True Blood Companion

SMALL-TOWN WEDDING
BY CHARLAINE HARRIS

There are a lot of people to thank, for a relatively short work! I forgot to mention my
CSI niece Danielle, who helped me on a previous piece; so here’s to you, Dani! And Ivan
Van Laningham offered me help on that same piece. My college buddy, Dr. Ed Uthman.
Victoria Koski, my continuity queen, who struggles against my tide of fuzzy thinking. And
the many people who were kind enough to help me attempt to pronounce Dutch: Geja
Topper, Dave Bennett, Hans Bekkers, Jochem Steen, Leighton Gage, Sarah Bewley, and
Simon Wood. And Duane Swierczynski, who is standing by to help me dispose of a body.

Chapter One

It was May, I had a great tan, and I was going on a road trip, leaving vampire
politics behind. I felt better than I had in a long time. Wearing only my underwear,
I stood in my sunny bedroom and went down my checklist.

1. Give Eric and Jason address and dates
I’d done that. My boyfriend, Eric Northman, vampire sheriff of Area Five of
Louisiana, had all the information he needed. So did my brother, Jason.
2. Ask Bill to watch house
Okay. I’d left a letter pushed under my neighbor Bill Compton’s door. He’d
find it when he rose for the night. His “sister” Judith (sired by the same vampire)
was still staying at his place. If Bill could tear himself away from her company, he
would walk across the cemetery separating our properties to have a look at my
house, and he’d get my mail and my newspaper and put them on my front porch.
3. Call Tara
I’d done that; my pregnant friend Tara reported all was well with the twins she
was carrying, and she’d call or get her husband to call if there was any news. She
wasn’t due for three more months. But twins, right? You never knew.
4. Bank
I’d deposited my last paycheck and gotten more cash than I usually carried.
5. Claude and Dermot
My cousin and my great-uncle had decided to stay at Claude’s house in
Monroe while I was gone. Claude had been living with me for about a month, and
Dermot had joined him only two weeks ago, so Dermot said he still felt funny
being in my house without me there. Claude, of course, had no such qualms, since
he’s about as sensitive as a sheet of sandpaper, but Dermot had carried the day.

All my clothes were clean, and I thought I was packed. Though it would be a
good idea to review my packing list, which was completely separate from my
“things to do” list. Since my friend and boss, Sam Merlotte, had invited me to go
with him to his brother’s wedding, I’d been in a nervous tizzy about forgetting
something essential and somehow making Sam look bad in front of his family.

I had borrowed a pretty dress, sleeveless and blue, like my eyes, to wear to the
wedding, and I had some black pumps with three-inch heels that were in great
condition. For everything else, I packed the best and newest of my casual clothes:
two pairs of good shorts, an extra pair of jeans. I threw in a yellow and gray skirt
outfit, just in case.

I counted my underwear, made sure I had the right bras, and checked the little
jewelry pouch to be sure my gran’s pearls were there. I shut the bag, triumphant.
I’d done my best to cover every contingency, and I’d fit everything into a hanging
bag and a weekender bag.

Just as I reopened the bag to make sure I’d included my blow-dryer, I heard
Sam’s truck coming up the driveway that wound through the woods. In thirty
seconds I pulled on my khaki shorts and a very thin white tank top with a teal tank
layered over it. I had a little gold chain on, and I slid my feet into my new sandals.
My toenails were a happy pink (“Run Run Rosy”). I felt great. I hurried to the front
door and opened it just as Sam was about to knock.

