deal is — it's
not like they can get inside the church."
"You literally have bats in your belfry?"
Min said.
"Technically, rabid bats.
Or rabid bat. There's only been one so far, at least that we know
of."
We all instinctively
glanced up at the tower to the church — and sort of recoiled. Rabid
bats were a huge deal. Did this woman really not know that?
"What are they going to do, kill all
the bats on the whole island?" the woman was saying. "Anyway, the
bat removal guys won't be out on the island again until
Monday."
"Is there another church on the island
that you think would help us?" Kevin asked.
"Of course! The Unitarians for sure.
They use the community church."
Kevin and I both froze, unsure how to
react or exactly what to feel.
"There's just one
problem," the woman said. "Since our church is closed, the
Community Church is where we've moved all our activities tomorrow
afternoon."
* * *
Kevin was back to looking pretty
gloomy, and I didn't want him taking us all down in his own
car-crash suicide, so I decided to handle the driving from that
point on.
"It's going to be okay," I said.
"We'll find a place. We've got plenty of time."
"Why couldn't we have the wedding on a
beach somewhere?" Nate asked.
"Old people," I said. "We need
bathrooms." Both Kevin and I had elderly relatives coming to the
wedding. "Plus, what if it rains?"
At that, I glanced out the window to
one side. Unfortunately, it did look like it was starting to cloud
up.
But that's when my eyes fell upon a
public park.
"Stop the car!" I said, even though I
was the one driving.
* * *
"A park?" Kevin said. "You want to
have our wedding in a park?"
"Well, it's not my first
choice," I said, "but there are bathrooms. And there's a covered area if it
rains." I looked at Kevin and smiled. "Hey, our relationship began
in a picnic shelter, right? The stinky picnic gazebo?"
He sort of nodded while all six of us
took it all in. The picnic shelter was surprisingly large — so big
it might even fit sixty-seven guests. As for the location, it was
right on the water, with a view looking down into a quiet little
bay. It was actually kinda sorta spectacular.
But I didn't want to get my hopes up
again just yet.
We walked deeper into the park,
examining it like furniture in a showroom.
We entered the picnic
shelter.
"Electrical outlets," Ruby said,
pointing. "For, like, the caterer? And I bet we could buy some
simple space heaters at the hardware store."
"We could get some nice decorations
too," Min said.
"What if someone's already using it?"
Kevin said.
"In September?" Nate said.
"Min and I can come here early and
stake it out," Ruby said.
Then Min said, "There's a
problem."
I stepped closer. She was
pointing to a sign that said, This area is
available for reservation. Parties of fifteen or more must register with the
Vashon Parks Department . And it gave a
phone number and an address.
I tried the phone number, but nobody
was answering.
"It's a Saturday," Kevin said.
"They're probably closed."
"Maybe so," I said, "but let's go stop
by the office just in case."
* * *
The office of the Vashon Parks
Department was in this little office park on the outskirts of the
town of Vashon. It was two stories, only five businesses total —
lawyers and accountants, that type of thing. There were cars in the
parking lot, which I took to be a good sign, but all the blinds
were down, so it didn't look like anything was open.
A woman stepped out of one of the
offices on the second floor, onto a wooden deck. She was locking
up.
"There!" Kevin said. "I bet that's
it!" Sure enough, by this point, I could see the words painted on
the window: Vashon Parks Department.
I slammed on the brakes, parking the
car haphazardly in a stall, and Kevin, Min, Otto, and I ran for the
stairs, meeting the woman halfway down.
"Thank God we caught you!" I said.
Somehow I was out of breath, even though I'd only run about twenty
feet from the car. I