Chapter 14

That night, Sherry and Darren picked Gabriel up after their iconic moment in park then headed home. Luckily, for the both of them, their beautiful baby boy went right to sleep the moment he lay in the crib. His mother and father waited in the doorway for several minutes, looking at their greatest creation, before slipping into Darren’s bedroom. They made love into the night, lost in emotion and lust they’d never seen.

Their lives ramped up in the following months more than they ever expected. A week after proposing to Sherry, Darren finally bit the bullet. He called his mother and filled her in on everything that happened. Needless to say, Joan wasn’t the happiest camper. Yes, she admitted to liking Sherry; however, her liking Sherry was in fact based on her capacity as Gabriel’s nanny. Joan was shocked beyond belief that the young lady would wind up being Gabriel’s real mother. And what were the chances that her son Darren would just so happen to have adopted a baby boy who was a product of a one-night stand he had with Sherry?
Joan was adamant about her dislike for the two getting married. During the conversation, she named off several of her own associates, both in the business world as well as in Chicago’s elite political system who had daughters she saw more suitable for marriage. “What about Donald Decker's daughter? You remember her, don’t you Darren? You two met at that gala we went to with your father up in Milwaukee. Or what about Sarah White’s niece? You know? She worked on Huckabee’s campaign down in Arkansas before he went to Washington D.C. You know she inherited quite a nice amount of assets from her aunt on her father’s side. She’s not bad.”

Darren loved Sherry so much and was so ready to take the marriage risk that his family’s warnings about marrying a woman like Sherry went into one ear then out of the other. When his father finally got around to calling, he admitted he had to call from his office as calling at home with his mother walking around in the background griping was out of the question. His father expressed his feelings about the situation, bringing up that his son was trying to marry a woman neither his mother or father had yet to get to know. Once this sentiment was out on the table, Darren’s father congratulated him and wished him the best of luck. “Marriage is going to be harder than you think.”

Sherry, on the other hand, had a different battle when it came to her family. She kept her engagement a secret for nearly two months, or until she and Darren decided that the wedding would be around Christmas. Unlike Darren, she’d been estranged from her family for years. Nobody knew she had a child and had given it up for adoption, nor did anybody in her family know she had won a battle with cancer. Now, with so much to catch up on, her drive out to her hometown, Goshen, was a thought-consumed couple of hours. Darren had arranged for the daycare to keep Gabriel all day rather than just a half-day. He was leaving the house at the same time as Sherry. They kissed in the foyer and he looked into her eyes, stroking her hair, telling her to be strong and keep calm. “Everything is going to be alright.”
Nearly back at her post-baby weight, Sherry looked over her makeup as US33 turned a bend then descended into Goshen. Sherry look out from the slope. From this view, she could look out over her hometown in its entirety. As she crossed over the Elkhart River, she vividly remembered growing up here. She and her friends found an old trail winding along the river for miles when they were just eight or nine years-old. She looked upstream as she slowed down on the bridge. I wonder if it’s still there. The world seemed so simple then.

Sherry rolled through town, down Main Street. The town literally had retained its character – the epitome of staying the same. However, this stillness of the town was also symbolic of something else: her family. How will they react to seeing me after all this time? Should I have brought Gabriel with me? No, Sherry. You don’t even know how they’ll react to you, much less you pulling up with a baby that they didn’t even know existed...and by a man you’re not even married to...yet

Sherry zigzagged through town until coming to Chester Street, where she turned right. The ride through the next few stop signs was trippy in many ways for her. So many houses looked the same; a few had been repainted. She looked at Mr. Johnson’s house and wondered if Mrs. Johnson was still living. Billy Carson’s house was overgrown with weeds, but looked as if someone lived in it still. Karen Carpenter – this girl Sherry would get into occasional fights with while growing up – and her family lived in a big house on the corner that had a wrap around porch. Sherry was a bit surprised to see the house had burned down. And it didn’t look as if it had happened all that long ago.

When Sherry pulled up in front of her parents’ house – in front of the house where she’d grown up – her stomach sunk a bit. Her heart thumped. It’d been such a long time since she was this nervous. So many questions swirled around in her mind. There were even moments where her nerves had gotten so shot that she contemplated turning around and heading back to Main Street so she could get the hell out of town before anyone saw her who would recognize her face.

