The Moffat Museum (11 page)

"Why 'Wow'?" Rufus repeated.

"You'll see!" said Sam. "If I can get through all those..."

No one could hear what "all those" were, Sam was laughing so hard. Moreover his car, never a quiet one, was apt to give a sputter exactly when an important word was said. However, as they neared the Green, they needed no words from Sam to tell them what "Wow" was.

People were streaming across the Green from all directions. Big people, little people, old and young, even the oldest inhabitant with his cane in one hand and his left arm in Miss Nellie's right. All were dressed in their Sunday clothes.

"Wow!" said Jane. She felt her hat. Still in place with the little bag of Buckle petals to keep it steady.

"Where are all the people going?" Rufus demanded. "Is there a parade?"

"There's a parade all right," said Sam. "It looks as though the whole town is coming. To the wedding, Rufus. To Sylvie's wedding!"

Most people were coming on foot. Even Judge Bell and his family, although they owned a big black car, were coming on foot. Many people were walking in the street. Sam had to crawl. He honked his horn almost constantly, and people parted slowly to let him through.

"Oh!" they said. "The wedding party! Where's the bride? Oh, already at the church, probably," they said.

Finally Sam reached the church and parked in front of it to let the family of the bride step down. Mama gathered her skirt carefully in her left hand and walked to the church, where she was greeted by the Reverend Mr. Gandy. Then she, Jane, and Joey went through the garden to the Parish House for Mama to cast her expert eyes on Sylvie and determine that everything was in place.

In the little room near the kitchen, there stood the nervous but happy bride surrounded by some of her friends. Mama and Jane and Joey joined her there to wait for twelve on the dot, when they would all go over to the church.

Rufus watched his family go. He stood there, feeling all alone, though dozens of people surrounded him. "Criminenty!" he said. "What am I doing here? I better get up to my pew. People are going up to the balcony. Jane was wrong when she said I'd be the only one up there, the whole place to myself for the showering!"

Rufus heard people say, "I think there are still seats upstairs in the balcony."

Then, what luck! Rufus recognized the voice of Uncle Bennie Pye, who was with his niece and nephew, Rachel and Jerry Pye. Rufus squeezed in and said to Uncle Bennie, "Would you like to sit with me? In the very front pew? That pew is reserved for me."

Uncle Bennie was delighted, so he and Rufus pushed their way through the crowd. They were little and could squeeze past the ladies in their fancy clothes making their way up the narrow stairway.

"Look!" said someone. "The front pew is empty!"

"Oh, shucks!" said another. "It's marked: RESERVED FOR RUFUS MOFFAT. And there he is!"

Rufus and Uncle Bennie had finally made it to his pew and were sitting in the middle of it. Rufus whispered to Uncle Bennie, "Feel under the pew with your feet!"

Uncle Bennie felt. "What are they?" he whispered.

"Bags of rose petals. There are bags reaching from one end to the other under this pew. I am the showerer of rose petals. You will be my assistant. We shower them on Sylvie, the bride. Jane is the flower girl. She thought this whole scheme up about the rose petals. You'll see Joey. You may not recognize him. He will have long pants on for the first time. We will scatter all these petals down on all of them when they turn around and walk out of the church. What you have to do is keep the bags moving to me. Think you can do it, keep the bags moving?"

"Oh, sure," said Uncle Bennie. "But how about the bags on the other side of you when all on this side are showered?"

"You crawl under my legs and sit on that side. Do the same thing ... shove bag after bag to me. Maybe you can help shower them. Don't squeeze the petals. They are supposed to flutter, be soft, not get hard as peas, right?"

"O-o-h!" Uncle Bennie was delighted. "I hope mine land on my mama."

"You a good shot?" asked Rufus.

"Good at miggles. Don't know about petals yet," answered Uncle Bennie.

"Well, anyway, most of them are supposed to land on Sylvie and the wedding and in the aisle so Sylvie can tread on soft petals. Those are my orders. You and me have the main job of this wedding..."

