Free Hold Your Peace (Short Story) by H.M. Bailey Page A

wedding happen. How’s that for a good reason? ”
    There was a collective gasp from the captive audience. Then complete silence.
    Amanda …bells were going off in my head. No wonder Ryan looked as if he had just seen a ghost. He had. Though I ha d never met her before, Ryan was engaged to Amanda but the engagement had ended with her death. She died in a car accident three years ago. Though I didn’t know many of the details, I knew it had been incredibly hard on him. He grieved her loss for a long time and didn’t start dating again until a year later. That’s when he met me.
    “I, I…I don’t understand. You died. I was at your funeral. How can you be here? ” Ryan stammered.
    The silence in the room had been shattered and now the room was full of half-whispered chatter. People in my family wondering who she was and Ryan’s friends and family , like him, were wondering how she could be here if she was supposed to be dead. 
    Of all the things I dreaded might go wrong on this day, this was absolutely not one of them. This was like a bride’s worst nightmare. Never in my wildest imagination could I have envisioned this. Please let this just be a dream , I said in my mind.
    “No, Ryan, I didn’t die, I’m alive. I am so sorry for the pain you and your family went through for thinking that I was dead. But I need to explain to you what happened before you go through with this. ”
    He didn’t even look at me, but I felt my hand slip from his grasp. He fumbled down the altar steps and ran down the aisle to her. I watched helpless ly as he grabbed her in his arms and I heard him start to sob as he buried his face in her hair.
    This was really awkward.
    “I can’t believe it’s really you,” I could hear him say.
    The room was spinning and I felt like I was going to be sick. Luckily my bridesmaids quickly rallied around me.  Chelsea, my maid of honor, grabbed my ar m and then put her arm around my back to help hold me up. She probably thought I was about to faint , I’m sure I must have looked like I was about to . The others flocked around me, too. Only Erin, Ryan’s sister, still stood frozen in her spot, in apparent shock, like she was seeing a ghost in the flesh.
    Another bridesmaid, Nikki, who had been my college roommate, glared down the aisle at Amanda. “Hey!” she yelled, “I don’t care who you are, what is wrong with you to crash a wedding like this?” She stood with her hand on her hip and looked like she was ready to throw down her bouquet and start a fight.
    For a moment, time froze again. Only this time, I didn’t want to take any snapshots with my mind. I didn’t want to remember any of the nightmare that was unfolding before me. I saw Ryan and Amanda embracing, our guests looking back and forth from them up to me.  My heart was a heavy weight in my chest, crushing my lungs. I needed to sit down.
    Ryan looked back up at me, as if he remembered. “Dana,” he said, “ are you ok?”
    He ran back to me and helped me up.
    “What is going on, Ryan? Is this some kind of joke?” Please let it just be a joke . I might be able to get over that.
    “No, it’s not. I thought Mandy was dead; I had no idea she’d come here today.”
    Father Patrick wasn’t sure what was going on. Really, none of us were. He looked at Ryan and me and said, “Umm, so…should we continue? I have to say that in the 30 years of presiding at weddings, this is the first time anyone has done this. I’m not sure exactly what to do. ”
    “Well, she should have held her peace, Father,” Nikki said, still defending me. “This is a private event and you are NOT on the guest list, sweetie.”
    “I can’t … not yet,” Ryan said. I heard the words as if in a filter, like I was in a dream. My eyes were filling with tears.
    “All I know is that 3 years ago, Mandy was killed in a car acciden t, I had her buried. And now she’s here. I just need to talk to her, to find out the whole story of what’s going on. I