Episode 821: Brothers and Sisters

The refreshment table was actually just two card tables unfolded by Sebastian and Bowie and shoved together, it was on Adria and her sister Justine to fancy it up enough for a makeshift breakfast bar suitable for the early hour of the wedding and reception. The sisters worked side by side and with an eclectic combination of linens, flowers, and tableware, it came together actually kind of nicely as a display for the small spread of donuts, muffins, pastries, as well as coffee, juice, and mimosas.

“If the baby weren’t going to occupy all my time maybe I could take up a catering career, minus the cooking with a strict focus on presentation,” Adria joked.

“About the baby occupying all your time,” Justine said, “maybe we could get together sometime soon to talk since I have some experience with this mom thing.” She tried to keep her voice light so her sister wouldn’t think there was a lecture headed her way even though there most definitely was a lecture headed her way.

Meantime Jesse and his brother Nate worked on setting flowers and battery-powered candles in parallel lines near the cliff-side, as the aisle the bridal party would follow to where their dad, Bowie, would serve as the officiant.

When Jesse finished placing the final candle, he was glad to stretch his tired muscles back to his actual height after spending so much time with his knees and spine bent, however, standing upright didn’t work out quite as well for Jesse as he had hoped.

Jesse went all woozy and fell sideways, bowling over his little brother who had been carefully arranging flowers around the candles as they’d been instructed to do.

As soon as Jesse gathered himself, he helped Nate sit up and he brushed the dirt off his little brother’s sleeve.

“Sorry, Nate,” Jesse said, “I didn’t mean to do that, are you okay?”

“Are you?” Nate asked, worry crinkling his otherwise uncrinkled forehead. “Are you feeling sick again?”

Though Nate had seen him wiped out a couple times, he didn’t know really how ongoing the symptoms had been, and Jesse aimed to keep it that way, his parents had enough secrets to deal with, without him adding to it.

“I’m good,” he told his little brother.

“That was weird,” Nate insisted. “Why would you fall over like that?”

“I tripped over my own feet, it happens, especially when you’ve been up since like, two in the morning, I mean, I’m usually sleeping right now, plus I’ve been bent over then I got up really fast, so it’s like a rush of blood, it can make you dizzy. It was a freak thing really, that’s all. I’m fine. Come on, Nate.” He stood and held out a hand, pulling his little brother up. “It might be a hunger thing, too, let’s go sneak a couple donuts before the ceremony.” The more excuses he came up with for how off he felt, the easier it was to believe it could be any of those things, and not something worse.

Episode 822: End Of The Road