Chapter 19 - Hello Goodbye

The Mini skidded to a halt outside the prefabricated chapel.
"So this is Gretna Green, huh?" asked Henry. "I always imagined it as a village green where they had weddings."
"I imagined it as a kind of Las Vegas, but with ducks instead of dancing girls," said James.
Kate screamed as three police cars screeched to a stop behind the mini.
"Quick, me and Henry'll stay here, you go and find Jim," shouted James.
Kate and Anna leapt from the car and ran into the chapel, followed by four police officers, who stumbled as they avoided the white picket fence that surrounded the building and attempted to put their caps on at the same time. Two others dragged James and Henry from the back seats.
"Right then, you'd better explain what the hell you think you've been doing."

***

Kate and Anna burst into the chapel at the right moment. The master of ceremonies had just asked if there were any objections.
"Yes there is!" cried Kate, triumphantly.
"I think you mean yes there are," replied the vicar. "I used the plural and therefore you, also, must use it. But you´re American, so I don´t expect you to understand good English. But that´s beside the point. What, may I ask, is your objection?"
"The bride's a lying toad, that's my objection!" Cried Kate with just as much triumph.
The bride turned to face the intruders. It wasn't Amandine. It was someone much bigger, wearing a leather wedding dress, her arms, feet and cleavage heavily tattood and her ears, nose, lips and eyebrows all pierced. She flexed her muscles and growled.
"Erm, but Jesus loves her all the same," Kate squeed, and she turned to run back.
But she couldn't due to the four burly policemen blocking her way. Thus Anna and Kate turned back to the now unhappy couple and ran towards them, just missing the fist which the bride extended in the direction of Kate's head. They leapt over the tressel table that acted as an altar and hurried out of the back door.
"Something tells me that wasn't Jim's wedding," panted Kate.
"But where are they?"
They stopped and bent down, hands on knees, their lungs fighting for breath.
"How about the Eco-Chapel?" asked Anna, pointing towards a paper building, outside which a young woman in tye-dyed clothes was preparing herbal tea for communion.
They ran inside.
"I give you this biodegradable eternity sphere as a symbol of my affection," the groom, who had dreadlocks and was definatly not Jim, was saying as he pushed a polo onto the finger of a woman in a grass skirt and daisy chain who was definatly not Amandine.
Their exit blocked by the police once again, Kate and Anna leapt throught he paper, ignoring the vicar's objection that it was recycled.
"Kate, I know which church it is," shouted Anna.
"Which?"
"That one!"
"How do you know?" asked Kate.
But Kate saw how Anna knew. Jim and Amandine were emerging, she with a red and yellow plastic ring smudged with chocolate on her finger, he with a big grin on his face.

***

Henry stolled along East Sands wearing nothing but a nappy. His experience at the ball had awakened him to the liberty that being almost naked allowed. Plus he'd had to sell his clothes to raise his bail money.
He stood at the water's edge, the sea lapping around his bare feet, and gazed out into the distance pondering.
"Hi, Henry."
He turned to see Janet approaching him. She looked pensive, sad, in fact.
"I, I'm sorry about Matt," he stammered.
She shrugged and stared at the horizon. They remained like that, saying nothing.
Henry kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye. She was beautiful, her hair blowing in the wind, her cheeks and nose red with the cold and her purple fluffy ear muffs making her look ever so cute, if also a bit like a Russian.
Janet had seen his secret looks and smiled to herself.
"Henry," she asked, "are you not cold? You've hardly got anything on."
"No, no, it's, erm, very liberating in a weird kinda way," he answered.
Janet stood in silence a bit longer before leaving, her mind full of admiration for Henry. Even if he was a bit strange.

***

Janet kept returning to the beach. Henry was always there, pondering. They'd discuss theology, metaphysics, whether Mowgli was right to leave the jungle. They laughed and joked. They shared stories and Janet found herself descending the steps to the sand increasingly often.
Until one day, when they were stood in silence, Henry reached out quickly, took her hand in his and stood staring out to sea as though nothing had happened, a look of fear on his face.
Janet turned to look at him.
And she smiled.