Kafari smiled, delighted by the news. She didn’t know the Hancocks, but if Dinny had fallen in love with one of them, they were good people. She tapped out a message on her computer, sending her RSVP, and added it to her calendar. She didn’t add Yalena’s name to the RSVP. She knew her headstrong and prejudiced daughter too well to think there’d be anything but trouble if she tried dragging Yalena to a wedding between farmers. She had to pick and choose the battles she was willing to fight and this wasn’t one of them.
She intended to enjoy herself, anyway.
The day of the wedding dawned clear, with a sky like sea-washed pearl. She left Yalena engrossed in a multi-way chat between herself and more than a dozen friends, whose favorite topic of conversation these days was boys. And clothes, of course, since the right clothes were essential to attracting boys.
She started up her Airdart and headed for Cimmero Canyon. She hadn’t seen Dinny or Aisha in far too long. They’d all gotten so busy, there was very little time to socialize with people who lived as far apart as they did. Kafari disliked the new apartment in Madison, but a city-based home was essential in the war of wills between herself and her daughter. Where they lived was another battle Kafari wasn’t willing to fight.
Her arrival at the Hancock farm pushed aside unhappy thoughts. The front lawn had been turned into an impromptu parking area, while the back lawn, bordered by kitchen gardens, had been transformed into a wedding square, complete with flower arbors, tables full of food, and a dance floor. Kafari smiled, setting the Airdart down near the edge of the front lawn. She rescued her wedding gift and followed the garlands that marked the path around the house.
Aisha spotted her almost immediately. “Kafari, child! You came!”
She ran across the grass and pulled Kafari into a tight hug.
“Of course I came,” Kafari smiled. “I wouldn’t miss Dinny’s wedding for anything short of a Deng invasion.”
Aisha, clad in stunning African-patterned silk, chuckled with warmth despite the shadows in her eyes. “Child, that boy wouldn’t call off this wedding if he had to get hitched during an invasion.”
“She sounds like a wonderful girl.”
Aisha just smiled and drew her forward to meet other wedding guests. Kafari didn’t know most of them, but they all knew her. Fortunately, no one brought up the subject of her missing husband. Or her missing daughter. That kind of courtesy and concern was refreshing and very soothing. City life frequently rubbed her nerves raw.
The ceremony was simple and beautiful. Dinny had grown into a tall and distinguished young man, ramrod straight and so happy, he was about to burst the seams of his ivory suit. The fabric glowed against the rich mahogany of his skin, which was the exact color of newly turned earth ready for planting. His bride, in an ivory gown that turned her complexion to silk and caught the radiance of her shining eyes, smiled up at him and rested her hand on his as the officiant began the hand-fasting. Emmeline’s parents stood beside Dinny’s mother, who had clasped Mrs. Hancock’s hand while they wiped tears. Emmeline’s grandparents were there, as well, Jeremiah Benjamin and his wife Ruth, from Klameth Canyon.
When the vows had been spoken, husband and wife turned to face the crowd, grinning like children, and jumped the broom, sealing the marriage. Then the dancing began and Kafari found herself swept onto the dance floor by one partner after another. She hadn’t smiled so much since Simon’s departure. When Dinny asked her to dance, her smile turned brilliant.
“I’d love to dance with you, Dinny.”
“Thank you for coming,” he said as they whirled onto the floor. “It meant a lot, seeing you here today.”
“I should be thanking you. It’s… lonely, for me.”
His eyes were grave as he met her gaze. “I don’t know how you do it, Kafari. If Emmeline and I were torn apart for that long…” He just shook his head. “I honestly don’t know how you keep going. Of course,” he gave her a strange little smile, “I’ve never understood where your strength comes from. You scare me sometimes, Kafari. I’d follow you anywhere. Into any battle you thought worth fighting.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“Emmeline wants to meet you,” he added. “She’s so afraid you won’t like her.”
“Why wouldn’t I like her? She had enough sense to marry you!”
He grinned. “Yeah, she did, didn’t she? I never thought she’d say yes.” His happy expression faded in the wake of a thought so visibly unhappy, Kafari’s breath faltered. “I was scared to death, you see, because I couldn’t offer her family much. Mama and I couldn’t get enough loan money to rebuild, let alone buy equipment and a new dairy herd. We sold the land, but it wasn’t enough to start over, not in the dairy business. We had the bees,” he said, with a wry quirk of his lips, “and that brought in enough money to support Mama, renting out the hives for pollinating crops and selling Asali honey. But I had to hire on as a farm hand, to make ends meet.”
