At last a written notice arrived about entering into marriage in September. I told my classmates on the courses about the forthcoming event, and they began one after another to give me advice on how to “dress myself up more festively.” And I somehow was not thinking at all about my festive appearance. I was more worried about how Ivan’s daughters would take the news.
One girl in the group asked: “And the rings? Have you bought the rings?” M-yes. I immediately recalled an old song with the words “love is a ring, and a ring has no beginning and no end….” In general, a good optimistic song. Having listened to the advice of the “experienced,” I told Vanya that we ought to buy rings and go to the hairdresser. No problem! “Everything as people do.”
And informing about the event had to be done only to the elder; the younger, as always, was not “in place.” The elder took the news calmly. The signing was set for 12 noon on Friday. The “sentence of entering into marriage” was read by an official in 3 minutes, and a certificate was issued on A4 paper with a tiiiny stamp.
We came out of the Rødhus (literally translated the Red House) — the administration — and thought of going to lunch together in a restaurant, but then a call rang from the elder daughter (she did not know that “it had already happened”) and she asked to be picked up from the gymnasium, taken to a shop to buy tights, because she was going to a party. Well then… Papa Vanya does not need to be told twice.
And I had the chance to quietly sing Mendelssohn’s march, sitting in the car. For the group on the courses I baked a huge Napoleon cake. So everyone was satisfied!
To be continued…