Winter's Nocturne

No Place Like Home

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Emily felt her knees quake as her eyes rested on the perfectly polished wooden floor, before rising to meet the minister's wrinkled smile. Her new husband, not yet a man but trying his best, looked slightly terrified in his impeccable tuxedo.

At long last, the minister uttered the words. "You may kiss the bride."

It wasn't a passionate kiss, but instead the perfect tableau worthy of Cinderella and Prince Charming. As the packed church stood to applaud, Emily realised that's what they were. They were charmed.

Emily, with her golden locks and pretty green eyes, was only eighteen when she spoke her vows. Barely a year older, Noah Carpenter looked like he'd found the greatest treasure the Earth had to offer when he proudly held Emily's arm. They were unmistakably a young couple in love.

In most places, a pair of teenagers who trembled before God and their families in pretty clothing was a necessary solution to an embarrassing situation.

In Cottonwood, a rural town in Kansas, people married young because it's what people did. They stayed that way because it was right. The sins of the world that ended marriages didn't touch their world. Commonplace spats over things like money, adultery, drinking, drug habits, and violence were not for their families. Only the closed doors knew the truth.

Marriage was for life, and fifty years was a long time to hold a grudge.

That was the advice Pastor Carpenter, the minister of the large church in Cottonwood, gave all the young couples who walked through his door. It was the same speech he'd given Emily and young Noah when a small argument spiralled into cold feet.

They'd worked through it, and the minister was a proud father that day.

Emily knew that Noah's father, a respected man of God widowed five years, wanted nothing more than to see his son settled down with a pretty bride. Of course, she had to look the part. Old-fashioned values were a must.

With her cheerful disposition and sense of style, Emily was the perfect candidate.

"Daddy, don't you worry about me. I'm going to come to visit you all the time. It's not like I'm going very far away at all."  Emily hugged her father after the ceremony. He was a hard-working man who preferred tractors and football to suits.

She hadn't been away from him a single day since Emily's mother passed away when she was nine. The well-liked Emily decided to forgo sleepovers, camping trips, and a variety of excuses to sneak out and be wild. She wasn't an angel, far from it, but every night Emily came home to keep her father from being alone.

It was what her mother would have wanted. In Emily's world, loneliness was the worst fate. A family was the antidote.

Emily's father ruffled his only daughter's white veil. "Look at you, Em. You're a precious sunflower. You've done your time taking care of a cranky old man. It's time to let someone take care of you."

His tanned face, hidden by a salt and pepper beard, crinkled with emotion hidden behind laughter. "It's one reason to make sure my lazy ass gets to church every Sunday, in any case."

."I'm going to miss you, Daddy." She hugged her father tightly. Her eyes caught the pristine gleam of the church floors, still catching sunbeams. It made her proud

Every morning, Emily rose shortly after dawn, put her hair up and scrubbed the floors. Cleansing the church cleanses us all of our sins, the voice of John Carpenter echoed.