Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 21010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Benjamin takes my words in, they’re influencing him. I’m breaking through.
So I don’t let up. “What matters is today. You. Nicole. Me. And the fact that I love her. I love her no matter what her last name is, or what blood flows through her veins. We have so much in common that this feud only seems sillier and sillier the more time we spend together.”
“You love her?” he says, quite surprised.
“I do. We’re more alike than we are different, Mr. McCormick. Have you ever thought about why your family, as rich as they are, never moved away from the small town of Burly? Even when your neighbors were people you hated? Even when you could easily afford some luxurious home in the hills of Los Angeles?”
“No. I never put much thought into it. This was the home of my father. This is where I was born, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t also be the place where I die.”
“You love Burly, Mr. McCormick. Despite your wealth, you see a town worthy of raising a family in. One with good values, full of people looking out for one another, rising to the defense of our fellow man. We love our wives, our husbands, our families with all our hearts, and want to spread that joy to everyone around us. We’re all Burly men, Mr. McCormick, born and raised, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can put this feud behind us.”
Another soft laugh that escapes his lips. Benjamin McCormick had tried to be stoic, unbreakable, showing me only rudeness in hopes it would drive me off. But I struck him in a way that breaks that demeanor, because it isn’t the real him. “You got me, Rowdy. Yes, we’re both Burly men. Born and raised. And if you’re passionate enough to come in here and give me that speech, I have no reason to doubt how you feel about my daughter.”
“She means everything to me. And if you listen to her, you’ll see I mean everything to her too. This isn’t a fling, Mr. McCormick.”
“Fine, fine. To hell with this feud. For now anyway,” he shoots me a sly grin. “If you hurt her, I’m going to hurt you back enough to make the last hundred years feel like a second.”
“That’s a threat that’ll stay empty, because I would never dream of doing such a thing.”
“All of my ancestors are spinning in their graves right now, just from me thinking about burying the hatchet. And now that I tell you that you have my blessing? I can expect them to rise from the dead and choke me to death in my sleep for my blasphemy.”
I smile. I did it. I broke through his hard-headedness. “Well, I’m glad we came to an understanding. It was quite anxiety-inducing to come over here to get her today. Not enough to stop me, mind you, but it’s something I’d rather do without.”
“Go,” he says. “You came over to get her for the lantern-lighting ceremony, and at this point, I’m just holding you up. Show her a good time. Be a good man to her. Or else.”
“I will. And thank you, Mr. McCormick.”
“I think you’re going to be calling me Benjamin before too long, son.”
I stand tall, nod his way, and head out the door. Nicole is waiting. The nosy woman she is, she’d been eavesdropping.
“That sounded like a spirited conversation.”
“I just convinced him that he loves you more than he hates me is all. Come on, those lanterns aren’t going to light themselves.”
As the Fall Ball King and Queen, our job is to light the lanterns of the attendees as they walk by. Some of them designed their own, and others got theirs from a local gift shop. There are traditional Chinese-style lanterns, as well as a whole assortment of witches, ghosts, pumpkins, and even the stray turkey lantern.
It’s a tradition that one of Burly’s families introduced when they immigrated from China, and it’s been adapted and adopted over the years, and now it has a distinctly Burly style to it. Most of the people here don’t think that deep into the tradition, though. They just see lots of pretty lit-up lanterns, and let them float into the sky like little hot air balloons.
One by one we light them all, and then stand side by side as we watch the sky fill with lanterns. My hand rests on Nicole’s shoulder as I hold her close. My queen, literally, as she wears that autumn-themed crown, and I wear my matching one. A few of the older residents still look at us with surprise, knowing our last names, but the younger folk don’t care.
The world is moving on. The deaths of those people in the nineteenth century surely affected their families dearly, but we can’t keep spitting venom at one another just for them. Whatever happened then, penance had more than been paid.