Four:
Phil moved fast and caught Faith's wrist just in time to keep the blade from cutting into her right there in front of everyone.
"Millicent, what has gotten into you?"
"It's just an act. Why can't you sacrifice a little?"
"Do you really want to stand there and watch my mother die at our own wedding? Would that make you happy?"
The voices from the crowd grew louder.
Every one of them was saying that if I refused to play along, I was as good as trying to kill her.
I looked at the knife in Faith's hand, then at Phil's face twisted up in all that begging, and finally I nodded and let out a sigh.
"Fine."
"But I need to make one thing clear first. Everything that happens next is just me and Phil humoring a mother-in-law with dementia. None of it is real. It's me and Phil being good to her."
"So don't any of you stop us out of pity. If we're going to act, we act it all the way through. Anyone who breaks the routine and sets off my mother-in-law's fits, makes her want to die again, I, Millicent Hughes, will not let them off."
The crowd chimed in eagerly, of course.
Their mouths said they wouldn't take it seriously, said they felt for me, but every one of them had already lifted their phones, just waiting to film me making a fool of myself on parade and post it online.
I acted like I didn't see a thing.
I didn't even stop them from filming. I just smiled and said,
"Yes, you should record it. This is all proof of how good Phil and I are to her. When we're old we can show it to the children, so they learn from us too."
Hearing me say that, Faith's mouth had already stretched into a grin wide enough to touch the sky.
The way she saw it,
as long as I let myself be paraded today, she'd have me, her daughter-in-law, completely under her thumb. From then on, if I ever stepped out of line, she could just have another episode.
Phil was biting down hard just to keep himself from laughing out loud.
He picked up the shaming placard and the filthy shoe from the side and, unable to wait, moved to loop them over my neck. I stopped him and reached out to take them myself.
"I'll do it myself."
Five:
Phil naturally had no objection. Me putting it on with my own hands would only make the video hotter online, so he handed the things right over, then turned his back, pretending he couldn't bear to watch, hiding his smirk.
But before he could get that laugh out,
I turned around and hung the shaming placard and the filthy shoe over his neck instead, and from the pocket of my wedding dress I pulled out a pair of toy handcuffs and pulled Phil's hands behind his back and cuffed them.
It all happened too fast.
Phil couldn't process it at all.
"Millicent, have you lost your mind? That's supposed to go on you. Why did you put it on me?"
"Take it off me, now. This thing stinks, it's disgusting."
"Hurry up, or what are people going to think of me?"
I tugged at the corner of my mouth.
Truly funny. Me wearing it makes me the dutiful daughter-in-law, but him wearing it makes him a joke? Isn't that a bit of a double standard?
I didn't say it out loud, though. I just looked at Phil.
"Phil, stop making a fuss. This is all for Mom. Just bear with it. Kneel and walk a few laps around, and once Mom's had her fill, I'll take it off you."
Phil was furious. He wanted to speak again, but I didn't give him the chance. I picked up that dirty, stinking shoe and stuffed it straight into his mouth, so he couldn't get a word out.
Watching me humble him like that,
Faith couldn't spare a thought for pretending to have dementia anymore.
"Millicent, are you sick in the head? Take it off him now. Phil is a grown man. Touching filthy things like that brings bad luck!"
But I held onto Faith and wouldn't let go.
"Mom, we can't be messing around now."
"It took everything I had to beg the head of the old farming collective to let Phil help me with the walk of disgrace. If you stop it now, aren't you slapping him in the face?"
"And the collective head said I'm a loose woman, that Phil moved in with me before marriage and got me pregnant, which makes him guilty of indecency. If we don't parade him and hold a public shaming, he'll be dragged off and shot."
"Or do you want Phil to die?"
