and sneakers with them. There were more high-top sneakers in the room than proper shoes. And all of the men there were considerably under thirty. They looked like children to Alex, and yet most of them had already made astounding fortunes in high-tech.
“All that brain power and not one of them knows how to wear a tie,” Alex said, smiling at his wife. “You look beautiful,” he complimented her. He felt as though there were two of her there that night, the woman he was married to now, and the vision of her as a young girl in the wedding dress. It had been the happiest night of his life, and he remembered every minute of it distinctly. Zack looked just as happy now, and when Ruby and Zack danced their first dance, Eleanor and Alex felt as though they were having an out-of-body experience watching them. The house looked wonderful, with all the touches that Eleanor had remembered to add to replicate their wedding, just as Ruby wanted. The floral centerpieces on the tables were the same, and copied from old photographs.
When the guests sat down to dinner in the ballroom, everyone started dancing, and Alex looked at his wife wistfully, wishing that he could dance with her again. She guessed what he was thinking, kissed him, and whispered to him.
“You danced with me so much that night that it has lasted me a lifetime.” He kissed her then, and she disappeared for a while to check on the guests. They had seated Zack’s parents at opposite ends of the room. And Zack was pleased that they both came, a first since the divorce. Neither of them wanted to miss his wedding, which Eleanor was pleased to see, for his sake. From what he had said, he had had so little family support as he grew up, while his parents waged war on each other.
The cake was an exact replica of the one she and Alex had had. Eleanor noticed that the female guests looked more respectable than the men, with most of them in very pretty cocktail dresses. But Ruby was the most beautiful of all. Zack had been gazing at her all night, and danced with her again and again. He very politely asked Eleanor to dance too, and danced once with his mother, who was being infinitely nicer to him since his recent deal, and invited him to Texas with Ruby while they danced. His father’s girlfriend looked predictably unsuitable, but no one cared, not even Zack.
They had paid the school an extra fee to allow the party to go on until one A.M. It was a far cry from her grandparents’ all-night wedding, but no one gave parties like that anymore. Ruby’s wedding was particularly glamorous, with the unforgettable wedding dress, the garlands and the flowers, and the tablecloths the school had ordered and Eleanor had placed white lace over them. The tiara gave Ruby a regal look. It was incredible to Alex that the awkward-looking young boys around the room had made unimaginable fortunes. You would never have guessed it from their age or the look of them. But a new era had dawned, the country was thriving as never before with the high-tech era, and the crash that Alex’s generation had lived through was only distant history now. The young people of Ruby and Zack’s generation had no idea of what that had been like or the lives it had destroyed. Now no one remembered, except those who had lived through it.
At the end of the evening, Ruby tossed her bouquet and a friend from Stanford caught it. It was a special “throwing bouquet” so she could keep and preserve her real one. They were going to spend the night across the street at the Fairmont hotel, and then leave for the Caribbean by private plane the next morning. Zack was becoming familiar with the conveniences of his new status quickly and sharing them gladly with Ruby.
They were just about to leave the house after thanking her grandparents, when Zack turned to smile at his bride.
“You’re the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen, and it was a fantastic wedding. We’ll have to give another big party for the housewarming.”
“What housewarming?” Ruby looked at him blankly.
“I know how much this house means to you and your grandmother,” he said in a low husky voice that no one else could hear. “The school was looking for bigger quarters. They said that they’ve