109b: New. Family.

A half hour later Robert interrupted Caleb with, “Hey, I’m at Grace’s. We’ll talk tomorrow, OK?”

He parked and climbed out of his car, walking up to Grace, who was fussing with something in the back seat. He grabbed her by the waist, “Have a nice trip, my love?”

“Yes, fine. Except I am so nervous and freaked out.”

“Nervous?”

“Well, this morning I wasn’t even engaged, and here you are calling me your wife and we’ve slept together and all. I tried to explain it to my parents, but I don’t know if they understood.”

“Are they upset?”

“Oh, no! They’re excited. They just keep asking when we’re going to get married.”

“So… they think we’re engaged and sleeping together?”

“Sort of.”

“Well, we can have a ceremony if you want.”

“I think my mother will kill us if we don’t.”

“Ready to go in?”

“No!” Grace said, staring at her house. Then they saw a small hand pulling aside a curtain, and a small head look excitedly out. “But I suppose we have to.”

Robert followed Grace up to the door, where she knocked. Robert always found this bizarre. He couldn’t imagine knocking on his own parent’s door. Seconds later the door was pulled open by one of Grace’s younger brothers, and soon everyone was there hugging, kissing, shaking hands, and the like. Robert only had to suffer through it all for a few seconds, though, as Grace’s Dad, once he finally got to shake Robert’s hand and give him a ‘man hug’, kept his arm around him and pulled him away into the ‘study’, closing the door.

“So Grace tells me you two are married,” Dad said, and Robert gulped.

“Ummm, yes, you see…”

“Just a second,” Dad said, “Let me see if I understand it. You have to understand, I only got the word from her mother, who is not exactly the best at listening sometimes. Marriage, as you see it, is between the man and the woman; not the state or the church. So when you asked her to marry you, and when she accepted, that was it, you were married.”

“Well, sort of,” Robert stammered out. He agreed with his dad on this issue, but hated talking about it. Especially with his new father-in-law! “You see, it is not so much Grace and I, but the family. You, we talked about it, and you said that you would be pleased if we got married. And so I had your ‘permission’ to marry her. But we do see marriage as a binding vow in the family, not before the church.”

“And so now that you are ‘married’… well, no, let me get it right. Now that you are betrothed you can sleep together and then you will be married?”

Robert’s ears grew red and suddenly Dad laughed, “I was just teasing you. Grace told us, actually. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. We aren’t so conservative, as you know, and expected you two to start sleeping together quite a while ago. All in all I’m probably pleased she waited, though. A man like you that was willing to wait is probably better for her. Anyway, now that you’re committed, and having sex, you’re married… according to you. And I, personally, don’t have a problem with that. But it makes it a little hard on our friends, and our church. Would you be willing to have some sort of ceremony here at our church?”

“Yes, that’s no problem, as long as the pastor knows.”

“Knows?” Dad asked.

“Knows that we already consider ourselves married. As long as he doesn’t try to ‘pronounce’ us married.”

“Oh, well, that should be no problem. Your pastor understands, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. And what they are going to do….”

—

“A party?” Grace’s Mom asked. They were all sitting around the table eating a delicious chocolate cake, and Dad had just announced their ‘compromise’.

“To celebrate their marriage, like in the Bible,” Dad said. All of Grace’s friends, and her sister, can come and be ‘virgins’… even those that aren’t… and they could even bring lamps if they wanted. And Robert’s friends too… not with lamps. And their will be food and all, and we’ll give them a hard time. It will be great fun.”

“And the wedding?” Mom asked.

“We’ll do it there,” Dad said. “Caleb’s preacher, they call them elders, will preach some hopefully-not-too-long sermon on the importance of marriage, and then he will kiss her, and viola.

Mom looked a little doubtful that ‘viola’ was quite enough, but the younger kids all started talking about the party and she was soon in the swing of things with issues of dresses and flowers and all.

It was hours later before Dad finally said, “Well, it’s been great fun, but it’s time for bed. Upstairs everyone.”

He put, and kept, his hand on Robert’s shoulder though so Robert stayed. “Do you need protection, son?” he asked, when everyone else was gone. “I wasn’t sure if you had time to get any.”

“We… we aren’t going to use any, sir,” Robert said, gulping slightly.

“Oh?”

“I… I don’t believe in it, sir.”

“And are you ready for the, hopefully, inevitable consequences?”

“Yes, sir. My father and I talked about it and, if there is any financial problems, they will back us up. I haven’t been foolish or irresponsible with my money while I was in high school or during the summers, but have saved a good deal; mostly in gold and silver.”

“Well, I can’t say we won’t appreciate a grandchild, but you certainly are straining the limits of the cultural norms, here.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“No, don’t be sorry. I’m kind of proud of you. You take what you believe in and you are ready to live it out.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The two shook hands and Robert went upstairs, to a small crisis.

“Why do I have to sleep with the boys?” Justina was asking. “Why can’t I sleep in my own room with Robert and Grace? Or Robert can sleep with the boys. He’s a boy!” she said, accusingly.

Robert blushed, and was about to stammer out something about that being OK, when Grace squeezed his hand and said, “No, he can’t. We sleep together now, just like Mom and Dad. And you can’t sleep with us tonight. Maybe later. Or come in the morning and crawl in with us. Just knock first in case Robert is changing.”

“Ok,” Justina said, pouting, and went off to the bathroom with her pajamas in hand.

“Sorry about that,” Grace said, closing, and locking, the door.

“I’m confused,” Robert said, taking off his shirt. “She’s got to be what, eleven. Doesn’t she know about sex and all?”

“No,” Grace said. “My parents are kind of shy about that, and our local schools, well, you remember the lawsuit. My parents like to wait until we’ve started changing before telling us about periods, let alone sex. They had to tell Justina about periods early because she walked in on me one day while I was changing my pad. Becky knows, of course.”

Robert thought back to his own family. His mom made a pretense of modesty, for herself and, since she changed, for Jenny, but Robert had known about sex and biology since forever. He looked at Grace, who was quite worth looking at, “Are you OK with the whole no-wedding thing?” he asked.

Grace came over and helped him with his clothes. “More than OK,” she said. “I guess I had always thought of some big wedding, but it is really a waste of time, energy, and money. Besides, the party sounds good. Besides,” she said, finishing, “this was the only way I could get you into bed…”