Writing Assignment 5 Final Draft

A bright, sunny summer’s day. The kind of day where the sun is beating down just enough so that one is relieved to get indoors. In city hall that day, the escape indoors did little for the four people in a stuffy room at the end of the hall on the third floor. The ancient air conditioning unit chugged on hopefully, but to no avail. A bead of perspiration formed on the judge’s upper lip as she rapped her podium with her pen impatiently.
“…Speak now or forever hold you peace.” She raised her eyebrows at a bored looking secretary standing idly diagonally behind the engaged couple. The secretary furrows her brow as if to say, “How would I know?” but then gives a shake of her head indicating that she had no objections to the union. She then glanced at her watch anxiously. For the secretary, this was the worst part of her job. It wasn’t even supposed to be her job. But when naïve young couples like the present Sarah Howard and Steven Johnson come into city hall to get married, not knowing that they needed a witness, the secretary often stepped in, much to her discomfort.
The secretary studies the young couple with interest. She normally saw two kinds of wedding at city hall. There’s the shotgun, someone’s a little too pregnant for the big white dress church ceremony wedding, and then there’s the couple with a head over heels (normally trying too hard) bride and a groom who is obviously gritting his teeth at the very idea of marriage…but doesn’t want to lose her or whatever his reason may be. For some reason, this couple didn’t seem to fit into this mold. They seem so normal. She continued to wonder why Sarah Howard and Steven Johnson would go for a wedding ceremony with the same amount of charm as a trip to the DMV.
In truth, city hall had never been Sarah or Steven’s idea of a dream wedding. Far from it, in fact. The real reason for the impromptu ceremony actually goes back about four generations into Sarah Howard’s family. The story goes that her Great, great, great grandfather Howard was engaged to marry this girl when, ten minutes before the ceremony, his best friend informed him that he had, ahem, already deflowered the beloved bride. Many a time. Sarah’s great, great, great grandfather (who always had quite the temper) waited until right before he was supposed to say “I do” and instead of vowing to bind himself to his bride forever, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the heart multiple times. It was really quite the scandal.
One might ask what this has to do with Sarah and Steven. It seems that, ever since this fateful tragedy, a curse has been set on Sarah’s family, so that at every wedding the Howard family hosts, a family member suffers an untimely death. One might say this is only silly superstition, but the previous year Sarah’s brother regarded the story as such and right during the vows their Uncle Ernie was stung by a bee and died of an unknown bee allergy. So, Sarah and Steven weren’t willing to take any risks.
They are more then content as they say their “I do’s” in front of complete strangers, knowing that no family members were at risk because of their union. After the ceremony, the secretary’s curiosity gets the better of her, and she blurts out to the couple:
“Why are you getting married in city hall?” The couple exchanges a look, slightly taken aback. Steven proceeds to shrug his shoulders, knowing that Sarah did not want to get into her family history.
“Stage fright.”