He was wearing his usual jeans and Merlotte’s Bar and Grill T-shirt, but he was
sporting ancient cowboy boots. Yep, we were going to Texas, all right. His red gold
hair was shorter these days, and I could tell he’d taken special care shaving.
“Sorry I’m a little late,” he said. “I had to give Kennedy and Terry some extra
instructions.” The two substitute bartenders were going to be in charge while Sam
was gone, and Sam was pretty nervous about it.
“No problem. I’m ready.” He picked up my overnighter while I got my
hanging bag and locked the door behind me. Luckily, Sam’s pickup had an
extended cab, and we were able to put our clothes on the backseat.
“You looking forward to this?” I asked him, when we were on the interstate.
We were going across the state line from Louisiana into Texas to a small town
called Wright, south of the interstate past Dallas, where Sam’s folks had settled
after his dad got out of the service.
“This is the first nice thing that’s happened in my family in months, and for a
while I didn’t think this wedding would ever come off,” he said. “I really
appreciate your going with me.”
“Are they putting pressure on you to get married?” I should have realized
before that there might be another reason Sam wanted me to accompany him,
something beyond the pleasure of my company. Some women have long careers as
bridesmaids; I had a long career of being a pretend girlfriend. I hoped that wasn’t
going to be a perpetual pattern.
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
“That might be overstating it,” Sam said. He grinned at me. “But my mom and
my sister sure are ready for me to show them I’m thinking about the subject. Of
course, the shifters going public and my mom’s troubles kind of put my own
marital status on the back burner.”
The Weres had revealed their existence on television a few months before,
following the vampire model. Many of the other two-natured (or “twoeys,” as the
pop-culture magazines had immediately started calling them) had shown
themselves at the same time. Oddly, the American public seemed to be more upset
about the werewolves and werepanthers living among them than they’d been when
they found out vampires were real.
“Does your mom try to set you up with nice shifter girls all the time?”
“So far she hasn’t been able to find another pure shifter like me, though my
sister, Mindy, told me Mom had gone online trying to track one down.” Sam could
turn into anything: lion, dog, raccoon. His kind was pretty rare.
“Gosh. Are you sure you shouldn’t have brought Jannalynn? She may not be
exactly who your family wants you to bring home—at least, that’s what you said—
but she’s a werewolf, and that’s better than a human like me, right? At least to your
mom. If your mom’s looking for a woman for you online, that’s kind of…
desperate, huh?”
Sam laughed. “Definitely. But Mom means well. She was really happy with my
dad, and their first date was a setup. If she can find an unattached female shifter
the right age, she’s hoping lightning will strike twice in the Merlotte family.”
“You told me that you’d almost gotten married once.”
“Yeah, when I was in the army. She was a good ol’ girl, regular human. My dad
would have liked her. But it just didn’t work out.”
I wanted to ask why, but I knew it was none of my business.
He asked, “You think you and Eric might get married now that it’s legal?”
I started to tell him we were married already, according to my big blond
vampire boyfriend, but decided it would be better to skip that discussion entirely.
“He hasn’t asked me,” I said, which was the truth. He hadn’t asked me about
the vampire marriage rite, either. I’d handed him a ceremonial knife in front of a
witness without asking a single question, which proves how little sense I could
have when I was around Eric.
As the miles carried me away from Eric, the bond between us stretched but did
not break. Eric was a silent presence. Miles of Texas interstate rolled by, and though
I knew Eric was in his bed, dead to the world, I couldn’t help thinking about him. It
wasn’t nearly as bad as it would have been if he’d been awake, though.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Sam said.
I jumped because my thoughts weren’t family-rated at that moment.
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
“I was hoping Bill recovers from the silver poisoning. I found a vampire sibling
of his, and I got her to come visit. He’d told me if he got some blood from a sib, it
would really help him heal.”
Sam looked a little nonplussed. “How’d you do that?” he asked.
When I told him how I’d tracked Judith down, he shook his head. “How’d you
know he wouldn’t get mad at you?”
“I was doing it for him,” I said, not understanding Sam’s point. “Why would he
get mad?”
Sam said gently, “Sook, Bill obviously knew where this Judith was, and he
didn’t call her on his own. He must have had a reason.”
I knew that. But I’d gone ahead and contacted her anyway. I’d only thought
about how worried I was about Bill. I could feel myself tearing up. I didn’t want to
admit to Sam that he was right.
I looked out the window so Sam wouldn’t have to watch my eyes brim over.
“Sook?” he said, and from his voice I could tell he had leaned forward to try to
see my face. “Sook? Hey, I’m sorry. Listen, I was just blowing hot air. You were
watching out for him, and I’m probably just jealous.”
I could read his mind enough to know he wasn’t being entirely truthful—but
