Tessie D

Angel and I went to the courthouse at lunch today to pick up our marriage license and get an appointment for the ceremony on February 14^th, Valentine’s Day. We haven’t told anyone at the dairy yet, so we were vague and only told Mr. Owens that we were running an errand in town during lunch and would be back in an hour. We rode over together in Angel’s truck, neither of us talking much. Instead, we listened to the radio playing softly in the background, and I stared out the window and watched the fields pass by in a blur. 

My mind was wandering a bit. I was thinking about Momma and what she must have thought and felt when she drove over to Fort Worth with Daddy to pick up their marriage licenses. Was there a wait back then like there is now? Daddy took a long weekend off from work when they got married. She told me once that he drove in from Alabama on Thursday night after working all day, they got married on Friday evening, and were driving back to Alabama on Saturday morning. Momma was so tired that she fell asleep in the front seat, and Daddy was speeding so fast to get back that they were pulled over in Marshall. Daddy was going double the speed limit, so the cop had Daddy follow him back to the jailhouse. Daddy had to call someone on the base in Alabama to vouch for him before they’d let them go. They paid for their ticket and drove the rest of the way through the evening and night. In the two weeks since Daddy proposed and they’d gotten married, he’d gotten them an apartment right off base and set it up for her: new furniture, linens, towels, dishes, silverware, pots, and pans.  I like to think of Daddy taking care of Momma like that at the beginning. He had moments when he wanted to take care of someone or something other than the cows. I like to think that their marriage was two people sharing the load and taking care of each other at one time. 

The county courthouse is a large brown brick building with curved archways and tall white columns along the front. We parked in one of the spots out front and walked up the wide sidewalk to the front door. Inside, we found the clerk’s office and began filling out the paperwork. We scheduled the appointment with the judge for the ceremony for two weeks, and Angel paid her in cash for the license. Angel was grinning widely, and the older woman behind the counter winked at me like she was in on our little secret. 

After picking up the paperwork, we walked outside and sat down on a bench behind the office to eat our lunches before heading back to the dairy. The grass was still brown, and the bushes hadn’t budded out yet. The air was calm, and the sun was warm, and I sat back and lifted my head up toward the sky to feel the warm rays on my face. A few moments later, I opened my eyes—the world was dark while my pupils took a moment to adjust to the light again. 

I looked over at Angel, seeing him come back into view. 

“Why didn’t you notice me all those years ago at the carnival?” I blurted out, not sure even where the question came from.

Angel didn’t seem surprised or upset, though. “I don’t know, I’ve wondered that myself,” he said, smiling. 

“Everything could have been different.” My voice trailed off, and I said quietly, “I’d be different.” 

“I think that this was just how it was meant to be. We’re part of some larger plan that God set for us. Maybe we weren’t ready to fall in love sooner, and we needed time to get to this point. But I like to think that this is all part of some larger plan, and we’re just lucky that we’re young and will still have so much time for each other. Others aren’t as fortunate as we are to find the love of their lives so early and young. Some people have to wait decades to find what we stumbled into so early. Some people never find it at all. So, aren’t we the fortunate ones?” He said before taking a swig from his Coke.