father on her arm. All of her pre-wedding tears were wiped away, her long
flowing hair was perfect, her white, delicately laced designer dress was
stunning, and she was smiling from ear-to-ear. Even though it was a little unorthodox, her wedding day had
turned out perfectly.
