Krik_ Krak! - Edwidge Danticat [51]
'At last a sign," she joked. "She is my daughter after all. This is just the way I was on the day of my wedding."
Caroline groaned as Ma ran the leaves over her skin.
"Woman is angel," Ma said to Caroline. "You must confess, this is like pleasure."
Caroline sank deeper into the tub as she listened to Ma's voice.
"Some angels climb to heaven backwards," Caroline said. "I want to stay with us, Ma."
"You take your vows in sickness and in health," Ma said. "You decide to try sickness first? That is not very smart."
"You said this happened to you too, Ma?" Caroline asked.
"It did," Ma said. "My limbs all went dead on my wedding day. I vomited all over my wedding dress on the way to the church."
"I am glad I bought a cheap dress then," Caroline said, laughing. "How did you stop vomiting?"
"My honeymoon."
"You weren't afraid of that?"
"Heavens no," Ma said, scrubbing Caroline's back with a handful of leaves. "For that I couldn't wait."
Caroline leaned back in the water and closed her eyes.
"I am eager to be a guest in your house," Ma said to Caroline.
"I will cook all your favorite things," Caroline said.
"As long as your husband is not the cook, I will eat okay."
"Do you think I'll make a good wife, Ma?"
"Even though you are an island girl with one kind of season in your blood, you will make a wife for all sea-sons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter."
Caroline got up from the tub and walked alone to Ma's bedroom.
The phone rang and Ma picked it up. It was Eric.
"I don't understand it, honey," Caroline said, already sounding more lucid. "I just felt really blah! I know. I know, but for now, Ma's taking care of me."
Ma made her hair into tiny braids, and over them she put on a wig with a shoulder-length bob. Ma and I checked ourselves in the mirror. She in her pink dress and me in my green suit, the two of us looking like a giant patchwork quilt.
"How long do I have now?" Caroline asked.
'An hour," I said.
"Eric is meeting us there," Caroline said, "since it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding."
"If the groom is not supposed to see the bride, how do they get married?" Ma asked.
"They're not supposed to see each other until the ceremony," Caroline said.
Caroline dressed quickly. Her hair was slicked back in a small bun, and after much persuasion, Ma got her to wear a pair of white stockings to cover her jutting knees.
The robotic arm was not as noticeable as the first time we had seen it. She had bought a pair of long white gloves to wear over the plastic arm and her other arm. Ma put some blush on the apple of Caroline's cheeks and then applied some rice powder to her face. Caroline sat stiffly on the edge of her bed as Ma glued fake eye-lashes to her eyelids.
I took advantage of our last few minutes together to snap some instant Polaroid memories. Caroline wrapped her arms tightly around Ma as they posed for the pictures.
"Ma, you look so sweet," Caroline said.
We took a cab to the courthouse. I made Ma and Caroline pose for more pictures on the steps. It was as though we were going to a graduation ceremony.
The judge's secretary took us to a conference room while her boss finished an important telephone call. Eric was already there, waiting. As soon as we walked in, Eric rushed over to give Caroline a hug. He began stroking her mechanical arm as though it were a fascinating new toy.
"Lovely," he said.
"It's just for the day," Caroline said.
"It suits you fine," he said.
Caroline looked much better. The rouge and rice powder had given her face a silky brown-sugar finish.
Ma sat stiffly in one of the cushioned chairs with her purse in her lap, her body closed in on itself like a cage.
"Judge Perez will be right with you," the secretary said.
Judge Perez bounced in cheerfully after her. He had a veil of thinning brown hair and a goatee framing his lips.
"I'm sorry the bride and groom had to wait," he said giving Eric a hug. "I couldn't get off the phone."
"Do you two know what you're getting