The Moffat Museum (10 page)

"In some countries they probably do eat rose petals. Who knows?" said Jane. "But, sh-sh-sh! Different laughing ladies!"

Miss Beale was still practicing her solos, and other members of the choir were chiming in when they had a chance. The new laughing ladies must be ... were!...the ladies of the Altar Guild, for they opened the little door to the undercroft.

Jane and Rufus crouched under the pew. "Wow!" Rufus whispered. "Rescued the petals in the nick of time!"

They listened. They heard a lady say, "Oh, Harriet, don't worry. They'll stay fresh here ... They always have..."

Then they heard the little door being firmly closed, and the ladies of the Altar Guild went out of the church. The organist and the ladies of the choir left now, too. So, out of curiosity, Jane and Rufus went downstairs and looked. Moments before there had been thousands of petals on those shelves marked RESERVED. Now there were many vases filled with beautiful flowers, mostly roses, this being the season for roses all over Cranbury.

"Flowers for the altar!" said Jane. "Oh, how pretty!"

"Well..." said Rufus. "We're lucky! We got our petals out just in time. Now all is in place for the showering tomorrow ... if there is no more innerfering!"

They got their wagon and went home.

At home, what a sight! Wedding dress finished and kept in order on Madame-the-bust. "What an artifact!" exclaimed Rufus. Sylvie's veil was pinned up in turbanlike fashion so no one would trip on it and the whole creation come tumbling down.

But more interesting than the finished wedding dress was the sight of Joey! Joey was standing on a strong oak chair, and he had on a pair of long dark brown trousers! His face was as motionless as that of a boy in a painting. He was staring at nothing except what he imagined he looked like in these long pants. Mama was pinning up the hems of the legs, for they were too long.

When the hems were pinned up, Joey jumped down. He had on his good Sunday white shirt. He put on the vest to the suit and then the coat. After pinning these—a pinch here and a pinch there—behold Joey Moffat, a grown-up young man in a man's suit and prepared to giveth his sister away tomorrow in holy matrimony!

Rufus and Jane stood in the doorway stunned at the transformation. Mama took the mirror off the wall and balanced it against a chair. Now Joey could behold himself. Throughout all of the fitting there had been silence. Now a slow smile began to spread over Joey's face. He stood back and put his hands in his pocket. Mama put a fine linen handkerchief in his breast pocket; it had been Papa's. She put Joey's dollar watch in the little watch pocket. She said, "It's too bad we had to sell your father's gold watch after he died. But we did."

She tilted the mirror this way and that. Joey stood near it, a little way from it, far from it, and walked toward it to study himself from many angles.

"Gee whiz!" he said. "Is that me?"

"Joey! Joey!" cried Jane. "Joey, you look great!"

"Yeah, great!" said Rufus. But he was glad when Joey got back into his regular clothes, out of the wedding "uniform," as he called Joey's fine suit. Then Joey went out back, climbed on his blue bike, and went for a little ride.

Jane and Rufus stood and watched him disappear. "He's thinking, rehearsing in his mind," Jane explained to Rufus, "rehearsing the look of himself in his long-pants suit walking up the aisle."

"Yeah," said Rufus, "practicing being the giver-away person."

He and Jane went outdoors, edged Catherine aside, and sat in the sleigh to get a little rest from their hard work. A few petals fluttered over the fence and into Jane's lap. She thought of all those petals under Rufus's pew. "They are really safe now, aren't they?" she asked Rufus.

He said, "Sure. All the same I know what I'm goin' to do because I don't want any innerference with the rose petals. Stay here. I'll be right back."

And he was back in just a few minutes with two cardboard signs: THIS PEW RESERVED FOR RUFUS MOFFAT. He had two thumbtacks.

"Oh, that's great!" said Jane.

So then, tired though they were, they went back to the church. There didn't seem to be anyone around now, and they thumbtacked Rufus's signs, one on each side of his pew.

"Now, that does it," said Rufus, and back home they strolled.

Joey rode up behind them. "Want a lift?" he asked.

Did they! They were so tired! Jane sat on the crossbar, Rufus on the handlebars, and they were home in no time.

Mama was now busy packing the little brown satchel that Sylvie was going to take away with her containing her "going-away" things. Mama carefully folded the pretty periwinkle blue suit she had made for Sylvie. She placed it on the top. Tomorrow, after the wedding, Sylvie would shed her bridal dress and put this blue suit on in the little room in the Parish House that was next to the kitchen. Thus she would be transformed from bride to the going-away wife of the Reverend Mr. Abbot. Mama closed the clasps of the satchel, patted it, and then went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

"Something easy," she said. She looked tired. "Baked beans and franks, maybe?" And that it was.

They had just finished supper when, like an unexpected but welcome breeze, in rushed Sylvie, with Ray Abbot following more sedately.

He said, "Good evening, Mother."

Jane and Rufus looked around to see who "Mother" was. It was Mama, of course! What a new and startling thought!
Next thing, he'll be calling me "sister,
" thought Jane. But then they had to laugh at Sylvie. She was doing a waltz with an eggbeater for a partner.

