1.
With the wedding almost here, my girlfriend asked to hold it back in her hometown.
My parents, wanting to make things easier on her since she'd be marrying so far from home, flew out ahead of time and settled in at her place in the Appalachian foothills.
When I'd booked everything and finally got there, all I found was her and the parents of her childhood friend.
"Where are my parents?"
I asked, frowning.
She was fussing with the childhood friend's mother's clothes, and answered without looking up.
"There wasn't much room left in the house, so I had them sleep in the pigsty for now."
My dad had just had a stomach scope done not long ago. One whiff of anything foul and he'd start vomiting. My mom had a cleaning compulsion too. At home she'd scrub the smallest bit of dirt over and over. And now she wanted them to stay there for days on end.
I held my anger down and pointed at her childhood friend's parents.
"Then why do they have a place to sleep?"
She frowned, annoyed.
"They're honored guests of my family. Of course we can't shortchange them."
"Besides, your parents agreed when I told them to sleep in the pigsty. I didn't force them."
I went and found my parents.
My dad's face was pale and sick, but he still said,
"Lionel Dickerson, it's your big day. Don't start a fight over something small."
My mom kept wiping the mud off herself while she tried to talk me down.
"My clothes just got a little dirty, that's all. It's not like a pig knocked me over. The wedding comes first."
Off to the side, my girlfriend just let her own parents and her childhood friend's parents stand there picking my parents apart.
And in that moment, all at once, this wedding stopped meaning anything to me.
1.
"Michelle Pruitt, my parents came all this way to your home for the wedding to make things easier on you, and you make them sleep in a pigsty. You think that's right?"
I looked at her, furious.
But there wasn't a trace of guilt on her face. If anything, she looked impatient.
"Lionel, my house only has three rooms. One for my parents, one for Joel Henson's parents, and one for me. There's nothing left over for your parents."
"The pigsty has a bed. It's not like it can't be slept in. And your parents did it willingly. I didn't force them!"
"That still doesn't mean you can—"
Before I could finish, Michelle's childhood friend Joel suddenly stepped in front of her, his face cold.
"Can't what? Sure, my family moved away, but our families go back generations."
"If my parents don't sleep in the house, what, yours should?"
Then he let out a low, cold laugh.
"Tsk. It's just a marriage. Who knows when you'll be divorced."
"And you want to compare yourself to my family? Who do you think you are."
Joel's mother sneered from the side too.
"So they slept a couple of nights in a pigsty. Plenty of country folk sleep in pigsties, don't they?"
"Setting you up like this was just to see how sincere you are. Whether you two are even fit to be Michelle's in-laws."
Joel's father spoke mildly.
"We watched Michelle grow up. She's practically half a daughter to us. If you can't handle even this little test, then you won't treat her any better down the line."
As for Michelle's parents, they happened to get called away just then.
But before they left, there wasn't a shred of apology in their eyes.
My face went livid with anger as I turned to Michelle.
"You think this too?"
The way I saw it, this wasn't a test. It was flat-out humiliation.
She said flatly,
"What Joel said was a little harsh, sure, but it's not like he's wrong."
"Of course I'm marrying you for real. But your attitude today isn't good. Who's to say when you'll push me too far and it's all over between us."
My face darkened.
"Michelle, when we were together, you know better than anyone how I treated you. Saying something like this in front of my parents. What exactly are you trying to do?"
Three years of dating.
Every month I handed over half my paycheck to Michelle.
She said she wanted to feel like a princess, so I racked my brains and turned our place into the princess castle she wanted.
Whatever she wanted to eat, I'd drive hundreds of miles to go buy it for her.
Anything she needed, I'd go back and be with her even when it meant catching hell from my boss.
She made my parents sleep in a pigsty, and she said my attitude was bad?
It was almost funny.
"How I treated you?"
Michelle scoffed.
"You spent a little money on me here and there, cooked some meals. That's all."
"Who doesn't do that when they've got a girlfriend, when they're taking a wife? And you think you've earned some kind of medal for it?"
I felt a fire building inside me and was about to keep going.
But my dad stopped me right then.
"Lionel, your mom and I are fine. Today's your big day. Don't make a scene over us."
As he said it, he couldn't help gagging a couple of times.
Yet he turned the blame on himself.
"It's your dad who's useless. If my stomach weren't so bad, I wouldn't have put you in this spot."
My mom held him up and forced a smile at me.
"With my cleaning thing, I'll have to work a lot harder. These few days are just the chance to break me of it."
Looking at them, I felt an ache I couldn't put into words.
But right at that moment, Joel's parents had to make their snide little remarks from the side.
"So dramatic. It was just two nights in a pigsty, and look at the state of them. Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd eaten pig manure."