“No, Sherry,” Sherry said to herself. Her hand gripped the steering wheel as she turned and looked up at the house. “You came all this way. If they’re not happy to see you, then that just tells you to go on back to Fort Wayne and continue your life with Darren.” Life with Darren….Wow, that sounds strange. Who would’ve ever thought this was coming?

Sherry climbed out of the car and headed up the sidewalk toward her parents’ porch. Just as she was about to step up onto the first step, the screen door two porches down swung up. Sherry spotted Maria, a church girl who probably would never move out of her parents’ house, stepping out. She smiled for the brief moment they made eye contact then stepped up onto the porch. Sherry didn’t realize the effect it would have on her to have to knock at her parents’ door rather than just pulling out a key and letting herself in. She rubbed her palms together in anticipation.

The lock turned then the door swung up. Sherry looked inside, but the glare on the screen glass made it difficult to see into the dim house. Not to Sherry’s surprise, curtains were still closed and the house still shut off from the world. In a matter of seconds, a set of eyes came forward, toward the glass – eyes she knew so well, but hadn’t seen in so long.

“Sherry?”

Sherry forced a smile. “Mom?”

Sherry’s mother, Donna, pushed the screen door open then Sherry walked inside. The 50-year-old woman looked her estranged daughter up and down then hugged her, albeit coldly. The thin, graying woman, whose hair lay down on her shoulders, stepped back, holding Sherry’s left hand. She looked up into Sherry’s eyes, her own eyes demanding questions a mother would never allow her daughter to leave the house without answering.

“Can we talk?” Sherry asked. Even though she’d fallen out of touch with her mother for so many reasons, the look in her eyes made the drive over to Goshen worth it. Sherry followed her mother to the kitchen at the back of the house. As they made their way through the house, Sherry took in the house’s condition. She couldn’t help but to compare it to when she’d gotten into a cursing rage with her mother to run out to her car then drive off to be sight unseen for several years.

Donna sat down across the table from her daughter and listened as Sherry lay the events of her life out in recent years out on the table. The Christian woman in Donna made her reach out and hug Sherry tightly when she teared up while revealing having a child then giving it up for adoption. Donna managed to look passed the part about having a child out of wedlock and saw the situation for what it was. Then, to hear her daughter faced cancer and she hadn’t known about it all this time broke the mother’s heart. Donne was truly shocked hearing that Sherry just so happened to get a job as a nanny for the child she’d given up for adoption.

“Wow, what an unreal coincidence, Sherry,” Donna said, shaking her head. “And now you’re engaged?” she then asked, looking down at Sherry’s ring.

“Yeah,” Sherry said, blushing. She held her hand out so her mother could see the ring.

Donna chuckled under her breath then smiled. “Well, congratulations, baby. This ring does look nice, I must say.”
Sherry laughed, sniffling a bit and pulling her hand back over to her side of the table. She then twisted her ring, in thought. “Yeah, a lot has changed, so I figured I would come back to town and fill you in. I’d been thinking about you, Mama. I don’t want you or Dad or anybody else to think that I wasn’t thinking about them all this time… It’s just...It’s just...”

“It’s okay, Sherry,” Donna said. “I understand. So, tell me about this guy who is supposed to be marrying my daughter and I haven’t even seen him yet.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Wait until your father hears about this. He’s probably gonna want to follow you back to Fort Wayne and sit the guy down. Ask him questions all day long. Your father hasn’t changed much.”

Sherry giggled, so very vividly recalling how her father would run certain boyfriends off. Even though he’d never been in the military, he tried to run his house as if he was a Sargent. Even his son’s girlfriends were put under scrutiny. Mr. Calhoun was notorious for wanting to make sure his son didn’t marry a skanky woman.

Donna listened as her estranged daughter talked about Darren and how their relationship bloomed. Sherry admitted to having met Darren one night when he’d originally visited Ft. Wayne. She couldn’t concern herself with what her mother thought. Rather, she knew she would just have to lay the facts out on the table and that would be that.

