Flying Carpet

This day in 2004...

He was nowhere to be found.


Mckoy searched in the house, in each bedroom and their toilet, in both upper and lower floors (including the basement where no one goes to), out the verandah, and the backdoor access from the kitchen upstairs. Musoi went around the house, hoping to find him in the garden or near the pond. I wanted to but couldn't afford to drop a sweat of worry in my pearl white frock. Thirty minutes before the wedding, my groom was missing.

Some were already cracking jokes just to calm me, but the suggestion of flying carpets this time was just not funny. (It took a while to convince my relations that my husband does not come from the same neighbourhood as Aladdin.) My grandma felt my anxiety and was trying to hush the jesterings. The smile they said brides effortlessly wear for hours seem to be escaping me by the millisecond, but I was comforting myself he could have only taken a moment for himself. I know he's not a religious man, but I don't mind that if, for that moment, he was. A brief prayer whispered, and finally, he appeared from upstairs. (To this day he denies of having gone to hiding. Whatever it was, I, too can't be bothered anymore.)

Dad approached us and reminded him that he still had half an hour to make up his mind. I was flabbergasted at the advice, but a second before deciding to stomp on Dad's foot, it occurred to me that these things do happen. Probably, I was just not prepared that it could happen to me. However, in my head ran months of preparation, sleepless nights, emotional rollercoasters, financial sacrifices, burnt telephone wires, faded keyboards etc etc. No! The show must go on!!

So, I pinched Tyrone's arm. That seem to have got the better of him, laughing with Dad. Then Dad added, "Don't worry about preparations being wasted, the guests and the food. After all, it's still my birthday."

Nice.

Tyrone gave a warm smile to me, and that assured me that my future was still in his embrace. After a long Clintonian double-palmed handshake, Dad gave me away to be Mrs. Mudalige.