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March

My heart swelled in the back room of the church. If we were exhausted from the night before, we didn't show it; eyes bright and excited.
The bashful smile Herbert had showered Clara with when we arrived at his home the night before made my own face crack into a grin. We had kept tradition as much as we could; Clara's furniture was driven over to the Weber home in a cart, he gave her a jug of beer when he met her at the door, even though she could not drink at this point, due to her condition. The shirt she had made for him was a bit long in the arms, and the shoes a bit worn, but they were the best she could manage, and he accepted them gratefully. There wasn't any money for the cheap china to be thrown about at the party, nor money for a decent set period.
After Herbert and Clara entered his home, the rest of our family and friends followed, talking laughing as plate after plate was set on the table. Even meat, and cakes with real sugar!
"Sit down, sit down everyone!" Frau Weber called, before greeting Clara with a kiss on the cheek. She was calling directions faster than they could be done, "Jacob, go with the boys and help take the furniture upstairs! Don't be shy ladies, come, sit down! The radio is still working, someone turn it on!" Before long, we were shouting and laughing, listening to music and poking fun at mostly Herbert.
Throughout the night, the festivities continued.
"It's perfect!" Clara declared as she set a hoop of white Edelweiss on my head.
"What do you think?" I asked as I placed a hoop on Clara's head and passed her a hand mirror. I had made hers myself, Edelweiss with scraps of lace and pink ribbon woven in.
"You made that?" one of Clara's cousins asked. I blushed and nodded. She smiled at me, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. She had recently come from out of town for the wedding, so I had never met her before.            "You're my cousin's....paramour....aren't you?" I blushed a deeper red. But she smiled, so I knew she was teasing. I raked my mind for her name.
"Hilde," that was it! "can I try it on?" a young girl asked, pointing to Hilde's hoop in her lap. She was probably a younger cousin. Hilde shook her head vehemently.
"Nein, it's bad luck!"
"After wedding you can," Clara consoled.
"Surprise!" Herbert shouted and tied a blind fold around Clara's eyes. We all laughed out loud as she struggled to catch him while he dodged her hands.
She pulled the corner up to reveal one perfect blue eye, "come, come!" she said with a smile.
The bridal party, which consisted of myself and Jacob, along with Hilde and Karl to make the game more interesting as well as Herbert, surrounded Clara.
"No running, please?" she begged as she stretched out her arms.
"A promise is a promise," Hilde said as she began to tiptoe away from Clara. I grinned with excitement before the chaos ensued. We began to scuttle around Clara, laughing at our own expense as we crashed into one another or stepped on someone's foot, trying not to be caught by the blinded bride. Jacob grabbed me and ducked behind, using me as a shield.
Clara's arm grazed his ear as he spun away from her, crying out "not me!" which left only myself to face Clara. She clasped my shoulders before yanking off the blindfold, both of us pink with exertion.
"You're next!" she cried out.
Hilde grinned and sided up to us, "got anyone in mind?" she said coyly, cocking a hip toward Jacob, who blushed but waved her off. Hilde laughed and squeezed my arm, "you've got time."
"Look at us." Clara's voice snapped me back into the church. She stared at our reflections in the mirror. Our blonde hair had been twisted up into braided halos, the crowns we had made the night before pinned at the top of the up-do. Clara wore Leni's wedding dress which draped beautifully to her feet, obviously white with lace details on the long, fitted sleeves and a single covered button on each wrist; her mother's pearls hung gracefully at the base of her throat.
I adjusted the flower hoop to hold the veil. My dress was simple, dark blue, short sleeved, and hitting just below the knee. There wasn't enough time or money on hand to get new dresses, but no one seemed to mind.
"We've really grown up," Clara murmured. Physically, yes, but mentally I felt as though I was a thousand years old. The girl staring back at me from the vanity mirror was not a child anymore, but was practically an adult.
Before I had time to dwell on the past, Clara glanced at the clock and grinned. "It's time!" I forced a smile while handing Clara her flowers. A short walk down a dark hallway followed by a single turn and we were standing behind the doors leading to the sanctuary. My eyes immediately went to Jacob. He smiled down at me, and I couldn't help but grin back.
"You look beautiful," he whispered as he took my arm. "But even in heels, you're still tiny." Herbert met Clara with a tender embrace.
      "Ready?" The priest asked with a shadow of a smile. Herbert glanced at Clara and nodded, taking her arm as we filed behind the priest and the alter boys. The doors swung open, and I had to blink several times to adjust to the bright sunshine pouring through the stained glass windows. All around us were smiling faces, a few dabbed at their eyes. I was sorry my mother was not among them, she loved weddings; though she didn't even respond when I told her I was leaving for the ceremony. She hadn't even moved off her bed.
      But Papa was here, smiling at me as I strode with Jacob before Herbert and Clara. As we reached the front, Jacob and I split: me on Clara's side and Jacob to Herbert's. Jacob was the only tense, unsmiling face in the whole room. I wanted to roll my eyes and tell him to accept it but instead I knelt and made the sign of the cross with the other three.
      Herbert spoke so tenderly to Clara when he made his vows, looking deep into her eyes as if they were more than words to him. As worried as I was about the two of them  soon being the three of them, some part of me knew they would make it work.
      "You may kiss the bride." Herbert grinned and gently kissed Clara, before scooping her up and running out the door. Jacob took my arm and we stood to leave.
      "Well, there they go. Off to ruin their lives," he murmured as we walked back down the aisle.
      "It'll work out. And they're so happy," I responded trough a smile.
      In the back of the church, he tipped my chin up to look me in the eye. "What, at this point, works out for us? The bombs are moving closer and closer, the war is getting worse. I don't want...." he trailed off and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess it's just a bad way to start your life. Both the two of them and..."
      I pulled him into my arms, hoping my small but familiar stature would give him some comfort.
       "We'll be alright, I promise."
      When I returned around midnight after the party following the wedding, I discovered how wrong I was. You see, the last thing Papa and I should have done was leave my mother alone.