he did sincerely want me to feel better, and he was truly sorry I was upset. “You’re
right,” I said, though my voice wobbled in a pathetic way. “Sam, you’re absolutely
right. I’ve made so many mistakes.”
“Don’t we all? I’ve made more than a few, and I don’t seem to stop making
them,” Sam said, and there was bitterness in his voice.
“Okay. We’re both human; we got that settled,” I said, making myself smile.
“Or, at least, we’re mostly human.”
He laughed, and I felt better. I rummaged around in my purse for a Kleenex
and patted my eyes carefully to keep my makeup intact. I got a Coca-Cola out of
the ice chest behind Sam’s seat and popped it open for him, and got myself one,
too. We talked about the sorry season the Bon Temps Hawks baseball team was
having, and I told Sam about watching the softball team practice the week before. I
felt good when I was confident everything was back to normal between us.
When we stopped to get gas outside Dallas, I watched a black Ford Focus shoot
by. “That’s funny,” I said to Sam, who was punching his PIN into the pump.
“That’s the same car I saw when we pulled over to find out what that noise was.” A
branch had caught under the truck and had been making an alarming whap-whapwhap.
Sam glanced up. “Huh,” he said. “Well, the interstate is always busy, and the
Focus is a popular model.”
“This is the same one,” I said. “There’s a place on the driver’s side of the
windshield where a rock hit.”
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
Then I went inside the station to visit the ladies’ room, because I could tell Sam
didn’t want to be worrying about a Ford Focus. I didn’t, either, but there it was.
I kept a sharp eye out for the car after that, but I didn’t bring up the subject
again. As a result, we made pleasant conversation past Dallas and Fort Worth, all
the way to the turn off the interstate that would lead us south to Wright.
I’d offered to drive, but Sam said he was so familiar with the route that he
didn’t mind being at the wheel. “I’m just glad to have company making the drive,
for once,” he said. “I’ve had to go over to Wright so often since the announcement.”
Sam’s mom had had a huge crisis the evening of the big two-natured reveal,
broadcast worldwide; her second husband had been so startled by the fact that his
wife could turn into an animal that he’d shot her.
“But you’ve got the one sister and the one brother,” I said.
“Yeah, Mindy and Craig. Mindy’s twenty-six. She’s married to Doke Ballinger.
She went to high school with him. They have two kids, Mason and Bonnie. They
live about thirty miles away in Mooney.”
“What’s the name of the woman Craig’s marrying? Daisy? Denise?”
“Deidra. She’s from Wright, too. She and Craig have both been going to UT
Dallas. She’s a real pretty girl, only nineteen, and Craig’s twenty-four. He went into
the army before he started college.”
“Lots of military service in your family.” Sam and Craig’s dad had been retired
army.
Sam shrugged. “Because of Dad, we’re all used to the service as an option. It’s
not a huge leap like it is for some families. Craig always liked Deidra, but when he
was in high school, she was way too young for him to think about as a date. He did
call her when he found out another kid from Wright was going to UT Dallas, and
he says they were gone on each other after the first date.”
“Aw. That’s so sweet. I guess all this trouble has been really hard on them.”
“Yeah. Craig was pretty mad at me and Mom for a while, and then he accepted
it, but Deidra’s folks freaked out. The wedding got postponed a couple of times.”
I nodded. Sam had told me how his brother’s fiancée’s family had reacted to
the news that her about-to-be mother-in-law sometimes ran on four feet.
“So instead of sending out new invitations, the Lisles just put a notice in the
Wright paper.”
“How big is Wright?”
Sam laughed. “About as big as Bon Temps. Except in the tourist season. There’s
a river that runs a little west of Wright, and there’s a lot of rafting and camping. At
night, those rafters and campers are looking for something to do, so there’re a
couple of big bars that have live bands. And there’s a western-wear store and a
riding stable for beginners on up, for when people want to take a break from the
water. Stuff like that. Wright’s a pretty conservative place, though. Everyone’s glad
when the tourists leave in the fall.”
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
“Has your mom had any trouble with the rest of the town since the shooting?”
Sam had been the target of one protest in the Merlotte’s parking lot, but since then
things had died down—for good, I hoped.
“I’m reading between the lines, but yes, I think people haven’t been as friendly
as they used to be. Don’s a local guy. He’s got cousins and stuff all around Wright.”
“He’s in jail now, right?”
“Yeah, he couldn’t make bail. He never denied he shot Mom. I don’t
understand why there’s any sympathy for him.”
I didn’t say anything, but I could sort of understand feeling sympathy for
someone who’d suddenly discovered his wife changed into a different creature. Of
course, shooting that wife was a gross overreaction, but watching your wife
transform into a dog . . . That would shake any man. However, that was not my
problem to solve, and I was certainly sorry the whole incident had happened.
I was not walking into a normal, happy family wedding. I already knew some
of what Sam was saying, but maybe I should have asked more questions before I
