KarMel Scholarship 2005
|
Best Fictional Story “Prop Twenty Blue” By
Patrick Seitz - CA |
Desciption of Submission: “Political satire, gay marriage and
Why Karen and Melody Liked
It: It is a very cute
ficitionaly story of what would happen if wearing blue wedding dress was
illegal.
It was the happiest day
of Maggie’s life. She was finally to be married to the man she had always
loved, Ashton Knowles. Everything was perfect: all her family and friends were there, Ashton stood prepared at the end of the aisle,
and Maggie waited for the music to begin so she could meet her soul mate at the
end. If only the song didn’t say all dressed in white, Maggie thought to herself. But it didn’t matter, she looked
stunning in her blue dress and she knew everyone would agree.
As all the bride’s
maids made their way out Maggie began to get cold feet. Calm down, she
reassured herself. She’d known him for years, and it was no secret he was the
best man alive. Maggie was a little surprised, though, that her conservative
mother hadn’t said anything about her marrying a black man. Mother had always
had a way of making a sly little comment if something was quite as she liked.
That’s why Maggie had said nothing about her blue dress. She could already hear
her mother’s old fashioned voice: “But everyone gets married in white, don’t
you want to be traditional!?” No,
Maggie did not want to be traditional. The ceremony was about to begin, and
soon she wouldn’t have to worry about her controlling mother anymore.
Finally, it was her
turn. Maggie took a deep breath, and walked out. She could see Ashton at the
end, and his beautiful smile warmed her heart. She thought again of her mother,
who had gone so far as to do Ashton’s braids herself
so that everything would be perfect.
She thought of her father: why wasn’t he here to give her away? But it didn’t
matter, the only thing that was important was that Ashton loved her and she
loved him, and that’s why they were all there.
After a while, Maggie
noticed there was no music playing. Everyone had stopped walking, and the
guests were whispering among themselves like school children. Some mothers
covered their children’s eyes, others quickly walked
them from the church. Maggie pushed past everyone and was stopped by her mother
at the end. She had an indescribable look on her face, a look that remained
engrained in Maggie’s mind for the rest of her life. Every time she closed her
eyes the look was there, threatening to bite her face. It was a look of shock,
horror, and disgust. But more than anything it was a look of despair, as if
Maggie had just stabbed her mother in the back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” her mother finally spoke.
“What are you talking…“ Maggie started.
“You’re wearing a blue dress!” her mother shrieked.
“It’s pretty,” Maggie explained as her voice began to crack, and a tear
formed in her eye. Ashton came to walk Maggie out of the church, but they were
stopped by the priest. “You’ll never be married in a blue dress. Not in my
church!” Maggie could only stare in wonder as Ashton took her from the
building. Outside, a grim looking photographer came to address them.
“My name is Esperanza Munoz, and I photograph all events at the church. This
isn’t the first time someone tried to get married in blue here, and my guess is
it won’t be the last. I have the card of a lawyer downtown, and he works with
people…like you.” She gave Maggie the card and rushed away with her head down, as if she was afraid someone might see her talking to
them.
That night Ashton and
Maggie stayed at a (two bed) hotel.
“Why don’t you just get a white dress?” Ashton asked Maggie as she was
putting her blue wedding dress into it’s garment bag.
“I don’t want to wear a white dress.”
“What difference does it make? It’s just a color dress.”
“It makes a difference to me! I’ve always imagined a blue dress and
that’s how I want it, there’s no reason to change.”
“Well if you just wore the white dress we could be married now.”
“Perhaps. Or I could go visit that lawyer tomorrow, and see
what he has to say.”
True to her word,
Maggie went to visit the lawyer the next day.
“Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist asked Maggie before she
had even walked into the door.
“No,” she said walking up to the desk. “A woman gave me this card
yesterday when I couldn’t get married because I was wearing a blue…”
“Shh!” the woman sounded suddenly and looked around the empty waiting
room. “Someone might hear you!”
“I was just…”
“Mr. Griffin will see you now,” the receptionist said, and began typing
away completely unaware of Maggie. Maggie went through the only door she could
see and went to an office that’s door was slightly ajar. She could hear a man
speaking on the phone inside. She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Mr. Griffin said.
Maggie walked in not sure what to expect. “The receptionist said I
could…”
“How can I help you?” he inquired.
“Excuse me for being a little lost, but this is all like a dream.
Yesterday was my wedding day but the whole ceremony stopped when people saw
that I was wearing a blue dress. The priest said I would never be married there
and then the photographer gave me your card.”