"That's right," said Uncle Bennie happily.

Rufus turned around. The balcony was filled up. People were standing all along the walls by the steps leading down to where he was sitting. He felt selfish sitting here with just Uncle Bennie. He spotted Hughie Pudge, a boy he had known since Room One, Wood Street School. He beckoned to Hughie. Hughie came down and sat on the other side of Rufus, so Uncle Bennie would not have to do all the shoving of bags to Rufus. Hughie got the gist just as fast as Uncle Bennie had and felt for his first bag after practically standing on his head to get a look at them.

"Wowie!" was all he said.

Rufus saw Rachel and Jerry Pye looking longingly down at their little uncle. Rufus beckoned to them. He wagged his head up and down. "Sure, come on down," that shake of his head meant, and they came down and sat beside Uncle Bennie. Uncle Bennie passed the word to them as to why this pew had been reserved for Rufus.

There were still a few empty seats. Rufus whispered to a nice lady behind him that she could pass the word back that a few more children, not grown-ups, could pile in here. That the lady did, and just in the nick of time the three little daughters of Judge Bell squeezed their way into Rufus's pew. The organist had begun playing melodies, not the bridal music yet, but music to put the congregation in a quiet and expectant mood. Now the pew was full, and Rufus was not lonesome anymore.

The word was passed all along in a soft whisper to the newcomers about the big bags of petals under the pew. The littlest Bell girl—her nickname was Noonie—in leaning over to see them, lost her hat, and it floated down over the balcony to who knew where? Her sisters were ashamed of her.

Of course, Rufus and Company could not see underneath the balcony, but from the way the congregation was acting, they knew the members of the wedding party must be gathering in the doorway.

Sam Doody, after taking a swift glance inside the balcony, went up the rest of the spiraling stairway to the belfry tower, and he pulled the ropes that made the wedding bells peal out. So, joyously, the bells pealed forth announcing to the rest of the people of Cranbury that Sylvie Moffat's wedding was about to begin.

Their echo had hardly died down when the organist struck up the wedding march. Everybody stood up and turned to watch Sylvie's entrance. Uncle Bennie was so excited that he almost reached now for a bag of petals to throw, forgetting that it was
after,
not
before,
the ceremony that he was to help strew.

But Rufus stopped him in time. He spotted Mama and his aunt Tonty, and many others he knew ... Mr. Buckle and Miss Nellie ... some of the teachers. Then, leaning over the railing, the children in the front row saw the wedding procession. First, there was Jane, the flower girl, clutching her hat with one hand and holding a big bouquet of pink roses in the other. And next, on the arm of her brother Joey, was Sylvie, the bride, looking like a fairy-tale princess, walking in that lilting way she had. She did not trip even though she had no page to hold her long veil, which spread out behind her like feathers of a white fan.

The minister was standing at the head of the aisle waiting for all the members of the wedding to converge here. Ray Abbot came from the side door that led to the Parish House and waited for Sylvie and Joey to reach the minister.

When the members of the wedding were all in place, the Reverend Mr. Gandy began the service. He had a nice smile on his face.
Probably can see that Joey is scared,
thought Rufus.
Maybe Sylvie and Jane are, too.

Rufus whispered to Uncle Bennie, "See that man there in long pants? That's my brother, Joey. Hard to believe, but true."

Rufus barely heard the words of the ceremony, just the "Do you takes?" and the "I dos." But he heard Joey answer "I do!" in a clear, strong voice that even people in the back of the balcony could hear when he was asked the giveth-away question.

It was time for Ray to put the ring on Sylvie's hand. He fumbled for it in his vest pocket, where he rarely put anything, placed it on her finger, and said, "With this ring, I thee wed..." Ray Abbot kissed the bride, and Jane, who had been holding Sylvie's bouquet during the ceremony, gave it back to her. Those in the wedding then turned around, and the triumphant march began.

Now! Now was the time for the showering of the petals, for slowly Sylvie, on Ray's arm, began to walk down the aisle.

