Annie just wanted this day over. Lew and his dad seemed antsy. Lew wore a rented suit paid for by Saul as a wedding gift, while his father was in a suit that looked, as her mom had put it, as if it had been stolen off a corpse. Clyde had come late, refusing to acknowledge her parents and ignoring her dad’s proffered hand. She thought her dad would be mad, but he wasn’t. He was being strange and kept saying it was God’s will that she should marry this boy, bear his child.

Olenka and Pela were lurking suspiciously near the stack of wedding gifts. Nora seemed out of sorts, sticking with her family. Evy hadn’t come, though her mom and dad were here, as well as her sisters, huddled around the smoking caldron of their ashtray. Frank, drunk already, sat at a small table toward the back with a frowzy, skinny woman in a low-cut dress. He had met her in a bar in KC. Mary, who was sitting with Cal, on leave from the navy, kept glancing at this girl.

Her dad tapped his glass with a knife, and the room quieted. Grinning, he stood.

“Benvenuto! Annie, she is my daughter—so I’m told—and I’m so glad to get rid of her.” He laughed. “I say this because—a funny story—I went to a wedding of a cousin many years ago and her old papa who didn’t speak English so good meant to say he had joy to give his daughter away into such a good family but kept saying how glad he was to get rid of her to these people. It was very funny and everyone laughed. Annie, as you can see, got her good looks from me”—he smiled at her mom—“particularly her hair.” He polished his receding hairline. A few people laughed. Childishly encouraged, he added, “and her breasts.” The room went quiet. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, today I am glad to give her away into the Tivot family. It was not so long ago, as many of you may remember, that my son-in-law he tried to kill me. But why let such a little thing get in the way.” He clearly meant this as a joke, but no one laughed. Annie couldn’t believe he had brought it up. She saw her mom tugging at his belt. Clearing his throat again, he put on a serious face. “There is much tragedy in Lewis’s family. I know tragedy: My own papa, he ended up crippled, in a wheelchair. And I know that over a certain…tragic accident with Lewis’s brother, blame and accusation was thrown—”

The loud scrape of chair legs over the wooden floor interrupted him as Lew’s father got up and walked out.

“Dad, that’s enough,” Annie said.

Though he looked anxious and confused, her dad didn’t seem able to stop. “But no, you understand, what I’m saying is…is this wedding—”

Bennet stood up. “Let’s raise our glasses to Annie and to Lewis: Lifelong happiness,” he announced.