“Of course you know that’s illegal in forty-eight states?” he said
matter-of-factly.
“What is?” Maggie looked around to make sure she wasn’t doing anything
wrong.
Mr. Griffin only laughed. “Getting married in a blue
dress of course. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of prop twenty-blue.”
“Actually I haven’t, what’s prop twenty-blue?”
“Well it was only voted on a few years ago. Proposition twenty-blue
prohibits couples from getting married in a blue dress or tuxedo, whichever the
case may be. I’m surprised you didn’t see any of the signs, they were
everywhere. They said ‘protect marriage’ and such things.”
“Well that’s preposterous,” Maggie said. “Why would anyone care about
that?”
“Everyone cares about that! Most everyone feels just as strongly about
it as you do, one way or the other.”
“I don’t believe you!” Maggie yelled in frustration. “How could there
ever be such a ridiculous law!?”
“Well it passed,” the lawyer explained, “so most people don’t think it’s
quite so ridiculous.”
“I can’t believe this! Why would people whom it has absolutely nothing
to do with get to decide for everyone else. And it’s
so specific! Who would…” but she stopped. At first she couldn’t think of anyone
who would vote on something like that, but after a while she could.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, and let herself out. In fifteen minutes
she was at her parent’s house. She rang the doorbell and her mother was soon at
the door looking rather surprised.
“You voted on this prop twenty-blue didn’t you!?” Maggie accused her
mother.
“Well of course I did darling, everyone did.”
“Why, what difference does it make to you!?”
“Can you imagine,” her mother said sternly and closed her eyes to slits.
“Can you imagine what would happen if people were allowed to run around getting
married in blue? How would children know it was wrong? How would you explain to
them that God is unhappy when he sees that? If you’re asking why I did my part
to prevent chaos and defilation of marriage, then you’re asking a very easy to
answer question. What would be next? Soon people would be getting married in
their underwear, soon they’d be wearing nothing at
all!”
“Why don’t you explain to me why it’s wrong, why it has anything to do
with God at all.”
“My dear, read your bible. It says in Leviticus 19:19 that it’s an
abomination.”
“I’ve read the bible Mom. That verse forbids wearing garments made of
two different kinds of thread, it has nothing to do
with weddings or even with the color blue! And besides, that’s back there with
some other stuff you can ignore like sacrificing animals, homosexuality, and
wearing glasses and getting hair cuts.”
“You can’t ignore anything in the bible! And you have to infer what God meant, he didn’t spell everything out for people”
“That’s exactly what he did,” Maggie yelled. She could hardly remember
her mother being so ignorant. Maggie was startled as she was suddenly slapped
across the face.
“First you try to get married in blue, and now you disrespect me. Is
this the kind of attitude I can expect from you now? I’ve heard blue people were like this.” She put a
disdainful emphasis on the word blue.
“Blue people-what are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about! I’ve read all about this. The
book I read says you can’t even recognize your children once they’ve shown
their true colors.” Maggie laughed at the irony of her mother’s statement. She
also laughed incredulously at her mother’s arrogance. So now her mother knew
everything from some book? Maggie had always been the same person, she always
knew she would wear blue to her wedding, the only
difference is that her mother now also knew, and judged her accordingly.
“And now you’re laughing at me,” her mother said, exasperated.
“I’m laughing at how ridiculous you’ve become.”
“Really, well, I’m crying at how evil you’ve become.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “Where’s dad?”
“He’s praying, leave him alone!”
“Does he feel the same way about all of this?”
“He feels it so much more stronger. I always
suspected you had a thing for blue, but he just dismissed it, said it was
impossible. Well I knew something was wrong when you wouldn’t let me see your
wedding dress, so he sneaked into the bridal store and saw it, that’s why he
wasn’t at the wedding. I was hoping that you’d possibly change your mind, but I
should have known.”
Maggie didn’t even hear the last sentence.
All she could hear was the echo in her head that her own father wasn’t at her
wedding. It was the most important day of her life, and he had missed it
just because of a colored dress?
She couldn’t accept that. She walked out
of the house with her mother screaming after her how unbelievable she was, but
she wasn’t listening. She would go to the church and find her father, and he
would clear everything up. He had always been more understanding than her
mother, and he always cleared things up nicely. Maggie had always been a
Daddy’s Girl, and they both knew that. She was almost certain she had seen him
at the wedding. Hadn’t she?