got in the truck. I thought of the shotgun my brother had given me, sitting uselessly
in the closet in my house.
“You look kinda worried, Sookie,” Sam said, and I could read the dismay in his
brain. “I wouldn’t have brought you if I thought there was a way in the world
something bad would happen to you.”
“Sam, I hope you have the whole picture of what’s going on in Wright,” I said.
“I know you asked me to go with you before you started dating Jannalynn, but I
really wouldn’t have minded if you’d wanted to take her.” He understood the
subtext. Though he’d told me Jannalynn’s habits and manners weren’t familypleasing,
she had excellent natural defenses. In fact, she was the enforcer for the
Shreveport pack. What was I going to do if we were attacked? Mind-read someone
to death?
“This isn’t any mob situation,” Sam said, and he laughed. “I finished high
school there when my dad retired from the military, and Mindy and Craig did even
more of their growing up in Wright than I did. People will get used to the new
things in their world, even the people in a conservative little place like Wright.
These are just regular folks. They’ve known us for years.”
Pardon me if I felt a tad skeptical.
I saw the black Focus one more time, and then I didn’t spot it again. I told
myself that there were hundreds of cars on this section of interstate, and a hell of a
lot of them were going west like we were.
The landscape got less and less green, more and more arid. Trees were smaller,
rocks were more plentiful, and there were cacti in the scrubby brush. After the
turnoff south, towns were fewer and farther between. They were small, and the
stretches of road were lined by fences of all kinds. This was ranching country.
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
Wright looked very normal when we rolled in. The highway ran through
Wright going north–south, and it was the main drag. In its stretch through Wright,
it was called Main Street, which made me smile. It was a one-story town.
Everything was low and long and dusty. I looked at the people we passed, the gas
stations, the Sonic, the Dairy Queen, the McDonald’s. There were three motels,
which seemed excessive until I remembered that Sam had told me about the river
west of the town. The trailer park was full, and I saw a few people walking west,
flip-flops on their feet and towels over their shoulders. Early vacationers. We
passed a rental place for canoes, tubes, rafts, grills, and tents.
“People can grill on the sandbars in the river,” Sam said. “It’s fun. You take
your ice chest out there, a tube of sunblock, drink your beer, and grill your meat.
Get in the water whenever you want.”
“I wish we had time to do that,” I said. Then, thinking that might sound like a
complaint or a hint, I said brightly, “But I know we’re here to get this wedding
done! Maybe you can bring Jannalynn over here sometime later in the summer.”
Sam didn’t respond. I’d seen Jannalynn be aggressive, physical, even savage.
But surely she had a softer side? I mean, it couldn’t be all skull-cracking, bustiers,
spike heels, and kill-my-enemies. Right?
It was a warm feeling, seeing the town where Sam had done a lot of his
growing up. “Where’s your school?” I asked, trying to picture the young Sam. He
turned east to take me by the little high school where he’d played sports and been
named Mr. Yellowjacket. Yellowjacket Stadium was about the same size as Bon
Temps’s Hawks Stadium and in much better repair, though the old high school had
seen better days. The town library was brand-new, and the post office was proudly
flying the flag. It whipped in the warm wind.
“Why’d your dad decide to retire here after he left the service?” I asked. “What
do people do here besides cater to tourists?”
“They ranch, mostly,” he said. “A few of them farm, but mostly the land’s too
rocky, and we don’t get much rain. A lot of people make the bulk of their income
during the tourist season, and they just coast along on odd jobs the rest of the year.
We get a big influx of hunters when the tourists run out, so that’s a major source of
income, too. My dad commuted to Mooney, where Doke and Mindy live now. He
had a job doing security for a big plant over there. It manufactures wind turbines
for wind energy. Doke works there now.”
“And you-all moved here instead of Mooney because . . . ?”
“My dad wanted us to have the whole small-town experience. He thought it
would be the best way to finish out my teen years and to bring up Mindy and
Craig. Some of my mom’s family was still living in Wright then, too. And he loved
the river.”
I looked at the people coming in and out of the businesses we passed. There
were lots more brown faces than I was used to seeing, though even Bon Temps had
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Charlaine Harris☥ The Sookie Stackhouse Companion
experienced an upsurge in its Spanish-speaking population in the past decade.
Some were identifiably Native American. There were very few black faces. I’d
really traveled somewhere different. In addition to the differences in skin color,
there were more people in western-style clothes, which made sense. We’d passed a
rodeo ground on our way into town.
We took a left when we were within sight of the south boundary of the city
limits, turning onto a narrow street that could be anywhere in the United States.
The houses were small ranch styles, one or two had a trailer in the backyard where