Donna glanced away when Sherry finished telling the story. Her own eyes then swelled up as she looked across at her baby girl. She processed her having gone off for all these years and now coming back, having had a child, beaten cancer, then now engaged to a guy who sounded pretty well off. If she were younger, Donna would be jumping down Sherry’s throat. However, over the years, she and her husband both reflected on some of the mistakes they made with their daughter. And it looked like now would certainly be the time to make amends.

Much to Sherry’s surprise, her mother stood up and motioned that she too do the same. Sherry did just that, coming around to the side of the table and stepping up to her mother. The mother and daughter looked into each others eyes then hugged. “I missed you, Sherry,” Donna said, breaking into tears. “Really, I mean that. I’m sorry about how we were toward you. Believe me, me and your father talk about you and think about you all the time and we really are truly sorry. I love you, Sherry… We love you and hope you knew that we always did, regardless.”
Sherry couldn’t let go of her mother. With everything she’d been through in recent months, she wondered for a moment how things would’ve turned out if she had her mother around. This guilt she lived with at this point could’ve very easily been avoided if Sherry had been opened to rebuilding the bridges she helped to burn when she was much younger. “I love you too, Mom. And I missed you guys too.”

***

The rest of the summer then well into the fall was hectic for the both of them, but especially Sherry. Her life seemed to be wind up like a fairy tale, but she was certainly going to enjoy the ride. She felt she deserved it and wasn’t afraid to accept whatever blessings fell into her hands.

By the time August rolled around, Darren went through the internet process again and an older woman to be nanny to Gabriel. This left Sherry with a lot more free time so she could plan their wedding with a wedding planner Darren contracted. Together, she and Jeanette – an older, perky woman who loved working with bright-eyed brides – rode around Ft. Wayne for a couple days looking at churches. Sherry hadn’t yet ever belonged to a church while living in town, so she basically had to start from scratch. She wanted a nice, quaint church. Her family was small and she still wasn’t officially back in “touch” with all of them, so she wasn’t expecting a big turn out. Plus, she didn’t want the all the hoopla and extra-ness.

After riding around for a week, they decided on a historic church downtown. As it was one of the city’s oldest churches, the architecture was by far something that would be hard to find in this day and age. Sherry fell in love with the inside. Not only was it laid out perfectly to have a kick-ass wedding, but also had a small building built on to the side that would be perfect for a reception.

Halfway through the planning, when Sherry was deciding her color scheme as well as what kinds of dresses she wanted for herself and her brides maids – Chrissy and her sister Leah – there was a knock at the door. Sherry excused herself from the meeting with Jeanette to go and answer the door. “It’s Darren’s mother,” she had said to herself.

Joan took a deep breath and held her head high, realizing that even though she didn’t prefer this particular situation when it came to her son getting married, she was just going to have to accept it. Sherry greeted the woman then welcomed her inside. After telling Jeanette to go ahead and continue brainstorming some of the things they already discussed, she walked with Joan to the kitchen then out to the terrace. Sherry picked up on Joan’s efforts to be a bit more warm toward her this time around.

Joan looked over at Sherry as they sat next to one another on a bench. She started the conversation off with a congratulation then a kiss on the cheek. “I remember when I was getting married,” the woman said, smiling as she wiped her pants. “I was about your age. Just graduated with my B.A., about to get my masters and Darren’s father proposed to me. My mother and father were pissed for months...and I loved every moment of it.”

Sherry laughed. Even when being humorous, Darren’s mother Joan still remained stern in a sense. She crossed her legs like a woman who had seen the world. “Sherry, I’m going to admit something to you. I’m still having a hard time processing this. And not because it’s you or anything like that, so please, please don’t think that. But, as you probably know, Darren explained to me the...the...um...sequence of events that led up to all this.” She nodded, signaling that she was coming to grips with it all. “And, okay...I get it.” She looked over at Sherry and smiled. “And I think it’s a good thing.”
Sherry looked at Darren’s mother with surprised eyes. “Yeah?”

Joan placed her hand on top of Sherry’s then smiled. “Sherry, I really do mean this. I’ve been dealing with my son and his, um, love interests for such a long time at this point, as you can imagine.” She chuckled then shook her head. “And I have to say, I wanted to say to your face I should say, that as his mother I feel like he actually made a good choice this time around.”

