A Place To Stay

When Claire woke up in the morning, Cliff was already up and doing farm chores. She dressed hurriedly, kissed him goodbye in the fields, and waved as she ran off the farm. “Got lots of planning to do!” she yelled back as she ran.

Claire rushed across the cobblestone steps leading to the Mineral Town clinic. She barreled through the door, startling Doctor greatly.

He raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. “Are you ill? What’s wrong?”

Claire gasped for breath. “Where’s…Elli? It’s important!”

Doctor bustled into the back room and returned with Elli, who was wiping her hands on her apron. She had a worried look on her face. “Claire, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

Claire nodded enthusiastically. “I’m more than OK, Elli! Cliff proposed to me last night! I’m getting married!”

Elli squealed in delight and grasped Claire’s hands as they jumped up and down. “Oh Claire, that’s so wonderful!” She stopped jumping. “We have so much planning to do! When is it?”

Claire smiled guiltily. “In a week.”

Elli’s jaw dropped. “In just seven days??”

Claire scratched at the ground with her toe. “Well, six days actually. A week from yesterday really. We don’t want to wait. I just want something simple. It’s not the wedding and the party that are important to me, it’s that we’ll be married and I want it to happen as soon as possible.”

Elli nodded resolutely. “Well, then, I’ll have to work fast.” She grinned at Claire and they sat down at the Clinic work table together and began writing down ideas.

Once they had gotten the basic plans written out, they walked down the path to the house of Ellen, Elli’s grandmother, who showed them in and expressed her joy at the upcoming wedding. Claire had never seen so much life and vigor in the old lady as she bustled around the house, taking Claire’s measurements and rummaging up fabric. Fortunately, she had five yards of winter white satin folded away.

Ellen smiled at Elli. “I had set it aside for your wedding dress, so do you mind...?”

Elli waved the matter away. “Oh, who knows when Doctor will get around to building up enough courage.” She rolled her eyes. “I know we’ll be together, but it won’t be any time soon. So go ahead and use this fabric for Claire. We can get more easily before my wedding ever happens.” She giggled.

Ellen sketched up a basic design for Claire’s dress, and Claire was overjoyed. It was perfect! Sleeveless, with a sweetheart neckline, darted waist, and a full gathered skirt. “I’ve got a petticoat you can wear underneath.” Ellen said. “It belonged to Elli’s mother.”

Claire looked at Elli quickly. “Oh, Elli, I can’t. That’s too special.”

Elli shook her head vigorously. “You’re my best friend, Claire,” she said quietly. “I don’t mind at all.”

“Really?” Claire asked Elli as she clutched her friend by the shoulders. “You’re the best!” They hugged tightly. “You have to be my maid of honor!”

Elli squealed. “That would be awesome!” They both looked at Ellen. “Do you think you can manage one more dress in a week?”

Ellen beamed warmly on them. “Anything for my two girls.” The three of them rummaged together in Ellen’s fabric bins and came up with a bolt of raw silk in a lovely shade of rose that they all agreed would be just right. They settled on a simple design for Elli’s dress as well, similar to the design of Claire’s gown, but with a less full skirt, and a wide sash of light blue chiffon at the waist.

They bid Ellen goodbye as she started work on the dresses. They practically skipped down the road to Popuri’s house. The pink-haired girl was sitting at the edge of the chicken farm, with her shoes off, dangling her feet into the stream, and staring off into the distance.

“Popuri!!” Elli shouted out as they got closer. Popuri about jumped a mile and turned to look at them, smiling when she realized it was two of her friends. “Popuri! Claire and Cliff are getting married!”

Popuri clapped her hands excitedly. “That’s wonderful! Oh my god, I totally want to do the flowers!”

Claire grinned at Popuri. “You’re awesome! That was exactly what I was going to ask you to do.”

Popuri beamed back. “You know I love flowers. So when is this wedding? This summer?”

Claire and Elli looked at each other. “Well, it’s in six days,” Claire replied sheepishly.

Popuri didn’t bat an eye at that. “Oh, that’s great! Then I can use toy flowers because they are in season!”

Claire sighed in relief. “Phew, I was afraid that you would say it was too short of notice.”

Popuri shook her head. “No way! I mean, flowers are flowers. You can’t pick them very far in advance anyway, so you’re kind of doing them last minute no matter what. And it’s not like I’m too busy around here. Rick is such a dweeb, he never lets me do anything.” She stuck her tongue out in the general direction of the chicken coop. At that exact moment, Rick appeared in the doorway, holding a chicken. He waved and grinned at them, and the three girls had to stifle their laughter, waving back.

“Well, speak of the devil.” Popuri giggled. “OK, you guys leave it to me. Just let me know the exact time of the ceremony a little closer to the day, and everything will be fine.”