maybe a mother-in-law or a newlywed child lived, and most had a prefab toolshed
tucked into a corner of the yard. There were lots of open windows. People in
Wright didn’t turn on their air conditioners as early as we did in Bon Temps.
Instead of garages, there were carports attached to almost every house, some to the
side, some added on in front.
At Sam’s mom’s home, the awning extended over half of the front of the house,
covering enough area to park two vehicles. Unattractive, but efficient. “This is the
house you lived in after you-all moved to Wright?” I asked.
“Yeah, this is the house Mom and Dad bought after Dad got out of the army.
Don moved in here when he and Mom got married. By the way, she’s still
Bernadette Merlotte. She never took Don’s name.”
Bernadette Merlotte’s home was a modest house, maybe twelve hundred
square feet, with white siding and ornamental dark green shutters. The little yard
space had barely any grass because it was almost entirely given over to beds
containing flowers, smooth river rocks, and concrete statues, which were various in
the extreme. One was a little girl with a dog, one was a large frog, and one was a
creature that was supposed to be a fairy. (Any fairy I knew would want to kill
Sam’s mom after a good look at that statue.) From the dry state of the patches of
grass and dirt, it was evident that Sam’s mom cared for her flowers lovingly.
There was a little sidewalk winding to the front porch from the covered
driveway, and the “porch” was flush with the ground. This was a slab house.
After an almost imperceptible sigh and a moment of bracing himself, Sam
jumped out. I didn’t stand on ceremony. I slid out, too. I wanted to stretch my legs
and back after sitting in the truck for so long, and I was almost as nervous about
meeting Sam’s family as if I were his real girlfriend.
A screen door slammed, and Sam’s mother hurried down the sidewalk to hug
her son. She was about my height, five-six, and very slim. She’d had his hair color,
but the red gold had faded now. She’d obviously spent a lot of time out in the sun,
so at least we’d have that in common. Then she was in Sam’s arms and laughing.
“It’s so good to see you!” she cried. After giving Sam a final, hard hug, she
pulled away and turned to me. “You must be Sookie. Sam’s told me a lot about
you!” The words were warm and welcoming, but I could tell how she really felt . . .
which was more like cautious.
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Shaking hands seemed a little too distant somehow, so I half hugged her. “It’s
good to meet you, Mrs. Merlotte. I’m glad you’re doing so well.”
“Now, you just call me Bernie. Everybody does.” She hesitated. “I thank you
for taking care of the bar while Sam came down when I was shot.” It was an effort
for her to so casually mention what had happened.
“Are you going to let them come in, Mama?” said a young woman standing in
the doorway.
“You just hold your horses,” Bernie said. “We’re coming!”
There were a few moments of confusion as we got out our hanging and
overnight bags. Finally we went into the house. Bernie Merlotte’s right-hand
neighbor, a man in his sixties, came out into his yard—ostensibly to check his
mailbox—while all this was going on. I happened to catch his eye, and I gave him a
friendly nod. To my amazement, he looked right through me, though I knew from
his thoughts that he could see me plainly.
That had never happened to me in my life. If I’d been reading a Regency
romance, I would have termed it “the cut direct.” No one else had noticed, and he
wasn’t my neighbor, so I didn’t say anything.
Then we were inside, and I had to stuff my bafflement into a corner of my mind
because there were more people to meet. The small house was crowded. First there
was Sam’s sister, Mindy, a young mother of two. Her husband, Doke Ballinger, was
as thin and laconic as Mindy was plump and chatty. Their children, five-year-old
Mason and three-year-old Bonnie, eyed me from behind their mother. And finally I
met the groom, Craig, who was like a more carefree clone of Sam. The brothers
were the same in coloring, height, and build. His fiancée, Deidra Lisle, was so
pretty it hurt to look at her. She was lightly tanned, with big hazel eyes and reddish
brown hair that fell to her waist. She couldn’t have stood five foot two, and she
was all compact curves and femininity.
She shook my hand shyly, and her smile showed that her teeth were as perfect
as her complexion. Wow.
She was pregnant. She was hoping she wasn’t showing, that no one could tell.
Now that I knew, I could sort of sense that other mind floating around inside her,
but it was a weird read—no language, no thoughts.
Well, another thing that was none of my business. More power to them. I was
the only one who could sense that other presence in her womb.
By that time Bernie was showing me to a very small room that contained a
pullout couch, a sewing machine, a computer desk, and a card table that was
cluttered with scrapbooking materials. “We’re not fancy here,” Bernie said. “I hope
you don’t mind sleeping in what the magazines call the all-purpose room. Course, I
just call it the room-Mindy-finally-left-out-of-so-I-could-have-it-back.” There was a
hint of challenge in her voice.
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Friday, January 6, 2012

Going to the Chapel

Summaries

Short Stories

Vamps, Weres and Fae O My

Trvial Pursuit

Recipes from the South

AB on TB