Calling all kitties! Calling all lovers of short romantic fiction! Celebrate Cat World Domination Day on June 24th! Show those dogs who's boss! Let your human know that you are the number one! Read a short story with a June Wedding!
This is a combined post for Cat World Domination Day & Romantic Friday Writers.
Click on the image to visit Sparkle, the designer cat's blog. Click on the RFW- linky below to visit other texts, poems and stories.
Keep scrolling to read a new story combining the two themes of Cat-Rule and a June Wedding.
Welcome to Romantic Friday Writers Challenge for June - A June Wedding.
Title: 'The Wedding Planners'
Penelope and Miranda were so devoted to their mother, Catherine, that they went as far as to read her e-mails and write a fake love-letter to a man whom they knew she liked. [To read this earlier episode go to 'The Match-Makers here.]
Here's my text for RFW's June-Challenge, A June Wedding - The Wedding Planners':
'Too bad that we promised not to read or write Mother's e-mails', said Miranda as she walked together with her sister, Penelope, down the aisle of the small Lutheran church, inspecting the decorations - lots of white ribbons and white flowers everywhere.
'Yes, but we accomplished our mission!' replied Penelope as she stopped to look up att the ceiling, licking a front paw and wiping her face, 'Such a beautiful church! And Mother is actually going to marry Mr Thornbuckle! I'm so tickled at the thought!'
'This is what I find so endearing about the two-leggeds, they have a ceremony and a party before they mate', mused Miranda, shedding a tear.
'Well, at least most of them do. Where are we going to sit?', inquired Penelope as the two cats had arrived at the alter, where the human wedding planner Margaret Whitherspoon stood with clipboard and pen in hand checking off things that needed to be done before the ceremony.
'What are your cats doing here, Catherine?' asked Mrs Whitherspoon with a worried look in her already sad face. 'Shouldn't they be left at home on a day like today?'
'Oh Margaret dear, Penelope and Miranda are my special bride's maids. They would be hurt if we left them at home. Here, put these little wreaths on them just before we begin', replied Catherine handing the middle-aged professional woman the two cat-sized floral wreaths. 'How much time do we have?'
'You have a about forty minutes. I think you should go up and get dressed, now. Where is Roger and the best man?' Margaret was getting into her wedding-military-mode. Everything should to go like a Swiss-watch from start to finish.
Penelope and Miranda discovered the stair to the choir loft. It was their Norwegian Forest Cat-blood that made them love to climb and climb and climb. They met the Lutheran cats, Molli and Emmi, the pastor's cats, who were used to observing all services, weddings, christenings and funerals from the choir loft.
'We're going to be a part of the wedding', said Miranda as a way of breaking the ice with the new feline acquaintances.
'Wow, what a view of the congregation, the alter and the pulpit!' squealed Penelope with delight.
'Yes, you can understand why we usually stay up here during church', explained Molli, pointing with her front paw at the expansive view of the church room, 'Sometimes I wish I was a bird and could fly around the room and land on Pastor Zittel's shoulder at a point in his sermon that would serve well to be illustrated by a bird, like a dove, landing on his shoulder or even his outstretched hand'.
'Let's see, what Bible verse would need that?' thought Miranda.
Emmi suggested when Noah and his family had sailed the ark and sent a dove out to see whether or not the waters had receded enough for them to find land somewhere.
'Or what about when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist? Doesn't God send a dove and say how pleased He was?' asked Penelope.
'Maybe, we'll have to check on that', said Molli.
Margaret Whitherspoon's alto-voice boomed from the church floor: 'Alright everybody, take your places! The wedding starts in two minutes! Where is Roger and the best man?'
'We'll talk to you later, Molli and Emmi! Gotta go!' said Penelope and signaled to Miranda that it was time to get to the church porch.
The church doors were open and Catherine was dressed in a long flowing white silk wedding gown with a long train. She held a huge bouquet of yellow roses and mimosa. Margaret put the little wreaths on Miranda's and Penelope's heads. Margaret was surprised how cooperative the two cats were. They held their heads and tails high and waited for the signal to follow after their human mother.
'Who's giving the bride away?' boomed Margaret looking for a Catherine's aged father dressed in a tuxedo. 'Mr Briare? Would you please hold your daughter's arm? We're ready to walk in now.'
The organ began to play. It was the signal for a kind of race. But not a race to run fast, but a race to walk slowly and as dignified as you can. 'Walk slowly, very s - l - o - w - l - y!' called Margret in her last command to the wedding troops.
Catherine tried to look solemn, and she succeeded so well that she almost looked sad as she walked in. The time for smiles is after the ceremony, on the way out of the church. Penelope and Miranda walked side by side just behind Catherine, almost touching her silk train. There ahead, stood Roger with his cane held by his nephew. Today he wanted to walk proudly without the use of the cane. All he had to do was walk the distance from the alter ring to the church door without falling. Would he make it?
'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here... ' began the Reverend Zittel with his very slight German intonation.
Margaret or Catherine had placed two high stools on either side of the aisle for Miranda and Penelope to perch upon during the ceremony. They were wonderfully behaved. Many of the parishioners suspected that the cats were drugged. But they were not. They were just happy in their roles as brides maids. They had requested this seating, since they were the ones who had brought Catherine and Roger together.
'And now I pronounce you man and wife', said Pastor Zittel as the exit-march sounded. Roger kissed Catherine and it felt good for them both. This was going to work.
Miranda and Penelope yowled out loud and leaped off theirs stools to follow the happy bride and groom out into the sunny weather.
[The text 'The Wedding Planners' copyright 2013 by Anna Christina Wigren Nordeman]
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
P.S.
I have borrowed the expression 'Lutheran cats' from Rita Mae Brown's & Sneaky Pie Brown's mystery novel Whisker of Evil (2004), from the 'Mrs. Murphy Mystery series'. 'The Lutheran Cats' are two cat characters named Elocution and Cazenovia, who belong to The Reverend Herbert Jones, Pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in the fictitious town of Crozet, Virginia. The cat name 'Miranda' is borrowed from a human character from this same series. A nod till Rita Mae Brown and her wonderful stories where animals get to say their piece as well as humans.
The name 'Zittel' comes from a German family whose daughter is my daughter's best friend; but they are doctors, not clergymen. 'Molli' is their cat. 'Emmi' is the name of the older daughter in this family.
'Catherine Briare's' name comes from my admiration for the actress Catherine Hepburn. I think there used to be a brand of ice cream in the US, called 'Briare's'.
'Roger Thornbuckle' is a nod to Alfred Hitchcock with his main character, Roger Thornhill, in the film, North By Northwest. I wanted my hero to be a sort of shorter version of a young, blue-eyed Cary Grant; handsome, but a little frail.
Word count according to WordCalc: 978 (NCCO)
Best wishes,
Anna
First Commenter:
Sparkle the Designer Cat
