Topic: A Wedding

Author: Chris Dunn

Las Vegas airport thrums with potential even at 2 am. As I wander the halls and ride the moving sidewalks, lights everywhere beckon to me offering one last chance to gamble away any few coins I might have managed to hold onto would I were a gambler on this trip. Lucky for me, all I want to do at this point is stay standing until my flight arrives in an hour. I’m dead on my feet having been awake for nearly 40 hours at this point. Every muscle and fiber urges me to just find my gate, sink down on a bench and rest my eyes, but I know that game. I know that sleep is my foe, and that until my ass hits seat 22a, I’ve just have to keep moving. Another red-eyed traveler passes me in the hall, and we exchange nods and expressions which seem to ask, “And how did you find yourself here?”

A little over 48 hours ago my phone rang, “Okay, you’re going!” Drew voice is excited, but years of knowing that voice reveal a hesitancy before he even continues with. “Now, the thing is…”

The thing was, Kit was getting married. Kris Gates, one of our oldest and dearest friends had finally found a woman willing to put up with him on a day-in-day-out basis - though that alone wasn’t sufficient to necessitate marriage. Both Kit and Laura, his beloved, were both anti-establishment, hippy-types who for the first years of their joining had never seen a need a to “get the State involved”. But recent medical troubles had demonstrated how much extra red tape the State can put in your way, if you’ve never taken the time to have things set down officially on paper. Rather than continue to deal with this plastic hassle, Kit and Laura sent out the invites. Save the Day, two weeks from now, in Vegas!

Both the location and the timing were a major impediment. Everyone wanted to attend, but given the short warning time, and my then current state of unemployment, we contented ourselves with throwing them a monster wedding shower. Frank rolled out a major sound system, a thorough invite list of all their friends and a surprising display with fire dancers. It was a thing of beauty and something to remember, and all I thought I would see of their nuptials. That is until I got Drew’s call.

I listened stunned as he lay out the details. “I’ve got you booked in at Luxor, but only for one night. You’ll need to check out the day of the wedding, store your bags with the bellhop, go to the wedding and reception, then book it to the airport once the festivities are over. I paid for you flight and your room. You don’t need to pay me back. You just have to go since I can’t. Your plane leaves tomorrow.”

It all seemed like such a rush, and a lot of effort, most of which I would endure alone. “Why?” I asked.

“Because, one of us has to be there!”

He was right. We’d known Kit too long. We’d heard the chimes at midnight together more times than we could count. The thought that his marriage - even one largely out of bureaucratic necessity – would go down without a single Pit member present… It was unconscionable. “Okay,” I resigned. “I’ll do it.”

And that’s how I found myself wandering the halls of the Luxor while the wedding party did prep and pictures. I had no room and all my things were stowed except for a single book, I carried with me. Unemployed, I had no money to gamble, and Vegas offers very few places to sit quietly and read. In the end, I settled for the spot playing the least annoying, loud music and tried to focus on the words of my book hard enough to stay awake.

Mercifully, the event finally began. It was much more elaborate than I had envisioned. No Elvis impersonator. No drive-thru. They walked down a short aisle in formal attire. Laura had a full bridal gown. For all the times I’d heard Kit scoff at the institution, when it came to be his time, they didn’t shirk. I was coaxed into giving a brief toast at the reception and threw together some thoughts I’d been mulling over that day covering all the random events, decisions and people that had brought the two of them together. I can write a very thorough and detailed paper explaining how they owed their happiness directly to the presidency of George Bush. We all laughed and toasted the happy couple, then it was off to fetch my bags and wander the airport.

The plane to Cincy was nearly empty, and I stretched out across all three seats, but sleep wouldn’t come until I was all the way home, so I lay there listening to the thrum of the engines, dozing in and out, as I reflected on how glad I was to have made it for what turned out to be such a special day.