Sherry covered her mouth; her eyes swelled with tears. Since she started planning the wedding, she just wasn’t all that convinced that Darren’s mother Joan would be all that opening to a woman like her marrying her son. Now, however, hearing that Joan was happy about it truly made a difference. “Thank you, Misses McWaters. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
Joan smiled, looking into Sherry’s eyes. I can certainly see what he sees in this young woman. She’s beautiful inside and out...truly. “Well, I just thought I would share that with you before things got too far along. I know we haven’t exactly had a chance to really get to know one another….and that’s alright. We’ll certainly have plenty of time for that now. That’s just the first thing I wanted to share with you.”

“Well, I appreciate it, Misses McWaters,” Sherry said. “And I must say I’m looking forward to having you as my mother-in-law. Maybe you could come and stay for a couple months.”

Joan scoffed then shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Yeah...right. If I came and stayed for a couple of months, my son Darren would probably pack up in the night and run for the hills… Well, I guess I should say cornfields. Aren’t many hills in this state like that.”
Sherry laughed. Flatness was certainly the middle name for Northern Indiana. “Well, maybe a couple week then.”
Joan giggled. “Yeah, well, we’ll see. But there’s just one more thing. I must say I kind of have a bone to pick with you, young lady.”
Sherry tensed up. What did I do? Would she judge me for having given my child up for adoption? Was she about to insist that she agree to a prenup, if Darren was even thinking of such? “Yeah?” she said, hesitantly.

“I hope you don’t think you were going to plan this wedding to my son without any input from me,” Joan said. “I really hope that’s not what you were trying to do, dear.” She looked over at Sherry, sternly but playfully. “Please say that isn’t so, Sherry.”
Sherry looked away, trying to not smile. Only a few seconds later, she jumped up off of the bench then headed for the door. “Actually, I was just about to get Darren to give me your number so I could call you and get you in on things.”

Joan smiled and playfully squinted at Sherry as she stood up, clutched her purse, then followed Sherry back into the house. She joined her future daughter-in-law and the wedding planner and got caught up on everything that had been done up to this point.

***

Light snow showers spanned across the Ft. Wayne metro. Nearly a week ago, children were let out of school for winter breaks. Christmas tree lights tangled around the branches of trees lining downtown streets. Malls had been packed with shoppers, snatching up gifts at a good prices. The jingling of Salvation Army bells and the clanking of coins landing in donation buckets could be heard in front of basically every grocery store. With the Christmas spirit seeping into everyone’s hearts for the end of the year, Sherry’s own heart had swelled in new ways. Her wedding day approached faster than she thought. And with the help of Joan, the wedding planner Jeanette, and mother nature, this day was shaping up to be something any woman would have dreamed of as a little girl...and would remember fondly for the rest of her life.

Make-up artists and hair stylists swarmed around Sherry in her dressing room shortly before the ceremony was due to start. Guests shuffled into the church, placing their gifts down on the table in the entrance way to making their way to the sanctuary. Sherry worked to block out the noise and focus on the woman in the mirror. She held back tears, as to not mess up her makeup. Periodically, she would have to fan her face to keep it dry.

Shortly after the stylist finished with Sherry’s hair, it now lying back with curly at the ends, the dressing room door opened. Chrissy jumped over to make sure it wasn’t Darren. The last thing they wanted was for the wedding to start off on a bad foot. When she saw it was Darren’s mother Joan, she smiled and graciously welcomed the woman into the room.

When Joan pushed the door closed, she stopped in her tracks and smiled. “Sherry,” she said, practically gasping from the sight. She looked at her future daughter-in-law in the mirror. “You are so beautiful, Sherry. Truly, just stunning.”

The makeup artist backed away from Sherry for a moment so she could hug her guest. Sherry then sat back down in the chair and looked straight ahead, at the mirror. Joan, having shed her cold business persona, pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Sherry. “Okay, so I was thinking,” she began. “You’re going to be marrying my son, Darren. So, I figured it would be best if I give you a little guide on how to deal with McWaters men.” She chuckled. “And I only say that because I had to figure it out… Nobody ever told me a thing, even though I think my mother-in-law, may God rest her soul, was clearly holding back.”

