The Reception

A Story by Sharrumkin

An engagement party is being held for Mike and Linda.

The Reception
The school was at the northern edge of the town at the top of a small hill.
“Just keep going straight” Dan told Robert. You’ll see the school sign soon.”
Late afternoon had come when Bob Green pulled his car up at Mike’s door.
***
When Mike first told Linda of his plan to hold a reception to celebrate their engagement, Linda had frowned. Her previous experience with such events had consisted of watching her brothers and their friends drinking beer while she and the other females did all the work. Typical male; she sniffed.
“This is a reason for you to sit and drink beer with your friends. Meanwhile, I do the work.”
“I don’t drink beer.” Mike smiled down at Linda. “I just want to celebrate that I am engaged to such a beautiful woman.”
“I am not beautiful,” she muttered.
“Yes you are. You are to me and you will be to them.”
“They will laugh at me.”
“No one will laugh. I promise you.”
Linda turned to a subject over which she had control. “If we serve potatoes we have to peel them,” she told Mike. “Rice is better.”
“Just serve them Irish style, with the skin left on. We can have both rice and potatoes.”
“Rice should be enough” Linda grumbled. But the potatoes were there. Food should not be wasted she told herself.
***
Bob stopped his car in front of the brown and white house. From out of the trunk Bob took out a basket filled with soft drinks which he handed to Dan. He then brought out a box containing a large chocolate cake that Elizabeth and Colleen had baked. The ladies looked at it relieved to see that it had survived the trip without being damaged. “For god’s sake” Joy said to her husband, “don’t drop it.”
The front door opened. Mike stepped out.
Mike clapped Bob on his right shoulder stepping out of the way allowing him to enter. He shook Dan’s hand and then Colleen’s and greeted the other two ladies. “You guys can spend the night here. I have two extra bedrooms. There’s also a couch. Plenty of room.”
“Where is Linda” Colleen asked.
“In the kitchen, supervising.” said Mike. “I’m helping by staying out of her way.”
Colleen turned to Elizabeth and Joy. “We’ll bring her the cake. Come Bob.”
The small kitchen swelled with people as the three ladies from Kano followed by Bob and the cake joined the five in the kitchen.
Colleen had been told by Dan to look for the smallest adult in the room.
She found Linda standing next to the kitchen table between two larger Filipina ladies.
Linda oohed at the sight of the cake and then frowned. “Where do we put it? We will need small plates.”
She reminded Colleen of Aurora who was now studying medicine at Queen’s University.
“No we don’t” said Colleen. “People will just use the plates they have.” Then extending her hand she introduced herself. “You must be Linda. I’m Colleen. This is Elizabeth and Joy. We’ve just arrived from Kano.”
“With the cake?”
“Yes. We hope you like it.”
“Yes. Very much. “She tried to remember Colleen’s name. “You are married to Dan?”
“Yes I am. How can we help?”
Linda thought for a moment. “Slice the cake?”
***
Next to Mike stood Linda; wearing a white dress; her hair brushed back in a black ponytail. She looked up at her Mike, her eyes glistening with pride and love.
Watching Linda, Colleen recalled Aurora, and with her, Miss Davis, who, two years before, teaching to the end, had died of colon cancer. Compared to them what had she done? Not much she supposed. Seeing the world as her plaything, she had paid scant attention to others unless she found them amusing, or a threat. So she had come to Africa, seeking amusement, a new lover and maybe a husband. She had found one in Dan. With him she had found a new world, not in Africa but in him, a better one than she had known.
Dan raised high a bottle of Green Sands. “Mike and Linda,” he said. The guests, gathered from Hadejia, Mallam Madori and Kano cheered. Linda blushed as Mike, amid much applause, kissed her.