"Mama!" she panted. "Look at this!" She one-two-threed around the kitchen and into the little green parlor. "Guess what! Dottie Bridge's party was a surprise party for me ... a shower! See what my friends gave me!"

Jane cleared the table, and Sylvie emptied her presents onto it. Three eggbeaters, a can opener, a strainer, and several other useful things.

"All ... all ... exactly what we'll need. Isn't that right, Ray?" She gave another whirl or two around the room with eggbeater number one.

Jane looked at Ray. He was loosening his clerical collar. He took the gold stud out of it, which he put into his pocket. Was he going to dance? Hurrah! Ray took eggbeater number two, and he and Sylvie danced around the parlor with their eggbeaters. Everybody laughed. It was fun. Mama clapped her hands and sang a New York song, "East Side, West Side," and picked up eggbeater number three for a partner.

"It is the Waltz of the Eggbeaters," said Joey, gently tapping his foot and playing his harmonica.

But they left then, Sylvie and Ray, for another party.
Maybe another eggbeater party,
thought Jane, and she went upstairs to bed. At first she couldn't go to sleep. The one-two-three of the Waltz of the Eggbeaters kept running through her head.
Could be in a fairy tale,
she thought dreamily. Then she drifted off to sleep, and she did not awaken even when Sylvie slipped quietly into bed beside her.

Then it was morning.

Jane went downstairs. It was a perfect day, this last day of June, Sylvie's wedding day.

Sylvie was standing on the sturdy trying-on chair in the dining room. Mama was carefully pulling the wedding gown over her curls, which were softly tied together, neither up nor down. Then Mama arranged the veil over these loosely tied curls with a ring of pink roses, real ones, around her head. She tied the white satin sash. Sylvie put on her white satin slippers. They had little bows and looked like dancing slippers.

The slippers were the only thing not new that Sylvie had on; they were the slippers she had worn when she was Cinderella and gone in a pumpkin coach to the ball.

Then Joey helped her step down, and there stood the bride!

The family gazed at Sylvie, speechless.

"Well?" she asked breathlessly. "Do I look pretty?"

"Pretty!" they all exclaimed.

"Beautiful!" said Mama, her voice shaking a little.

Sylvie looked at herself in the mirror. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Is that me?" She kissed Mama. She said, "Oh, Mama, how happy I am!"

At ten-thirty on the dot, as had been arranged, Sam Doody drove up in his Model-T Ford. He tooted three times. Sylvie practically flew to the car like a white butterfly. Rufus had his one chance to be her page and practically flew after her holding up her filmy veil. Then off to the church drove Sam Doody with the bride!

Sam was going to come back for the rest of the family at eleven-fifteen. There was no time to be scared now. Or, if you
were
scared, you were too scared to know it. It was do this, do that, every minute.

Rufus switched from his khaki shorts into his spotless white sailor suit. He was all ready for scattering, showering, strewing thousands of petals. He stood on the railing of the porch and pretended to strew. Then he sat down in the wicker rocker and waited for Sam Doody to come up the street honking his horn.

Next, Joey came out on the porch, dressed in his long-pants suit, with the spotless handkerchief in his breast pocket. He brought out a straight dining-room chair and sat stiffly in it. He examined his watch every few minutes. He looked glum. He wished he could sit up in the balcony with Rufus. He didn't even know about the petal plan.

Upstairs, Jane, with trembling fingers, took the rag curlers out of her long brown hair and brushed it a little, careful not to brush away the curls. Then she put on her pink flower-girl dress, her socks edged in pink, her white canvas slippers, and lastly her hat. She tucked the little bag with its Nellie B. Buckle red rose petals inside the crown of her hat over her left ear. The hat stayed in place nicely because of the elastic under her chin and the bag of petals.

Too bad Nancy Stokes couldn't see her now and study her head, egg-shaped no longer, flat now for the wedding. Then she went downstairs and joined the boys on the front porch. Joey got a chair for her from the dining room and waited for the honking of Sam Doody's horn. Would Mama be ready? She should be here.

Ah! Finally Mama came out. The children gasped! Was this their mama? "O-o-oh, Mama!" said Jane. "How pretty you look!"

Mama had on a white eyelet embroidered dress she had worn long ago to a ball in Madison Square Garden when she lived in New York. Because only the bride should wear white, Mama had sewn pale blue voile under the skirt and blouse so the effect was of a pale, pale blue, like an early spring sky.

"O-o-h, Mama!" Jane said again. "How pretty you look!"

"Two Cinderellas in one family," said Rufus. "And not one page between them."

Now! Now they heard it, Sam Doody's horn, honking all the way from Campbell Avenue to 12 Ashbellows Place. Pigeons and little sparrows flew away and settled on the roof of the library.

Sam's face was red and hot. Perspiration rolled from his brow, half blinding him. He mopped his forehead. "Wow!" he said. "Get in! We have to hurry! Wow!"

"Why 'Wow'?" asked Rufus. He was sitting in the back seat with Jane and Joey. Joey was carrying the empty box his suit had come in. This was to put Sylvie's wedding dress in to carry home.

Mama was sitting proudly in front beside Sam. The little brown satchel with Sylvie's going-away things was on the seat between them.