From
the brothers’ perspective it all started at a “Welcome Home Party” their mother
Maeve and her best friend “Aunt” Roxanne planned for them at the end of boot
camp. American by birth and enlisted in
the United States Army, home for the duo was a small village outside of Siena,
Italy. It was a hot day, hence everyone
wore white. The picnic tents and tables
were erected on a sun-bleached sand bar alongside the River Merse. Through the
low lying hills beyond the riparian sunbaked freshly harvested wheat field lent
a golden glow to the landscape. Lines of
cypresses stood before homes with stucco walls and tile roofs. A searing azure
sky covered all. In small vales beyond
their view the slightest, low-lying haze from distant forest-fires veiled the
tranquil scene. The brothers looked a
little thinner and little more muscular.
Still they were their usual selves; beefy, hairy, robust young men; one brunet,
the other blond.
They’d
always been polite and differential to strangers and their elders. Respect for
their mother and adoration of their father also insured downcast respectful
gazes and pleasant words in greeting.
But, of course being their father’s sons, such demure appearance always
gave way to boisterous hugs. Maybe they
were a little bit more polite then before. Since the family spoke French at
home, no one noticed a military accent already creeping into their English
after just nine weeks.
The
change that Shep (Shepherd) and Nom (Gnome) Sienna noticed was in their “cousins”
Glaucia, Callirhoe and Strymo Scamander; their Aunt Roxanne’s
step-daughters. The girls had always
been older than them; an insurmountable age difference in their youth, which now
struck the brothers as not so great. In
addition, the girls figures were still great!
To say that the women of the Scamander household were full-figured was
an understatement. They were all
raved-haired like their father but with rosy complexions. Raised since teenage years by their
red-headed stepmother, they had all her feminine ways and friendly spirit.
The
difference they saw in their Siena-born foster-brother was his new friend Todd. They at first assumed the tall well-built…stranger
was from Cousin Balder’s side of the family.
Their foster brother Diodatus had always been the shiest of the crowd of
boys who called John Sienna; Daddy. When Shep and Nom enlisted with Puck absence,
their foster brother slipped back into his quiet shy self, but with his new
buddy at his side he was back to being one of the boisterous John Sienna
boys. Their foster-brother also appeared
to suddenly notice the Scamander girls were not so much older than they.
“What
was the best part of boot camp?” one of the girls asked.
The
answer was “Church; there was no one yelling at you there.”
“What
was the worst part?”
“Leaving
my Bible behind.”
One of
the brothers admitted. Of course, that’s
because he took “The Iliad”. The boys
could only take one pocket-sized book each.
One took the Holy Bible, the other The Iliad and they shared.
“What
did they teach you?” Callirhoe asked Shep.
He took
her hand, called her name and whispered, “Bear true faith and allegiance. “
Nom
took Strymo’s hand, called her name and whispered “Welfare of others before
your own.”
“Oh,
oh, I know this one from their letters!” Diodatus exclaimed comically.
But it
was his tall, dark and...well it was his tall and darkish friend who took Glaucia’s
ruddy hand, called her dearie in imitation of her mother and said while gazing
deep into her eyes; “Do what’s right!”
Someone
suggested a stroll John’s sons offered their arms to Roxanne’s step-daughters. The twosomes spent the rest of the party strolling
along the dusty river bank sharing little secrets, sowing the seeds of
love. Shep and Nom’s courtship of the
Scamander sisters continued during their deployment. They’d been interpreters of course. The
conflict had never turned violent. But
the Siennans returned more serious and more ready to start their lives than
before.
This
time at the welcome home party they wore their dress uniforms. The girls wore elegant white cotton dresses,
a little long for a picnic. When Nom
suggested a stroll, it was only he and Shep with a damsel on their arm. They’d spoken to Diodatus and Todd about this
earlier. They’d spoken to the two other
men about many things including being a part of a new business venture with the
Sienna family. They’d also spoken to the
girls’ father Stan Scamander.
At the
end of their stroll, where the land petered about, a wide wet green slough wandered off towards
tomorrow and the open water. Nom made
some mysteries comment about how Heavenly the scene was. Shep pointed out its endless perspective, and
then he knelt on his left knee. The
girls giggled in preparation for some silliness from him. But, instead of his toothy smile Callirhoe saw
that he had only had eyes for her and his eyes he saw nothing but passion. She barely noticed Nom kneeling before her
sister Strymo. He wore the sweetest
smile about his dimpled chin. And in his
eyes Strymo saw joy. She and grabbed her
sibling’s hand.
Shepherd;
“In you I’ve found a love beyond my want, beyond my fears, beyond my destiny.
Will you be mine?”
Gnome; “If you will wed me, there is nothing I shall want, I’ll rest in the meadows of faithfulness and love, I walk with you my beloved by the quiet waters of peace. ”
Strymo and Callirhoe screamed, “Yes!”
Gnome; “If you will wed me, there is nothing I shall want, I’ll rest in the meadows of faithfulness and love, I walk with you my beloved by the quiet waters of peace. ”
Strymo and Callirhoe screamed, “Yes!”
The
double wedding ceremony and reception
went off without a hitch. For the
scripture the pastor read from Psalm 23.
All in French, course. It was a
spectacular, traffic stopping event of international consequence that only the
self-possessed Sienna family can put on.
Well, there was a moment at the dinner party when some hard-liner
mistook Todd for their estranged cousin Balder.
With a sense of power that no one had seen in Stan Scamander’s daughters
before Glaucia firmly took the old man’s hand and explained who Todd was and
how important he was. At the finale of
the fete a flying horse drawing a porcelain coach landed on the pool at the Riviera
resort. Beneath thundering volleys of
fireworks, the newlyweds ran to their chariot and rose into the sky. The crane lifting the carousel horse and papier-mache
carriage brought them to the roof where a waiting helicopter started them on
their honeymoon alongside the white-sand beaches of Upolu
Island.
As all the Siennans and their guest
stood mouths open, hands over their ears, tear filled eys gazing into the sky,
Todd took Glaucia gently by the hand and led her back inside the resort. The scar on his cheek burned purplish with
emotion. A pulse showed itself beneath
the tattoo on the opposite temple. His
plush dark lips parted in a whisper of, “ Gently you raise me and heal
my weary soul. You have set me a banquet of love in the face of hatred,
crowning me with love beyond my power to hold.”
Her
guardian angel told Glaucia’s stepmother to look over her shoulder. She turned, grasping her best friend’s hand
in the process, in time for both women to see the muscular, dark-skinned man
kneel and offer a ring.
Glaucia
screamed, “Yes!”
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