As she pulled up to the church parking
lot, she noticed his car in the parking lot. She noticed the time, he was
probably at confession. She made her way up the stairs and was almost to the
front doors when she noticed a little girl standing apart from her catechism class,
staring at her. Maggie had always had a soft spot for kids, so she figured her
father would be there long enough (he was devout enough).
“Are you going to hell?” the little girl asked Maggie.
“Of course not,” Maggie said, blown away by the question. “Why would you
say that?”
“My brother said anyone that wears blue to their wedding goes straight
to hell. He said it’s up there with killing someone or not believing in God.”
“Well he’s very wrong about that,” Maggie explained. “And even if you
don’t believe in Him or you kill someone, He never turns his back on you.” But
the little girl wasn’t listening, she had already run
back to her friends and was playing and laughing.
Maggie stayed kneeled their for a while, thinking about the conversation she just
had. How dare someone say she was going straight to hell.
She was the most religious one in her family! Her mother only went to church to
see all her friends, and her father had only become
interested in church a few years ago when he was caught participating in
business scandals. Going straight to hell? Hardly, Maggie thought to herself.
That was contrary to everything to she had ever been taught, and she seemed to
remember churches that actually encouraged their members to wear blue at their
weddings.
Maggie walked into the
church. She looked around a bit, then noticed her
father next to go into the confessional. She was walking over to him when a
stout old woman grabbed her by the arm.
“There’s a line here miss,” the old woman said.
“In a hurry are you?” said another priest from behind her. “Come my
child, you may confess now with me.” With that he escorted her into another
confessional.
“Uh…” It had been a while since Maggie had last been to confession.
“Bless me father for I have sinned. My last confession was many months ago.
These are my sins:”
“Yes,” the father said.
“Uh, well, I was disrespectful to my mother.”
“Go on.”
“Um, I missed mass on Sundays.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I used some profanity. I’m sorry for these and all my sins.” Now
he would say the penance and she could go catch her father.
“Have you used illegal drugs,” the father asked her.
“No.”
“Have you had premarital sex?”
“No, Ashton and I have been very good.”
“Have you missed mass on Sundays?” the father asked before she had even
finished her sentence.
“I already answered that!” Maggie said becoming annoyed.
“Is there anything else?”
“Nope, that’s it!” Maggie said with finality.
“Nothing else? Are you sure?”
“Yes of course I’m sure,” Maggie said so loudly that she started
attracting attention. “What is this, the Inquisition!?”
“My child, did you not wear blue on your wedding day?”
“This is ridiculous,” Maggie muttered to herself.
“That is a very dangerous thing to do. You are laying the foundation for
disaster, and soon your whole life and all your relationships will turn to
shambles…” He went on, but Maggie had left the confessional and was already out
the church door. Outside, she saw her father speeding off.
Maggie wasn’t sure if
she wanted to go back inside the house and face her mother again. But she
noticed the car of her mother’s best friend was there, so she would be
distracted long enough to give Maggie a good word with her father. Or so she
thought.
Inside her father was
nowhere to be found. Her mother’s best friend, Gertrude, was standing with her
mother holding a glass of wine.
“Well look who’s here,” Gertrude said. “You know, I once knew a woman
who had a son who wore blue to his wedding.”
“Is that a fact,” Maggie replied rudely.
“Yes, it is. And I’ll have you know it ruined his mother. This is the
kind of thing that breaks up homes.”
“Did his parents at least go to his wedding?”
“No. They didn’t know about it. But even if they did I doubt they would
have gone, they probably would have tried to stop it.”
“Why would they want to stop it? Wouldn’t they want him to be happy?”
“Wake up Maggie!” her mother said. “Some day you’ll see it’s not about
being happy.”
But she only ignored her mother. “How selfish of him to want to be happy
at everyone else’s expense,” Gertrude said.
“That’s funny that you should say that,” Maggie replied. “That’s funny
because it seems to me that YOU are being selfish for wanting everyone to be
just like you for the sake of not ruining your picture perfect little world.
You tell me to wake up, and yet you are totally blind to the people you are
destroying because it means so much to you for everyone to be your definition
of normal. How convenient that I am wrong because I’m new and unheard of; and
in reality it’s you that is selfish because you want these people to bend over
backwards to save you two seconds of being uncomfortable.”
“Imagine that,” her mother said, after a while. “You would paint us as
monsters only for the reason of justifying that you’re… well… a freak.”
“Tell me this then, if you’re so smart,” Gertrude said. “You say
everything’s about being happy. Well what if my son is happy murdering people,
should I want him to be happy still?”