“Thanks, Po, I owe you one!” Claire shouted back gleefully as she and Elli ran down the road towards their next destination.

They hustled towards Claire’s farm, where Cliff looked up from his work, smiling. “You two look happy. What’s going on?”

Elli gasped and stuck her tongue out at him. “Silly! Like you don’t know! We’ve got a wedding to plan!”

Cliff grasped Claire around the waist and hoisted her up into the air. “Oh really? Who are you marrying?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.

“You, silly!” She kissed him on the nose as he settled her back on the ground. He smiled broadly and took her hand, kissing the ring finger where his ring was.

“I know, I’m just playing with you. Is there anything I need to do?”

Elli put her hands on her hips. “Well, Popuri and I are taking care of all the girly details, but the two of you should probably go yourselves to tell Carter and get the church details worked out, and if you want to have your reception at the inn, you should go talk to Doug together.”

Cliff grimaced. “Doug…” he said, obviously still hurting from being kicked out in winter.

Claire stroked his arm. “Let’s not have any hard feelings against him, honey. It was rough at the time, but if he hadn’t kicked you out, you wouldn’t have ended up here, right?”

Cliff smiled and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right!” He laughed. “Well, let me get cleaned up and we’ll go do all that stuff.” He and Claire waved at Elli as she ran back off towards town. Cliff took a quick shower, and pulled on a dark red button up shirt and black pants. He tied his still wet hair up in a ponytail, and he and Claire set off for town, hand in hand.

They arrived at the church just a few minutes later, laughing and out of breath. Pastor Carter was sweeping the front path and smiled benevolently at them. “What’s the rush, my children?”

“We’re getting married!” Claire said excitedly.

Carter laughed joyfully. “Oh Cliff, I always knew that there were wonderful things in store for you in Mineral Town! When will we have this wedding?”

“In six days. Is that OK?”

“Heavens, yes!” Carter replied. “It’s not like we’re a big city church, all booked up with events. That will work just fine. Is 2 in the afternoon good for you?”

Claire clasped her hands together. “That will work just fine. Thank you, Father.”

Cliff and Claire then set off for the inn. Cliff bowed his head and fidgeted a little as they walked up to the counter to talk to Doug.

Doug stopped wiping the counter for a moment and looked up at them with raised eyebrows. “What brings you two here?”

Claire looked at Cliff, letting him have this one. Cliff cleared his throat and smiled. “Doug, Claire and I are getting married. We wanted to know if we could use the inn for our reception. The whole town’s pretty much invited, so everyone is welcome.”

“That would be fine, boy!” Doug bellowed, every bit as loud as his daughter if not more. “Yeah, I’ll be happy to lay out a feast for you – in exchange for some of your crops.” Doug winked. “I hear you guys are turning out some fine potatoes this season.”

Claire smiled and nodded. “You just make a list of the crops you’d like and we’ll do our best to supply them. Thank you so much, Doug.”

“My pleasure, my pleasure.” Doug’s big red face beamed. “We haven’t had a wedding around here in ages, and it will be good for the whole town to get together like that. Oh, and you know what? Duke owes me a favor, so I think I can convince him to supply the festivities with wine.”

“Could you really? Oh, thank you so much!” Claire practically flew across the counter to hug Doug around the neck. Doug’s face became even redder and he roared with laughter. Cliff reached out and shook his hand. They thanked Doug profusely and then left the inn.

They were walking down the road when a thought struck Claire. “Oh, Cliff, what about invitations? We’re going to have to send out a lot to invite the whole town.” Worry knotted her brow.

Cliff mused for a moment, then snapped his fingers. Laughing, he turned to Claire. “Oh, can think of a solution to that problem.”

They were just approaching the winery, and Cliff walked over to the fence and leaned on it. Manna was outside, pulling weeds from the front walk. “Hello, Manna.” Cliff called.

She looked up. “Why, hello Cliff. And hello Claire! What are you two up to today?” Manna’s nose was twitching, and Claire knew what that meant, she smelled big news coming. Claire laughed inwardly as she realized Manna probably already knew what was happening, and was just playing dumb so that she could find out more.

Cliff took Claire’s hand, and smiled at Manna. “Claire and I are getting married in six days.”

All sorts of noises came out of Manna as she stood up, wiping her hands off on her apron. She squealed, squeaked, and laughed all at the same time. She rushed over to the happy couple and gave them both big hugs. “Well, that’s wonderful news!”

“It will be at 2pm in the church, with a reception afterwards at Doug’s Inn. Everyone in town is welcome to come!”

As Cliff and Claire headed back to the farm, Claire glanced back towards the winery and just saw Manna’s retreating figure scurrying in the direction of the library. Cliff turned and looked too. “See what I mean? She’ll have invited the whole town before the sun sets today, mark my words.”

Claire just laughed and leaned into him.