"Criminenty!" said Rufus. "It's now or never!" He reached down under his pew, and as the bride and groom slowly, slowly, came down the aisle smiling, blowing kisses, Rufus sent the first large handful of rose petals fluttering down.

It was the signal. All the children to the right and to the left of Rufus reached under the pew for a bag and began to shower their petals down. You would think they had had a rehearsal! They didn't let all of them shower down at once. They let them fall, one handful at a time, so the church was filled with thousands of petals gently floating all around.

It's lucky I have lots of helpers,
thought Rufus.
I could never have handled all this business by myself.
Why was he crying? He whisked away a tear, and Uncle Bennie handed him the next bag.

More tears to whisk away. There was Sylvie halfway down the aisle treading lightly on the soft petals. But she paused. She looked up at the balcony, saw Rufus up there in the middle, and blew him a kiss. Was she smiling or crying? He let a whole bagful of petals fall down on where she stood, and she seemed to catch some in her upstretched

arms. Many landed on her veil, and hundreds fluttered all up and down the aisle where she was walking.

So it really was as Jane had dreamed. Being a flower girl really had meant having petals from all the rosebushes on Ashbellows Place fall onto Sylvie, the bride, her sister. A rose-petal wedding!

The last member of the wedding was the Reverend Mr. Gandy, who seemed astonished but pleased. He looked up at the balcony, and he saw Rufus, and Rufus showered the last of the petals down on him. Many fell into the wide sleeves of his surplice as he raised his arms in a kind of a salute to the children up there.

Now Rufus and his friends could no longer see the wedding procession. And now the people in the balcony were in as much of a hurry to get downstairs to greet the bride as they had been to find a place to sit before the ceremony began. They wanted to kiss the bride and wish her happiness forevermore.

Sam Doody made his way through the throng and up to the belfry again to make the church bells ring out. So the bells pealed out and perhaps could be heard as far away as Savin Rock since it was such a clear day.

People had rushed down from the balcony and disappeared. Uncle Bennie, Rachel and Jerry, and the three little Bell girls all had left. Rufus was sitting alone with bags and bags, empty rose-petal bags. What was he supposed to do next?

Ah! Rufus was not forgotten. Jane rushed up to the balcony. "Oh, Rufus! Rufus! You were wonderful!" she said. "You and all your friends ... wonderful! Now, guess what! We are all to go to the Parish House and have good things to eat and have a piece of the wedding cake. Everybody is invited."

Rufus revived. He had been thinking he should have brought a peanut-butter sandwich along with the petals yesterday and put it under his pew.

So he and Jane went to the Parish House. Sylvie spotted Rufus and hugged him. "No one ever had such a pretty wedding before. All those petals ... see?" She shook her head, and some fell out of her curls.

Rufus smiled. "There were circa MMMMM or more of them," he said.

Sylvie, half laughing, half crying, was radiant. Little folding chairs that were used for plays or Sunday School had been brought out and lined the room. In the middle was a long table with a huge wedding cake on it and wonderful things to eat: salads, sandwiches, pink lemonade...

Then Sylvie made the first cut into the cake. Some wrapped their piece in a paper napkin to take home, put under their pillow, and make a wish. Some ate their piece right away. Some said they were going to wrap theirs in waxed paper and put it in their memory book along with as many rose petals as they could scoop up.

Then Sylvie went up on the little stage where she had performed often in Sunday School plays. She stood still, looking the guests over.

"Ah-h-h!" said Mrs. Price. "She is going to throw her bouquet!"

All the young girls crowded to the front, hoping to be the one to catch it and then, surely, to be the next bride in the town of Cranbury.

Sylvie paused a moment, looking at her eager friends with their outstretched arms. But she had someone in mind. It was Dottie Bridge, her best friend, she was aiming for, and she aimed correctly. Dottie caught the bouquet and hugged it to her. Ray Abbot lifted Sylvie off the stage, where, he said, long ago he had seen little Sylvie in
Cinderella
and loved her forevermore right from then.