Karen's Wedding Read online

  The minister began to talk. I think he liked to talk. I did not listen to most of what he said. Instead I looked around the church. I wondered who else had been married in it. I played with the basket Caroline and I had carried down the aisle. (It was empty now.) I watched Andrew pretend to nail his jacket to the pew.

  Then I realized that Ms. Colman had just said, “I do.”

  Then Mr. Simmons said, “I do.”

  Then the minister said, “You may kiss the bride.”

  My eyes opened very wide. I had not been sure he would say that. I did not think teachers kissed in public. But Ms. Colman was lifting up her veil, and Mr. Simmons was leaning toward her.

  I looked at the guests. Hannie and Nancy were giggling. They had put their hands over their mouths. Mrs. Papadakis was frowning at them. Ricky and Bobby were blushing. Their faces were blotchy and red. Addie, whose wheelchair was parked in an aisle at the end of a pew, had buried her face in her hands. (Andrew was not paying attention, though. He was trying to fix Mommy’s purse with his plastic screwdriver.)

  After the kiss, Ms. Colman and Mr. Simmons walked down the aisle together. Caroline and I were right behind them. I found Mommy and Seth, while the guests waited outside for the bride and groom. Someone passed around bags of birdseed, and when the bride and groom came out, we showered them with it.

  The wedding was over.

  Just Married

  Ms. Colman and Mr. Simmons laughed. They ducked their heads under the shower of birdseed. Then they ran into a car that was parked in front of the church. (Someone had taped a sign to the back of the car. It said JUST MARRIED.) Ms. Colman waved to us before the car drove off.

  I knew where they were going. They were going to a restaurant. That was where the reception would be held. The reception is the party after the wedding. This one would be small. Not too many guests. Just the wedding party, the relatives, and a few close friends. So I would be at the reception but the rest of my classmates would not.

  “Good-bye! Good-bye!” I called to Hannie and Nancy.

  “Good-bye!” they called back. And Hannie added, “I cannot believe we saw our teacher kiss in public!”

  I climbed into our car. Mommy drove Seth and Andrew and me to the restaurant. The restaurant was an old stone inn in the countryside. When we walked through the front door, a woman said to us, “Colman party?” When Seth nodded, she said, “Right through there.”

  We had an entire room to ourselves. It was only for the people who were going to the reception. No one else could eat in it.

  Along one side of the room was a buffet table. It was piled with food.

  “Oh, goody,” said Andrew. “All you can eat. Just like at Chuckie’s Happy House. I wonder if we get free sundae coupons, too.”

  “Andrew, this is not Chuckie’s Happy House,” I hissed.

  One half of the room was crowded with tables and chairs. The other half was empty.

  “For dancing,” I informed Andrew. “Everyone will be dancing this afternoon. Even my teacher. First I saw her kiss. Now I will see her dance.”

  The room was filling up. The wedding guests wandered around. They talked and laughed. Waiters and waitresses offered us drinks. Andrew and Caroline and I stuck together. We were the only kids.

  When Ms. Colman and Mr. Simmons arrived, everyone cheered. And then the party really began. Two waiters stood behind the buffet table and served up plates of food. Three musicians came into the room and began to play grown-up music. Everyone was either eating or dancing. I looked at the food. Then I looked around for Seth.

  “May I have this dance?” I asked him.

  “Why, certainly,” he replied.

  I danced with Seth twice. Then I danced with Mommy. Then I danced with Mr. Simmons. I tried to dance with Andrew, but his tool belt kept banging against my legs. So I danced with Caroline instead. After four dances, we took a break. We got some food and ate it at one of the tables. Andrew sat with us. We made our own children’s table. (Andrew pretended we were at Chuckie’s Happy House.)

  Just when I was feeling bored, everyone began to clink their spoons against their glasses. The best man held his glass high and made a toast to the bride and groom. He wished them lots of happiness. Then a waiter wheeled a cart into the room. On the cart was the wedding cake. Ms. Colman and Mr. Simmons cut it and ate the first piece. After that, each guest ate a piece, too.

  I was feeling very tired by the time Ms. Colman stood on a chair and threw her bouquet over her shoulder. I did not even try to catch it. Here’s the thing. If you catch it, you will be the next person to get married, and I am already married to Ricky Torres. A friend of Ms. Colman’s caught the bouquet.

  And that was it. The party was over.

  Ms. Colman Comes Back

  After Ms. Colman threw her bouquet, she and Mr. Simmons went somewhere to change their clothes. Then they said goodbye to their guests, and they drove away. They were on their honeymoon.

  The guests started to leave then, too. Caroline and I had to say good-bye to each other. She and her parents were flying back to Oregon that very night.

  “Good-bye, Caroline,” I said. “I am glad we were co-flower girls.”

  “Me, too,” said Caroline. “Thank you for thinking of that.”

  “I wonder if we will ever see each other again,” I said.

  Caroline paused. “We will see each other in the wedding pictures,” she replied finally. “That will be fun.”

  “And we can write to each other,” I added.

  “Sure. We can be pen pals.”

  Caroline and I exchanged addresses. Then it was time to leave. Andrew and I slept all the way home in the car.

  * * *

  Two weeks and two days later, I ran happily into my classroom at Stoneybrook Academy. It was Monday morning. But it was not just any Monday morning. It was the day Ms. Colman would come back from her honeymoon. I could not wait to see her.

  Neither could my classmates. We stood around the room. We felt very impatient. “Where is she? Where is she?” we kept saying.

  And Natalie even said, “What if she does not come back?”

  But I said, “Of course she will come back. Natalie, did you bring — ”

  “Good morning, girls and boys!”

  “She’s here! It’s Ms. Colman!” we cried.

  “She did come back!” added Natalie.

  We gathered around Ms. Colman’s desk.

  “How was your honeymoon?” I asked.

  “Did you see Niagara Falls?” asked Bobby Gianelli.

  Ms. Colman smiled. “Why don’t you sit down? Then I will tell you everything,” she replied. And she did.

  When she finished, I leaned over and poked Natalie. “Now,” I whispered.

  “Okay.” Natalie stood up. She bent over and pulled something out of her desk. It was a present wrapped in silver paper. She handed it to Ms. Colman. “This is for you,” she said. “It is a wedding present, and it is from all of us. Thank you for inviting us to your wedding. We had lots of fun.”

  Ms. Colman looked surprised. Surprised and happy. “Thank you,” she said. She unwrapped the present. She lifted the cup out of the box. “Oh, it is beautiful!” she exclaimed. She turned it around. She saw the engraving.

  And Natalie said, “Excuse me, Ms. Colman. I have to tell you something. There is a mistake. And it is my fault. The man spelled your name wrong, and we did not have enough money to buy another cup.” Natalie explained how she had crossed the 1. “But we wanted you to have the cup anyway,” she went on. “We earned the money for it ourselves.”

  I held my breath. What would Ms. Colman say?

  “I love the cup,” she said. “I would not want it to look any different. I like it no matter how my name is spelled. The important thing is that it is from you, my students.” Ms. Colman paused. “How did you earn enough money to buy this cup?” she asked us.

  And so we told her about everything — from the secret meetings to the car wash at Hank’s house. An
d then we settled down to work with our favorite teacher.

  Dear Karen, Dear Caroline

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1993 by Ann M. Martin

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1993

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-05652-5