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"Okay," she said, sighing. "For you it's okay." She wriggled against him. Though there was still
no need for sex, there was a definite trend growing.
"Now that's what I like to see."
Slim and Nadine looked up at Mother Phillips' wizened body. The old woman stood with her
hands on her hips, smiling down at them.
"Nothing I like to see more than good, clean lust," she said, sitting on the sand beside them.
"I see you two have gotten all the shyness out of your systems. My, I do enjoy seeing young
people in love. Are you happy with each other? Everything fit?"
"So fair, so good," Nadine said.
"Wonderful!" It was hard to be unhappy or worried around Mother Phillips and her unbridled
enthusiasm and joy for life. "I just knew you two were meant for each other," she said. "Why don't you
come to our tent and we'll have a few beers and some grub. You hungry?"
"Starved," Slim said. Nadine nodded her head in agreement.
Mother Phillips stood and brushed her wrinkledy butt off. Nadine got off Slim and they stood
beside the old woman, dressing, then following, hand in hand, as Mother Phillips led the way to the
tent where her group was quartered for the duration.
"Would you kids like to get married?" she asked offhandedly. "I can do that, you know. The
nation of Tejas, in its wisdom and nearsightedness, lets me have a license to commit marriages and
funerals."
Slim was taken aback. He hadn't thought about marriage at all. But when Mother Phillips
mentioned it, he suddenly knew that was what he wanted more than anything.
"Nadine?" he asked, hoping.
"I'm game if you are," she said, laughing happily.
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"You're both pretty gamey if you ask me," Mother Phillips quipped. "But how about getting
married? You want to?"
"I think we do," Slim said. "Yeah. I think we'd like that a lot." He put his arm around Nadine's
shoulders and pulled her close to him, their hips bumping as they walked.
"Well, come on then," Mother Phillips said. "Why don't you get some chow. I'll get these old
bones around and tell everybody and get things ready. Oh my, this is going to be some festival."
The wedding was to be onstage, under a full moon. Slim wondered if Progress had known the
moon would be full when he'd set up the festival date. Probably, he decided. Mother Phillips had sent
some of her people back to Tralfaz for a pickupload of fresh oak leaves, pine branches, flowers and
bushels of fresh vegetables. Then they had dressed the stage until, now, it looked like a quiet forest
clearing and smelled almost too wild and fresh to bear. The moon and stars provided all the light that
would be needed.
People had gathered on the threshing floor, a marriage evidently a big event for the temporary
community. All the celebrants, save Slim and Nadine, were gathered on the stage under a circle of
pine branches and flowers. Elijigbo's band played a soft, strange music that echoed off into the night
and the river. Some of Mother Phillips' people accompanied them on simple wooden flutes and bells.
Except for Progress and the band, everyone was naked, both on stage and down on the threshing
floor. Slim and Nadine walked hand in hand toward Mother Phillips from offstage. Their small fears
and apprehensions seemed to evaporate with the sound their feet made in the crackling leaves that
covered the stage. People cheered as they walked. Then Slim and Nadine stopped, to stand, still
holding hands, before Mother Phillips.
The old woman seemed to glow in the moonlight as she nodded her head, smiling. She turned
and poured a clear red wine into a large wooden goblet.
"Spirits of the East," she said, toning in that direction, "close the circle. Bless and protect this
gathering." She poured a little of the wine onto the floor, and then took a small drink. "Spirits of the
South," she said, repeating her previous motions, "close the circle. Bless and protect this gathering."
She did the same for the West and the North, then handed the goblet to Slim and Nadine to drink the
remaining wine it contained.
A group of women stood forward and began to chant in harmony:
"Mother of all,
Oh, Goddess divine,
Whose spiral spins,
Through all of time,
Be with us now,
And never part,
Forever dwell here in our hearts.
"She is the source,
The mystery deep,
The inspiring song,
Protecting sleep,
From her we come,
To her return,
None greater is,
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