Malayali in London ~ Part-35

Chapter -8:

...William's Wedding...

I’m sitting in the register office next to Jennie waiting for Sarah to make her entry down the aisle. Jennie keeps blabbering about what Sarah would look like in the dress we helped her pick out for today but I don’t listen much since I’m staring at my brother who is dressed in the suit my father wore for his wedding. A few minutes later, the gates open and Sarah walks into the office in her beautiful white wedding dress. She has a wide smile on her face and looks very, very happy. She looks so beautiful right now. I glance at my brother who is looking at Sarah with a distant look in his eyes. The same expression that Dad has in his wedding photographs. The look of falling in love. I smile, I guess he just fell a little more in love with Sarah.

The ceremony takes place. There’s an exchange of vows, I had written William’s vows for him. That’s the least I could do as a sister who is an author by occupation and besides, they would have been awful and way too cheesy if he had written them himself. After the exchange of vows, there’s an exchange of rings. After that, the registrar says, “Can I have Mr Luther Dumas and Miss Indrakshi Harvey here as witnesses to sign the marriage register.” This is it, after we all sign the register, my brother and Sarah will be officially married. I wish time could stop in its tracks so I could just stare at the joy on William’s face a little longer.

I walk up to the registrar, sign the marriage certificate as a witness and hand the pen to Mr Dumas, who has tears of joy in his eyes as watches his daughter get married. He quickly wipes them and signs. After we sit down, the registrar begins to say the final part of the service. William and Sarah sign the certificate. “Now, you may kiss the bride,” the registrar finished. Just seconds after he said that my brother had his mouth on Sarah’s. “Impatient,” I whisper to Jennie who nods and claps with tears of joy in her eyes. I smile, watching as one of the most important days in my brother’s life comes to an end.

Dinner was amazing. Luther had suggested going to a restaurant but my mother insisted she cook herself. She made all of William’s favourite dishes. We sat on the floor to eat. “So, Sawyer,” my brother says out of the blue. Sawyer looks up from his plate, food still in his mouth. William shoots me a crafty look and I immediately know what he’s going to say. I bring my free hand to my face and look down as he says, “How are you planning to propose to my sister?” Sawyer coughs, he’s blushing. “William!” I yell at him, “You just got married today, shouldn’t your focus be on your wife instead of wherever you’re trying to drag this conversation to?” William laughs and looks at Sarah who is also laughing as she watches her now husband converse with her sister-in-law. Sawyer swallows his food and clears his throat, “Actually, now that you have brought it up,” my eyes widen, and I shoot Sawyer a piercing look. He ignores me and continues, “I am waiting for an important day, like how you waited for your promotion before proposing? I’ll propose when I get that kind of a chance, and I know that day isn’t too far off in the future.” he smiles at me as I cover the embarrassment on my face with my free hand. Jennie lets out a high-pitched sound and claps and Theo sits there next to her, ready to throw up.

.       .       .

William and Sarah left for their honeymoon yesterday. They went to Manchester. I’m sitting at my desk studying for my finals. They aren’t far and I want to graduate without using any of my credits.

.       .       .

I fall onto the couch just after I throw my bag on it. Today was my last exam; Linguistics, the most difficult of all my subjects. So I’m finally free. I don’t have anything to study since I’m done with my studies. I’ll be waiting for the results to come out now, which will take a while. I did end up telling the admissions today that they could use my credits to improve my grades. I did that because I’m not exactly sure about how linguistics went. Professor Sterling is my linguistics teacher, and he is a very strict examiner.

My phone rings all of a sudden. I lazily pick it up, cussing whoever might be calling because I’m exhausted. “Hey,” says the person on the end of the phone. “Yes,” I say without much energy. I check to see who it is, it’s Amama! I immediately sit up straight on the couch. Though I regularly talk to my grandmother, I haven’t talked to her in weeks. My grandmother talks in Malayalam. I have gotten a very little bit rusty but I still talk to my mother in Malayalam whenever I get the chance to. “How were your exams?” she asks. And a conversation-starting from that humble question goes on for hours. She misses us. A lot. She tells me how much she wished she could have been there for William’s wedding but she was scared of flying. I hear her sniff and her voice sounds like she is holding back tears. It was at that moment that I decided that it didn’t matter to me how it was going to happen but I was going to get married in Kerala.