Our Hearts' Desire (The Monkees Family Vol. 2)

Chapter 22

Summer had rolled into town, and with it, the guys had a more flexible schedule. They could pick which part of the country they wanted to go, since it was warm virtually everywhere, and the amusement parks and other similar venues were packed every day, not just on weekends. So Micky was able to be home more often and the baby making activities were more frequent and hopefully raising the odds.

In the meantime, the Monkees family convened to celebrate another milestone. Lord and Lady Nesmith finally decided to make it official. Just to be a pain in the ass, they planned a destination wedding on a weekend so Davy and Micky had to forego a weekend gig in high season. They at least made it early in the month of June and set the wedding date for June 2, the location being Texas, where all of Mike's family lived. Gabby was secretly laughing up her sleeve, knowing that this was not Wendy's idea of an ideal wedding location, but since Mike's family was huge and Wendy's family was minuscule, the choice was obvious and Mike put his foot down and insisted.

Since Gabby had set aside any simmering tensions and asked Wendy to be her maid of honor when she got married, Wendy begrudgingly (presumably) did the same and asked Gabby to stand up for her as matron of honor. The rest of the wedding party consisted of the Monkees family males and females. Mike's best man was Peter, a surprising choice, but presumably he felt a close bond to him because of their love and talent for music, or maybe it was because Peter had a child and he thought that would make a good impression on his relatives. It wasn't at all clear. But Peter was thrilled to be given such an honor and he took his duties seriously, organizing a bachelor party for Mike and writing a speech for the reception that he cleared with Micky to make sure it conformed to standards for such occasions, since he had no idea what was required for such shindigs.

Unlike Gabby, Wendy insisted that Mike endure the full-on Jewish wedding ceremony, even though there wasn't a rabbi in all of Texas willing to marry them. She found a justice of the peace to read the ceremony and made Mike substitute a yarmulke for his usual wool hat. At the reception, the wedding guests danced the hora, a traditional Jewish circle dance where everyone surrounds the bride and groom and dances around them, then hoists them up on chairs and parades them around while they're linked by a white handkerchief, then they end the dance in the middle of the circle. It took all of the Monkees plus Robert to lift Mike up, with his stork-like legs dangling down, and after they trooped him around and almost dropped him once or twice, he looked like he was going to lose his dinner. Wendy was pissed, thinking they had done it on purpose. When the dance was over, everyone shouted l'chaim, which is a Hebrew toast meaning "to life!" and then the party continued on, with Mike taking a detour to the men's room to recover while Wendy chewed out the guys for trying to sabotage her wedding. Micky could barely keep a straight face and Davy was digging his fingernails into his palms to keep from bursting out laughing.

Gabby took Wendy aside, trying to calm her down and divert her mind from the hijinks over the chair dance, and asked her where they were going for their honeymoon.

"Well, we're going to give Europe the once over. I've always wanted to go, and we didn't really get to see it properly when we were there for Monkees business. We were there working hard."

Gabby nodded sagely, trying to appear respectful of the hard work that Wendy did to keep the guys' careers humming along. "Yes, you did a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that was unsung hero type stuff and I'm sure nobody will ever really know the extent of it. I'm glad you'll be able to go back and see what you missed."

Wendy seemed genuinely touched at Gabby's conciliatory and respectful acknowledgement of her role in making the Monkees a success. "Hey, I was just doing my job. It was a lot of fun even as it was hard work. I hear you're doing a ton of work and great things now yourself. I want to hear all about it. Maybe when we get back from our trip, we can have lunch or something."