There was the church, nondenominational but still looking very churchly, with stained-glass windows and pews and a chancel in front. There was an organ. There were flowers. There was an audience: well-dressed people, looking sedate but expectant. Her folks had set it up to be perfect, and the caterer had really known its business. The whole thing had a preternatural familiarity, giving her an overwhelming sense of déjá vu. She had witnessed this scene before!
Of course she had! This was the wedding of her vision! Her nightmare—and now it was happening, exactly as she had seen it. She had seen it coming.
The music swelled. The Bride swept down the aisle, ethereally lovely in the gown that had been made for Colene, and magically grown to fit the other woman. Beside her was a man: Colene’s father, impeccably garbed, looking proud. They made a perfect father/daughter couple. Colene felt her face wet with tears, but the vision did not blur. She was not seeing it with her own eyes.
“That should have been me,” she whispered brokenly. “So close, so close…”
The Bride progressed to the front. The view shifted, and now the audience was seen from the front. There was Colene’s mother, dabbing her face with a silk handkerchief. Her father came to join her in the first pew, and took her hand. They looked so much like the ideal parents. Most of their marriage might have been a shell, and this was a shell too, but it was a picture to remember. This was the way it should have been, had there been reality beneath the shell. It was impossible to begrudge them this image. It was about all they had.
Now the scene was the Bride and Groom. Darius was the Groom, looking well groomed (naturally!) and handsome. Nona was the Bride, fair in the sense of beauty, dark in the sense of beauty, the loveliest possible creature. They made the perfect couple. They stood before the minister, and the key words were spoken.
Colene realized that Nona no longer looked like Colene. The illusion was gone. Of course Nona could not have fooled Colene’s folks about her identity; not during the hour’s ride in the car to Wichita Falls. The moment she opened her mouth, they would have known. Even if Seqiro was able to translate, at that distance. Because Nona was just plain different. So her folks knew, and accepted Nona, so there was no need for illusion.
“Oh, God, I can’t stand it!” Colene cried, trying not to listen.
Nevertheless, she heard Darius speak: “I do.”
“I did want to marry him! I did! Why did I throw it away?”
Nona spoke: “I do.”
“And what is left for me now?” Colene sobbed.
The picture came, relentlessly. Darius turning to face Nona. Nona lifting back her veil. Colene jammed her eyes closed, but could not shut it out. Nona smiling.
They kissed. There was the flash of a camera’s bulb. It was done.
Colene found herself hunched against Burgess, her hands grasping his contact points, her head against her hands. Her hands were wet with her tears.
She had done it for Burgess. To tide him through the reaction. She had given up her important ceremony to save him. She had valued friendship more than experience.
That was Burgess talking! “Burg, you’re back!” she exclaimed. “You’re conscious!”
He was conscious. He had been aware all along, but of too low a vitality to do more than focus on surviving. Now he was improved, though still far from well.
“That dolomite—it did have what you need. But also what you don’t need. So it’s no good, but it gives us a clue. Is it the calcium or the magnesium you need—or some associated trace element? I wish we had a safe way to tell.”
Colene thought about it, taking her mind off her own misery. “Maybe Amos would know.”
She knew that her range was too short, but she tried it anyway. After all, when she had sent her mind across the Virtual Mode, asking “Is anybody there?” the mind predator had heard. So maybe, with a narrow focus, she could reach him. Amos! Dolomite is halfway there. How do we find what counts?
There was a silence for a moment. Then, faintly: Colene!
He had heard her! Dolomite—good, bad. What next?
Idea.
So Amos had been notified. Maybe he would have the answer. She relaxed.
Then the wedding scene returned. Seqiro was still sending. She saw the wedding cake her mother had labored over. The caterer could have provided a fancier one, but her mother had wanted this aspect to be personal. She saw Nona’s hand on the knife, with Darius’ hand on hers, giving her strength. They were still following the ritual.
“If only I could have done that!” Colene said, her tears resuming.
She watched the continuing vision compulsively, as she might the funeral of a close friend. It was so perfect, and so dreadful. Like her life. Every time she came close to happiness, she bypassed it in favor of dolor. It was her way.
They even danced. Colene’s folks had somehow managed to squeeze a bit of everything in! That, too, was beautiful and horrible. Her man and her friend, so perfect.
There was the sound of a car pulling in. That was Amos. He walked directly to the tent. “Colene! How did you get back so quickly?”
“I never went,” she said.
“Never went! You’re a mess! What happened?”
“Burgess had a reaction, and I had to stay to tide him through. Nona went instead.”
He nodded. “That must have been a beautiful wedding.”
“It was. Seqiro showed me. I saw Nona marry Darius.”
“That was nice of her, considering her unfamiliarity with the ritual.”
“Yeah, sure.” Colene hoped the irony came through.
“Fortunately Texas is one of the states which allows marriage by proxy.”
She stared at him. “Proxy!”
He laughed. “You sound as if you thought she could marry him—when all the papers were in your name. It was your marriage, of course, throughout. She was merely your stand-in. An actress, really, going through the motions so that the ceremony could be accomplished with appropriate flair. I’m sure she was a picture to remember! Still, I can appreciate your disappointment at not being there yourself.”
“I missed my own wedding!” Colene breathed.
“For the most generous reason: to help your alien friend. You’re a great girl, Colene.”
Colene was awed by the realization. She knew about proxy marriage. She must have known that that was what she was really asking Nona to do. And Nona had known, too. That was why she had agreed. And why Colene’s parents had gone along with it. It was the only way to have the wedding performed on schedule, without sacrificing Burgess. Colene had known—yet hidden that knowledge from herself. She really was a creature of dolor!
“Now let’s see about Burgess. I got your message. I was amazed; I thought you were sending all the way from Texas. Then I realized that you would have been using Seqiro to boost your signal. So I brought refined products: calcium supplement, magnesium supplement. One of them should do it.”
Boosted by Seqiro. Probably that had been the case. Even at the extreme of his range, Seqiro was so much more powerful than she was that he could amplify her thought, especially when it was narrowly focused.
Amos held two packages. “Your call, Colene. Which one first?”
She was still dazed by the revelation of her marriage. “What do they do?”
“In simplistic terms, which may not be properly applicable to Burgess, calcium is the stuff which makes our bones and teeth, while magnesium hardens them.”
“Calcium is more common?”
“Yes. Except in something like dolomite.”
“So maybe it’s the rarer element he’s missing. Try that.”
“Done.” He opened the magnesium and took out a tiny amount, which he set in a Petri dish he had brought. He put a hand on a contact point. “Burgess, this is another try. We hope it’s the right one. Take it cautiously.” He set it down by the floater’s trunk.