says. “Tomorrow will be better. But tonight we all could use a little bit of joy. Jules, are you in?”
“I’m in.”
“You have to find a tie and wear your posh three-piece suit. And what are you going to do about the bandage on your head? That’s not very matrimonial. We’ll leave it, I suppose.”
“What are you going to do about the sling over your arm?” Julian says. “You’re going to be a bride with a sling?”
Mia slips the sling over her head and lets it drop to the ground. “Can you do the same with your head wrap? I didn’t think so. You’ll look like Frankenstein. Now, who wants to be the minister?” She turns to Peter Roberts, sitting by himself in the corner. “Robbie, would you like to serve as a fake minister at our fake wedding?”
“You’re asking me to take part in one of your stories?”
“Yes! Please.”
Robbie gets up. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Mia embraces him. “Do you need me to find you some words to say?”
“No. I got this.” He straightens out his suit jacket and adjusts his bowtie.
“Tie is straight, Robbie,” Duncan says. “Your tie is like a level. Shelves can be put up off your tie.”
“Thank you,” Robbie says. “It’s hard to keep it straight with Wild around. He’s always fooling with me.”
“I hope Wild forgives me for having a fake wedding without him,” Julian says. “I told him he could be my best man.”
“Serves you right to make promises you can’t keep,” Duncan says. “You’ll have to make do with the rest of us. Now . . . where are we going to find a white wedding dress for our virginal bride?” He winks at Mia. “We might just have to suspend our disbelief and imagine her brown skirt is white.”
Mia slaps him and after some rummaging produces an off-white sheet. “Kate, can you make arm holes in it with your father’s scalpel so I can wear it like a cloak? Who’s got a belt? I will be Ghost Bride.” She claps. “Perfect! That’s what we’re going to call our play. The War Wedding of Ghost Bride and . . . Jules, what should we call you? Swedish Fjord?”
“Johnny Blaze,” says Julian.
“Who is Johnny Blaze?”
“He is Ghost Rider.”
“Oh my word,” Duncan exclaims, “is our straight-laced Julian being naughty? Ghost Rider indeed. Delicious! Watch out, Mia.”
Julian shakes his head. Duncan is incorrigible.
Mia leans to his ear. “It’d be okay with me if you were being a little bit naughty,” she whispers, and then louder, “Robbie, you’ll introduce us. The War Wedding of Ghost Bride and Johnny Blaze. Will you remember?”
“No,” replies Peter Roberts dryly.
“Because 60-year-olds are incapable of recalling nine words strung together,” says Julian.
“Exactly, my boy!”
Liz remembers they have no rings.
“We don’t need rings,” says Mia, writing in her small notebook. “Julian, we’ll do some bits from Shaw toward the end, but to begin, do you know a serious poem? You’ll need to be straight man to my comedy. I’ll be the funny one, okay? I’ll make a joke, I’ll say, why do couples hold hands before their wedding? Because it’s a formality, like two boxers shaking hands before the fight begins.” She chuckles. “Funny, right?”
“I guess,” Julian says. “What kind of a poem? Something from Kipling? Then come, my brethren, and prepare the candlesticks and bells, the scarlet, brass, and badger’s hair wherein our Honor dwells.”
“Hmm, no, more like, shall I compare thee to a summer’s day.”
“So you get to be funny, and I get to be maudlin and sentimental?”
“That’s right,” Mia says. “Because you’re a Gloomy Gus, especially tonight. I will make them laugh. See if you can make them cry.”
“How is that a fair deal? Who wants to cry at a time like this?”
“You should’ve thought of that before you had that face on.”
Julian is not the only one grumbling. “You sure are quick to jump into marriage without any frills,” Frankie says to Mia, her tone accusatory. “You didn’t marry Finch because he didn’t give you a ring.”
Julian interjects. “A ring is hardly a frill, and that’s not the only reason Mia didn’t marry Finch.”
“Poor Finch,” says Frankie. “Maybe he didn’t give you a ring, Maria, because he knew you wouldn’t give him any of your blood.”
“I couldn’t, Frankie! I’m AB positive and he’s a B.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient,” Frankie says. “You’re the universal receiver? Why am I not surprised?”
“Come on, Frankie,” says Julian. “We’re trying to lighten up here.”
“Frankie is right about one thing,” Mia says. “We do need