Sherry laughed and looked ahead into the mirror as the stylists and makeup artists worked their magic. She listened to her mother-in-law-to-be spill as much marriage advice as she could. They laughed together in ways Sherry would’ve never imagined when meeting this woman. There were moments Sherry would look down at her hand and twist her engagement ring. She thought about Gabriel as well, who was supposed to be out in the sanctuary, cradled in his other grandmother’s – Donna – arms. She had come into the dressing room early when Sherry first started getting ready for the day of her life.

Jeanette buzzed around at the last minute trying to make sure everything was done and that everyone was ready to fulfill their roles. She even went as far as putting Darren up at the alter and telling him he had better not go walking off. By the time she got back to the dressing room, Darren’s mother had been finishing up her lesson on marrying a McWaters man. The woman kissed her son’s choice for a bride on the forehead then told her that she would see her out in the sanctuary.

When the door opened for Sherry to walk out then head to the alter, her heart pumped in her chest. She clenched her flowers in her hand so nervously that Jeanette had to rub her shoulders then tell her there was nothing to be nervous about. Everyone around remind her of just how beautiful she was.

The music started; the crowd stood up and looked on anxiously. With the train of her dress dragging against the red carpet, Sherry felt as if she were floating down the aisle. The sun, seeming extra bright from the snow-covered buildings and houses up and down the street, illuminated the sanctuary. People smiled and nodded; cameras flashed from every direction. No matter how many times she practiced this aisle walk during the rehearsal, she was still overcome with fear that she would be that bride who would trip and fall flat on her face just seconds before stepping up to the groom.

Sherry nearly sobbed from seeing her sister Leah up at the alter, waiting next to Chrissy. Seeing her family sitting out in the pews to her left was just unreal. The seats were packed. So much more of her family turned out than she would’ve ever imagined. Sherry then looked ahead and into Darren’s eyes. She smiled; he smiled. It wasn’t long before he extended his arm to help her up a couple of steps then into the alter. Sherry handed her flowers to her sister Leah then turned toward Darren. The groom pulled the vale from over Sherry’s face and smiled. It took every bit of his strength to keep from leaning forward and kissing the bride prematurely.

Time slowed as the minister expressed his happiness in seeing this couple wed. Joan had arranged of his childhood priest to come to Ft. Wayne and perform the vows, so there was also some sentimental value to the situation as well. For Sherry, responding to each vow was nothing like seemed on television or in the movies. She felt the eyes watching her, but she only had eyes for Darren. Even though they hadn’t kissed yet, she could feel their souls already floating out of their chests and embracing one another in the foot of space between the two of them.

Darren was the first to repeat after the priest. “I, Darren McWaters, take you, Sherry Calhoun, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”

Sherry’s turn then came about. She wanted to jump up and down with excitement, but knew she would probably fall over because of her heels. “I, Sherry Calhoun, take you, Darren McWaters, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”
The priest finished the vows and officiated the ceremony then watched as Darren slid the official wedding ring onto Sherry’s ring finger, pressing it up against the engagement ring. “...And you may now kiss the bride.”

Darren leaned down and kissed Sherry as if he’d been waiting years to do so. Sherry threw her arms up around his shoulders as she practically fell into their embrace. The crowd roared with applause. Finally parting lips, the new husband and bride turned toward their guests and smiled. People rushed up for congratulations, hugs, and pictures. Donna walked up with Gabriel. Both with new leafs in life, Darren and Sherry looked into their smiling sons eyes.

“Come on, I got a idea,” Sherry said, pulling Darren’s hand toward the aisle.

Before Darren could say anything, he found himself being dragged down the aisle by the bride. The guests looked onward, wondering what was happening and where they were going. They crowded into the aisle and watched as Sherry pulled her husband into the church’s foyer. She then pushed the door open and people followed, pulling their phones out.

“What are we doing out here?” Darren asked. His cheeks stung from the cold air.

Sherry laughed and, holding her train, walked over into the snow. She had never looked or felt so beautiful in her life. She picked up a handful of snow, formed a snowball, then threw it at Darren. He barely ducked in time, but knew he could give Sherry a taste of her own medicine. The groom jumped into the snow himself and partook in a snowball fight with his wife. Baby Gabriel laughed from the entrance, in his grandmother’s arms and anxious to get down on the ground and run over to his mother and father. Darren and Sherry played out in the snow until they eventually toppled over, kissing one another in the snow while cameras flashed.