Well I do have one rather nice dress. It's not white but after the birth of our child I think that that is one tradition that I can safely bypass.
Flowers however are a fairly standard and I'm not prepared to forgo those. And a wedding arch would be nice. Fortunately this island has abundant sources of flowers and plenty wood to make an arch.
Constructing it on the sly was a little more difficult and contriving an 'accidental' meeting under the flower laden bower which had magically appeared overnight really stretched my ingenuity to the limit.
I couldn't manage to do anything about Edwins clothes. Nothing I had would really fit him. I guess I'm pretty enough for two.
A shiny ring I knew was another essential ingredient to any self respecting woman's wedding day. Of course I had to make my own and then get down on one knee to make my own proposal, but a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do.
I made sure Edwin knew enough that the ring actually needed to end up on my finger.
There we go.
One more essential ingredient...
You May Now Kiss The Bride!
The wedding bells only chimed in my imagination unfortunately; as I told Edwin, I just didn't have time to make any.
But the wedding feast, provided courtesy of a trip in the time machine, was perfection.
I'm not sure if Hot Dogs with mustard is considered traditional or not, but after years of island food they tasted absolutely delicious!
And the whole ceremony was rounded off with another special activity traditionally associated with weddings. Thank goodness Wilbur was sleeping soundly.
What bliss. I thought my life had finally passed through the stormy waters and reached the shallow shoals of motherhood and married life.
I really should have known better.
As evening fell Edwin rose from our bed with a strange look upon his face. I thought he must have heard Wilbur cry and hurried to get up as well.
But rather than heading upstairs to the nursery Edwin began to double up and make cries of what I thought was pain.
As I moved to help him he gave one loud piercing shriek...
And transformed before my eyes...
Into a Beast!
I was frozen with horror but for the first time since Edwin first came into existence, he ignored me. Answering some deeper primal urge he headed outside and squatted down on all fours like a dog, every muscle taut, his blood red fingernail scrabbling at the grass, his elongated teeth, his FANGS! bared in a snarl.
It was like some surreal horror, I couldn't tear my eyes away.
Eventually he seemed to catch some scent on the air. He lifted his head and swung it from side to side, inhaling through his nose in short, quick snuffles.
Until...
Away into the night he sprung.
As though released from a spell I began to think again. I had had a child with this thing. Would what happened to Edwin be effecting Wilbur in the same way? Even as I stood there, had the same change already taken place? When I went to the nursery would I find my son or some baby monster that I didn't even recognise?
My sense of relief was nearly boundless when I found him sleeping peacefully in his cot. His tranquil little world had remained unshaken by the trauma which had nearly destroyed mine.
I had to pick him up, hold him, reassure myself that he was perfect and unharmed.
My precious boy.
Knowing him to be safe, my heart slowed from its frantic pace and the unreasoning terror receded somewhat from my mind.
Edwin had made Wilbur possible; He was the father of my child. I also began to realise that whatever changes had taken place with Edwin, they were almost certainly caused by the potions I had given him. I had no real understanding of the book on which I based my experimentations. So much on this island had proved to be a surprise, should I then be surprised, that this surprise was more surprising than any yet?
I sat there long into the night, rocking our son on my lap and thinking of my husband. Out there, somewhere. Doing I knew not what, but my thoughts were with him and I felt at peace.
