What He's Been Missing

“You can’t,” Mrs. Bloom said.

“I don’t care, Mami,” Scarlet said. “Esto no es correcto!”

“What?” Mrs. Dupree looked at Ian. “See, this is what I’m talking about. They don’t like black people. They up in here speaking in different languages and stuff.”

“Mama, calm down!” Ian said.

“I don’t want to walk down the aisle,” I said.

“Well, it’s too late now. We’ve already started. It’s bad luck to start and stop,” Mrs. Dupree said.

“Estrella, siéntese,” Mrs. Bloom ordered, seemingly annoyed.

“But I don’t want her to walk down the aisle. I want to do it!”

“It’ll be your turn tomorrow,” Mrs. Dupree said. “Let’s go. We’re running out of time.”

“Siéntese!” Mrs. Bloom stood and pointed at Scarlet.

Scarlet huffed and puffed and went back to her seat.

Mrs. Dupree went on singing and clicking her camera.

When Mr. Bloom and I got to the front of the church, Krista, who looked like there was a big red balloon about to burst in her head, showed him how to hand Scarlet off to Ian and showed him to his seat beside his wife.

Ian smiled and took my hand without Krista telling him what to do. I grinned back at him.

“Look at ya’ll. Like you meant to be together. Get in closer for a picture!” Mrs. Dupree was laying it on so thick, Mrs. Bloom was finally catching on to her act.

Mrs. Bloom said something in Spanish to her husband, but Mrs. Dupree pretended not to hear h

er. She went on with her speech.

“Guess this is the last time you two will be together,” she said.

“Mom, Rachel and I will always be friends,” Ian said, looking into my eyes. “Best friends.”

“Let’s finish,” Mrs. Bloom said.

“Are you rushing this rehearsal?” Mrs. Dupree turned to Mrs. Bloom with knives in her eyes.

“They said there’s another event in here,” Mrs. Bloom said.

“I can stay in here as long as I please. My son, Dr. Ian Dupree, a professor at a top university, is getting married tomorrow—and I don’t know why, but he’s marrying someone who I ain’t never met and who ain’t got half of what he has.”

“Mama, stop it!” Ian said. “That’s not right. Take that back.”

“Take it back? I meant every word. That wasn’t to hurt anyone’s feelings. Those are the facts.”

“My family has money,” Mrs. Bloom said. “We can afford to take care of our daughter.”

“Well, I hope you can do that for the rest of her life because Miss Star don’t have no good plans but mooching off my son. Watch. She gonna get pregnant and lay her ass up for the rest of her life. I know the type.”

“Now, hold on. You can’t talk about my daughter like that,” Mr. Bloom jumped in.

“You don’t need to be jumping up in my wife’s face like that!” Mr. Dupree got up and went to defend Mrs. Dupree.

It was about to turn into a full-scale circus.