“That’s not even close to being the same thing,” Maggie said. “I’m not murdering anyone, I’m not even
hurting anyone.”
“I disagree,” her mother replied. “It hurts me very much that you choose
to like blue for your wedding dress and won’t change your ways no matter what
anyone says!”
“Choose?” Maggie said. “It has nothing to do with choosing! Did you choose to
like white?”
“No,” her mother said. “But if I didn’t like white the most then I would
choose to.”
“That’s just it,” Maggie said softly. “You can’t tell yourself what to think or
how to feel anymore than you can tell yourself who you already are. You’re
asking me to become a different person, and that’s not something I could do
even if I wanted to.”
“Anything is possible through God,” her father said.
Maggie lay on her bed
thinking of the conversation she had with her father. He had made everything
very clear for her, he just hadn’t said what she hoped
he would. He explained that he was a “blue-phobe” and despite Maggie’s
arguments he could not believe wearing blue to your wedding was anything other
than a sin. He insisted that Maggie had chosen to like blue, and that she was
willfully hurting her family and ruining her own life. He declared that if she
was determined to live that life, then he could not support her.
“Well I’m not going to
sit around here and pout,” Maggie said to herself. She decided to call Ashton
and go out to dinner and a movie. Maggie enjoyed the movie, but she was
bothered a bit by the wedding scene. The groom wore black, and the bride wore
white. They acted as if there was not other option, even. Maggie voiced her
complaint, and a couple that was nearby moved away upon hearing her. She
enjoyed dinner as well, but she couldn’t help overhearing people talking about
their weddings and their white dresses. One group was showing pictures, as if
hearing about it wasn’t enough.
“I’ve been thinking,” Maggie said suddenly. “Maybe I should wear white
after all.”
Ashton looked at her with a blank look for a while. “I thought you were
dead set on the blue dress. That’s how you always imagined it.”
“I know, but now I wonder if it’s worth it.”
“If it means enough to you then it’s worth it, and I wouldn’t want you
to settle for anything less than perfect,” Ashton said and leaned over to give
her a kiss.
She said goodbye to
Ashton and was left again in her empty house. She seriously considered wearing
a white dress at her wedding, just to get it over with and make everyone happy.
But then she thought of how sick it would make her feel, how terrible she would
look in it, and how generally unhappy (not to mention uncomfortable) it would
make her. Quite at her wit’s end, she got on her knees and began to pray:
Dear God,
Please help me, I
don’t know what to do. Everyone tells me I’m wrong and that you hate me for
wanting to wear a blue dress, but it just feels so right. I’ve always been a
religious person and believed in you, and dedicated my whole being to you. But
now everyone tells me I’m wrong and that I’m sinning, but it doesn’t make any
sense. How could this be a sin, it can’t be. But everyone seems so sure, even
my father. I don’t mean to be stubborn or sacrilegious, but I can’t wear the
damn white dress, I just can’t! Please tell me what to do. I’m already tired of
this battle, this struggle. If it’s all in vain, and everyone is right, please
just tell me now, give me some sign, so that I can
know for sure.
Amen
No sooner had she just finished
these words when the phone rang. She took a breath, this was it. She took
another deep breath, and answered the phone.
“Hello, I’m calling for a Maggie that would like to get married in a
blue dress.”
She was silent for a while. “That’s me,” she finally spoke.
“Hello Maggie, my name is Father Hennigan, and I would love to marry you
and your husband in your blue dress!”
“Really!?” Maggie almost yelled unable to conceal her
excitement.
“Yes really,” he said. “Let me just schedule an appointment to meet with
the two of you first, and then we can perform the ceremony."
Maggie finally had her
wedding in blue. It was perfect, everything she had imagined it would be. It
was a smaller ceremony, with only her closets friends and some of Ashton’s
family, but it was fine. She had invited her parents, but they refused to
attend and commanded then beseeched her to not get married in blue, but their
false prophecies meant nothing to her now. She did feel bad that her father was
not there to give her away, but at least she had THE Father’s support. Her
wedding was outside, on a cliff overlooking the ocean at dusk. The red and
oranges in the sky contrasted nicely with her blue dress.
Later that night,
during her small (and blue) party, Maggie received a call from her mother.
“Why are you so determined to ruin my life?” her mother said, and Maggie
could almost hear the tears dripping down her face. It made her sad for a
minute, but then she smiled and said with resolution:
“I’m not trying to ruin your life Mom. This isn’t about you. And I know
that someday you’ll realize that…”