Smoke and Mirrors

Registry Office

The rest of the week went by without any drama and the Monday before the wedding they went to their interview with the marriage celebrant at 11am.

They were shown to a waiting room where the walls were covered in photos of happy couples who had been married there.

There was another couple in there and the woman looked at them in disgust, the man had his head buried in a book. The woman got up and marched out of the waiting room and they could hear her talking to the receptionist.

'Your website doesn't say you do gay weddings,' the woman said, 'and I think this is misleading.'

'We don't discriminate here,' said the receptionist. 'Everyone has a right to get married.'

' I want to know what day they are having their wedding. I don't want it to be the same day as mine because I don't want my special day ruined by their perversion.'

'I'm sorry, I can't give that information out. We have thirty minutes between services, and we run on time, so there in never any overlap between customers.'

'But, it's my special day.'

'We hold six services a day, and the day is special to each couple. If you have an issue with a same sex marriage, I suggest you go to another registry office. I think there's one downtown who don't cater for same sex.'

'I've paid my money, and sent out my invitations. I can't just change everything.'

'And so have they.'

The woman came stomping back and huffed as she sat down. 'It's unacceptable.'

A tall, slim, middle aged man entered the room and want to where Keith and Lance said.

'Good morning, I'm Sebastian Carry your celebrant. If you will follow me.'

They followed him into a private room and he closed the door.

'I want to apologise for the behaviour of the lady in the waiting room. Discrimination is not something we tolerate here,' Sebastian said as they sat at the desk in the room.

'Not your fault,' Lance said.

'Normally, I would find out who's who when I come to collect you, but I didn't want to give your names while in the waiting room,'

'Oh right,' said Lance. 'I'm Lance and this is Keith.'

'It's a pleasure to meet you,' said Sebastian. 'This shouldn't take to long I like to ask some questions to get to know something about you, it helps to make the ceremony more personal.'

'Right,' said Lance. 'Before we start, we want to let you know there will be non-humans at the wedding. I hope this won't be a problem.'

Sebastian frowned at him. 'I'm sorry, do you mean animals?'

'No, um, aliens.'

'Mr McClain, I don't appreciate being made fun of...'

'I not, please believe me. You see, Keith's mother is a Galran and a friend of ours is an Altean. We are part of the Galaxy Garrison and have been traveling around space for the last two and a half years. We can prove we're not lying.'

Sebastian pursed his lips. When Keith turned Galran, Sebastian jumped to his feet and backed away.

'Please, no-one will hurt you,' said Lance. 'I know it's a shock.' Keith changed back into his human form. 'The thing is, Keith's mum can't make herself look human.'

Sebastian studied them a moment longer, then slowly moved back to sit down.

'I'm sure mum will cover up so no-one can see she's an alien,' said Keith. 'She'll only take that off once we're in the room. Coran will pass as a strange looking human.'