He glanced toward his wife, who was dancing with someone Kafari didn’t know, probably a relative, given the resemblance. “I’ve been working on the Hancock family’s cooperative since the war. They’re good people. The co-op’s been growing pretty fast, these last few years. We’ve got fourteen families, now, as full members in residence, with another seven who’ve pooled money and equipment as affiliate members.”
“Twenty-one families?” Kafari said, startled. “That’s a pretty big group, isn’t it?” A frown drove Dinny’s brows together. “I’ll say it is. We’ve got eighty-four people in residence, right now, and another forty-three in affiliates. The original members were burned out in the war, same as Mama and me. The Hancocks had a lot of land,” he nodded toward the lovely sprawl of fields and orchards and pastures that filled a significant percentage of the canyon, “and they were lucky in the war. The Deng never touched Cimmero. The first five families who formed the co-op were from Klameth Canyon. Friends, collateral cousins, in-laws. They brought whatever they’d managed to salvage in the way of equipment and livestock and what have you. Mostly they brought their know-how. We make a living, which is more than a lot of folks can say, these days.
“But we’re growing too fast, for some worrisome reasons. Johnny Hancock has signed six new families into the co-op in the last year alone, and all seven affiliate families have joined in the last six months. We could’ve added nearly a hundred new families, if we had enough land to fill government quotas and supply our own pantries and tables out of what’s left. There’s not enough produce left over to sell anything at the private markets, these days. And POPPA’s land-snatchers just keep confiscating farms and ‘restoring’ them to the wild, while screaming at us to meet those damned Subbie-driven quotas. I lie awake nights, worrying about where it’s going to end.” He wasn’t looking at Kafari, now. He was gazing at his wife, lovely in her wedding finery, a vivacious and beautiful girl who represented everything Dinny Ghamal wanted most in life: a wife to love, the hope of children, someone to stand beside him as they built a future together, leaving a legacy that would last for generations.
If POPPA didn’t smash it all to flinders.
A chill touched Kafari’s shoulderblades.
The music ended and Dinny led her over to the chairs where his bride was chatting happily with friends and relatives. She looked up, noticed Kafari, and turned white as milk. She struggled to her feet. “Mrs. Khrustinova!”
“It’s Kafari,” she said with a smile. “It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Ghamal.”
Emmeline blushed prettily and clasped Kafari’s hand for a moment. “Thank you for coming to our wedding.” She glanced at Dinny, then got the rest out in a rush of words, before she lost her nerve. “And I wanted to thank you, as well, for Dinny. He wouldn’t be alive, if not for you. The Deng would have killed him. He means so much to me, Mrs. — I mean, Kafari,” she corrected herself with another shy blush.
Kafari chuckled and pressed her fingers in a gesture of warm reassurance. “Where did you meet him?
“I went to school in Madison, at Riverside University, and I hated it, until I met Dinny. Most of the boys were so…” She groped for words. “So babyish. All they talked about was sports and beer. I never knew people could be that stupid and shallow. Then I met Dinny at a campus rally to save the agricultural degree program and everything changed.” She gave Kafari a sweet smile. “I never knew anyone could be so happy, either. So I just wanted to say thank you, for keeping him and Aisha alive. I’m more grateful than you can ever know.”
“I think you heard a garbled version of that story, then, because Dinny and Aisha saved my life, not the other way around. I can’t tell you what it means to me, meeting the girl Dinny Ghamal thought highly enough of to marry.”
Emmeline blushed again.
“Now then, Emmeline, why don’t you tell me your plans for after the honeymoon?”
Dinny’s bride smiled, openly delighted by Kafari’s interest, then drew Kafari down to sit beside her. She chattered happily about the little cottage they were building on one corner of her parents’ land.
“We bought it out of Dinny’s savings and mine. The cottage includes a separate addition for Aisha. She rents out most of the bees to orchard owners during pollination season. The honey commands premium prices on Mali. And you should see the improvements Dinny’s been making in the dairy herd. He’s got a shrewd eye and a good instinct for breeding new heifers. Milk production’s nearly doubled and the demand for Hancock Family cheese has just skyrocketed. Not only in the Canyon, but in Madison and even Mali.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Kafari smiled, catching Dinny’s eye. “Both of you.”
She sent a hopeful prayer skyward that their happiness would last a lifetime.