“Yes,” Elaine chimed in. “I’ve never been a big fan of long engagements.”
George looked at Lizzie, who smiled gamely back at him. “Mom, give us time to enjoy being engaged before we start planning for anything, okay?”
Later that day, though, Elaine dragged them both to Dillard’s to scope out potential gifts to register for. Lizzie always enjoyed being with Elaine, but this long afternoon was a trial. She didn’t really care about color schemes for towels and sheets, she was indifferent to the potential need for a good set of china as well as an everyday one, and had no opinion about silverware patterns except that she didn’t like anything too ornate. “See, you are interested in silverware,” George whispered behind Elaine’s back. “That’s why we have to do this.” Lizzie nodded grimly. She had to do this.
George left to meet Allan for a father-and-son lunch, and Lizzie and Elaine went on to the bridal department at Miss Jackson’s. After a few minutes of looking at the array of white, ivory, and ecru possibilities, Lizzie got so anxious that she grabbed Elaine’s arm and dragged her away. “I have to go. I think I’m going to faint.” The saleswoman wasn’t noticeably fazed: she’d seen this and worse before.
Lizzie was also having trouble concentrating on the here and now, because she kept thinking how stupid Jack would find all this and how crazy she was to go along with it. She sketched out in her mind how she could break off her engagement to George in the nicest way possible when Jack came back to save her from this disastrous mistake. Please make it soon, she silently begged him. The announcers in her head loved it. “This girl’s the absolute limit. Marrying someone she’s not sure she loves,” the second-to?-the-meanest one said. “Oh, she’s sure, all right. She doesn’t love him at all. She’s just a liar, born and bred,” said the meanest one.
It soon became evident that Elaine was already caught up in a kind of wedding madness. On the way to the airport the next day, she pulled into a parking space in front of Steve’s Sundries. “This’ll just take a sec,” she called back to them as she hurried inside. A few minutes later she came back with an armful of magazines and said triumphantly, “Look! I got a copy of every bridal magazine they had. Do you want to take some to read on the plane?”
George was inclined to accept his mother’s offer of an issue or two until Lizzie looked at him sternly. “Oh, no, you keep those. We’ll pick up some in Ann Arbor,” he said, a bit reluctantly. It seemed he was actually interested in weddings and their complicated etiquette. For herself, Lizzie couldn’t imagine perusing a magazine called anything like Happy Bride or Modern Weddings, unless there was one called something like Weddings for the Reluctant Bride Who Is Probably in Love with a Previous Boyfriend. In any case, there was really no need for her to actually read anything on the subject of weddings, because from then until the party the following December, Elaine clipped countless articles and pictures that she sent to Lizzie, underlining the parts that she thought were particularly relevant to the upcoming event.
*?George & Lizzie Tell Mendel & Lydia the News?*
As soon as they got back to Ann Arbor, George insisted that they go tell Lydia and Mendel the big news, though he’d still not yet even met Lydia. George hadn’t been at the last Bultmann Thanksgiving because his grandmother had fallen and broken her hip and George wanted to see her, even though he and Lizzie would be back in Tulsa a few weeks later. That was the kind of guy George was. So it was utterly shocking to him that he hadn’t even met his future mother-in-law. That situation needed to be rectified at once. They were all going to be part of the same family.
Lizzie warned George not to expect too much from either parent. “First of all, don’t count on any excitement at all,” she went on. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if Mendel didn’t remember you. Plus they’ll be annoyed we interrupted them doing whatever they were doing.” George nodded but didn’t believe any of these were accurate predictions.
Lizzie, however, was correct on all counts. When she and George came into the dining room, the Bultmanns were sitting at the table, smoking and drinking coffee. Mendel got up and shook George’s hand, saying that he was pleased to meet him. Lizzie looked at George with satisfaction. Right again.
“You met him last year at Thanksgiving,” Lizzie told her father.
“Oh, did I? There are always so many people here it’s hard to keep track.”
“Did I meet you then?” Lydia asked George.
Lizzie spoke before George could say anything. “No, we couldn’t find you when George got here and we still couldn’t find you when we left.”
“I suppose you didn’t check my office, did you?”
Ever since meeting George, Lizzie had made a conscious effort not to clench her teeth, but right now it was impossible not to. “No,” she said. “I didn’t think to check your office. It was Thanksgiving, I thought you’d be down here with everyone else.”
Lydia made a noise that sounded like “pfui.”
“But you should probably imprint George on your memory, because we’re getting married,” Lizzie added flatly.
“Married,” echoed Mendel.
“Yes,” George said, speaking formally, saying just what your usual parent would want to hear from the man your daughter was going to marry, that he adored their daughter more than they could ever imagine. Lizzie believed that sentence contained probably the truest words George had ever spoken. Lizzie was sure that Mendel and Lydia couldn’t imagine anyone adoring their daughter.
Mendel shook George’s hand again, murmuring his congratulations. Lydia got up and gave them each a traditional Bultmann hug, but that was that. Neither asked to see Lizzie’s ring or inquired about when the wedding would be. They were in the house and then they were out. Ten minutes after Lizzie opened the front door, she closed it behind them.
“Whoof,” George said, taking a deep breath of fresh air. It had been very smoky inside. “I might have to rethink some things that I’ve always believed to be true.”
In the car, Lizzie leaned over and kissed George. “I love you,” she said, and it might at that moment have been true. And then she poked him in the side and said, “Told you so.”
*?Marla & James Get Married, June 1995?*