Doris Fell - Long-Awaited Wedding

Dwayne said, “That thing can be seen for a hundred miles.”

She looked up at him. Crocker actually looked like some little kid whose kite had blown higher than his friend’s.

“It just takes minutes to reach an island in the Pacific Ocean,” she said. “Four thousand miles away, quick as a wink.”

“That puts it at a missile range near the Marshall Islands.”

She agreed. Now that he had pinpointed the location to the minute, she felt more inclined toward Dwayne than she had at dinner. In front of them, a young couple craned their necks looking up, a small child clutching their hands.

“What is it, Daddy?” the boy asked.

“It’s a missile, son. Remember, we looked at a book about them the other night. And that’s the planet Venus to the right,” the father said, pointing toward it

What was he? Six? Seven? At unexpected moments like this, Maureen felt a tightness in her chest, an ache that wouldn’t go away, a fresh flood of shame that she had given her own child away. She looked at the father and volunteered, “That splendor in the sky is a firststage separation from the missile. Those blue and orange colors in the sky are vapors that occurred right after the missile was launched and separated.”

As she noticed the boy’s interest wane, she told him, “It’s like painting pictures in the sky.”

“So that’s what they did. Daddy, they spilt their paints.”

Maureen’s heart did flip-flops, as it often did when she thought of her daughter. To the boy’s father she said, “What we’re seeing with our naked eyes is nothing more than burned fuel and water droplets hitting the atmosphere.”

Dwayne rubbed his jaw reflectively. Give it to Dwayne from a mathematical perspective and he would know to the nth degree how much water, how much fuel.

The vapor trails twirled and arced out of control as they moved from the center and spread across the sky. Maureen gripped Dwayne’s arm to steady herself. Something was wrong! How had she stood here for two minutes without realizing what was happening? She hadn’t made the connection. But she did so now. The Fabian missile had misfired.

“Dwayne, that was one of the Fabian missiles. Look at the way it blew apart—at the lights streaming across the sky, like they’re exploding from the center. Out of control.”

“Can’t be, Maureen. The air force agreed to hold off testing any more of the Fabians until the flaws were ironed out.”

But as another burst of streamers spewed from the center, he said, “You may be right”

Of course, I’m right, she thought. And if that was a Fabian launch, I’m in trouble. The misfiring of another missile would set the wires sizzling between her office and the Pentagon. She whispered, “I have to get back to the office.”

“Let me go back with you.”

“No.” She was adamant

As vice-president of Research Operations, her department was responsible for what was happening. And if Eddie McCormick was going to have her head, she didn’t want Dwayne Crocker there to witness it. She turned abruptly and eased her way through the throng, walking hurriedly to her sleek sports car parked beside Dwayne’s. She climbed into her car, the wheels squealing as she raced from the parking lot.

Twenty minutes later, she sat at her desk and dialed the Wallingdale Air Force Base. When she couldn’t get beyond the duty officer, she slammed down the phone and called her friend at the Pentagon. As the phone rang, she glanced out into the evening sky. The lights from the missile had vanished completely. As suddenly as the brightness had erupted into the heavens, it had died away and floated into nothingness, leaving only the evening star surrounded by its unbroken layers of clouds.

Someone on the other end picked up the phone. “Roland Spencer,” he said.

“I was hoping I’d catch you. It’s Maureen Davenport, in California. Roland, they launched that Fabian missile ahead of schedule. What went wrong?” she demanded. “They promised to postpone the launch until we could work out the flaws—”

“I’m sorry. There was a mix-up.”

“Not mine,” she said tartly.

“Ours,” he acknowledged grudgingly. “Look, sweetheart, I’m still your friend. Remember?” He had been her friend since her first visit to the Pentagon. “If I didn’t have a flat top, I’d be pulling out my hair. So I’m tugging at my mustache instead.”

“Not funny,” she said. “McCormick is going to blame me for not getting word to Wallingdale Air Base in time.”

“They knew in time. I’ll vouch for you. So stay calm. I just had a call from the commanding officer at Wallingdale Air Base. He apologized.”

“Apologized? Half of southern California saw their blunder.”

Spencer laughed good-naturedly. He had a throaty chuckle that always made his rimless glasses bob; she pictured them doing so. “The C.O. from Wallingdale said it was a splendid show that could be seen for a hundred-mile radius.”

“So when does Larhaven get wind of it, Roland?”

“Whenever McCormick sends them an e-mail. Hold just a minute. I have a call waiting.”

While she waited, she tried to picture Roland’s square face and wide brow bathed in scowls. He was a solidly built man of forty-eight, twenty pounds heavier than he should be, and yet he cut a favorable impression in his army uniform with the rows of service ribbons across his broad chest

He was back now. “It wasn’t your mistake, Maureen. Larhaven wanted that missile to go off.”

“But we had orders from them to delay it.”

“That was Eddie McCormick on the line. He said for you to stay at the plant. He’ll see you there in an hour. He has one of the Kladis brothers with him.”

“Allen Kladis?”

“That wasn’t the name. Would it make a difference?”

All the difference in the world, she thought.

“Allen is a reasonable man, Maureen. Much fairer than his father. We’ve met over some government contracts. Hope this misfiring isn’t his kind of reverse reasoning. The Kladis brothers are determined to beat out the competition and merge with Fabian.”

The kind of reasoning that Allen Kladis was capable of? she wondered. But Spencer called him “fair.” That would be the Allen that she remembered. “Will the merger go through?” she asked.

“It looks like the boys at the Pentagon want another corporate giant. The White House agrees.” He cleared his throat. “The merger will help maintain our position on the world market”

“But it all boils down to money?” That didn’t sound like Allen. Or had he changed once he joined the family business?

“We’ll put a ban on firing any more missiles until this thing gets settled, Maureen. I’ll check things out on this end in the morning and get back to you. By the way, you’re staying with Larhaven when they merge, aren’t you?”

“If they want me.” If Allen wants me, she corrected silently.

“Their loss if they don’t. And if they don’t, we’ll find you a spot here at the Pentagon.”

As she cradled the receiver, she unlocked the top desk drawer and slid out the oriental jewelry chest that Allen Kladis had given her when she was seventeen. She kept the chest at the office because, with all the security there, she felt it was safer than keeping it at home. And still accessible to her most any time she wanted to journey back to the past. She dusted it off with the back of her hand and then took a tiny key from her purse and unlocked it. As she swung the lid back, tears burned behind her eyes.

She spread the items out and lifted the velvet case with the five-carat diamond from Carl. Then, unfolding a packet covered in tissue paper, she wrapped her fingers around the pink-beaded baby bracelet. Baby Birkland, it read. Maureen Birkland’s baby. It was all she had of her infant daughter. The couple who adopted her baby took everything else. Her daughter. Her life. Her dreams.