Boomerang of Happiness - 10

Similar to the western tradition, in Soviet weddings the groom was not supposed to see the bride in her dress before the wedding ceremony. This is why while Annas were being made up and dressed up, Alex and Leo were putting on their tuxes in their neighbors’ apartment across the hall. The neighbors, an elderly childless couple, both university professors, knew the “boys” all their lives and were happy to help out in any way. As honorary guests of the double wedding, they were involved in the preparation just as other relatives were.

When Leo and Alex were ready, they came down to the two stretched white Volga cars, parked in front of the entrance to the five-floor apartment building where they grew up. The Volgas were beautifully decorated with a large-scale replica of wedding bands on the front and roses with ribbons and balloons on the top and both sides. These special edition wedding Volgas, although only slightly similar to a stretch Limo, always attracted large crowds of onlookers even when they were riding solo. Here, the two cars were already surrounded by people, talking to each other, “Look, two wedding Volgas! Must be a double wedding!”

“Yes,” someone replied, “It’s those genius brothers from apt. 53, getting married on the same day!”

“Which ones? Andrey and Alex? I thought Andrey was already married…”

“He is! It’s the younger brother, Leo, who is getting married, and Alex…”

“Oh, I see… Didn’t Alex’s bride disappear several years back? Did she come back?”

“No, you silly! He is getting married to another woman. Some Anna, he met her in Siberia, in that secret town where he works now.”

Fortunately for Alex, he couldn’t hear those conversations. He chatted with his brother at the entrance near the cars, waiting for their brides. They were both visibly nervous and jittery, and tried to support each other by making jokes and small talk on unrelated topics.

Finally, the brides appeared on the doorsteps, first “Big Anna,” and then “Little Anna.” When Alex looked at his bride, he went weak in the knees and almost collapsed. She was absolutely stunning in that specially designed bell-shaped dress underlining her curvy figure, with her hair up in a sophisticated hairdo tastefully decorated with white lilies and roses. She was radiant and glowing, and when she saw Alex she gave him a big loving smile. He opened the Volga’s back door for her and helped her to arrange the dress folds inside so that they don’t wrinkle. “You are absolutely beautiful, took my breath away,” Alex whispered into Anna’s ear, and she just gave him a long, deep and grateful gaze.

Leo’s Anna was beautiful as well, but she chose a much simpler straight long gown that looked understated compared to the princess dress Alex’s bride was wearing. However, Alex did not even think about that: He was smitten by Anna and at that moment no one else existed for him.

When Leo and Anna got into the second car and their driver honked their readiness to go, the wedding procession started moving. In front and rear of the two wedding Volgas, other cars of relatives and friends lined up to form a lengthy escort of fifteen cars. As they moved toward the District Registration Office, they were honking all the way, and people in the streets waved, shouted congratulations, whistled, and clapped at them.

At the registration office, the state clerk was sensible enough not to add any more couples to their party. Depending on how many people wanted to marry, state registration clerks sometimes squeezed together up to ten couples in one time slot. Leo and Alex were lucky: It was just their double wedding. The clerk read them the marriage vows, which they repeated after her. She then asked if they agreed to take each other as husbands and wives. They all said “I do,” exchanged the rings and kisses, signed the state registration documents, and the ritual was over. Back in the car Alex was still a little spaced out, looked at Anna often, admiring her beauty and repeating to himself, “I am getting married, no… I’ve just gotten married.” At the last thought, he thought it was strange and just half a year ago completely impossible. Now, however, sitting in the wedding Volga heading to his grandparents’ house in the village, he was holding Anna’s hand, feeling what he thought might be the beginning of a new love.

The wedding dinner started at 5 pm. Alex hardly remembered anything from that evening beyond his own experiences of drinking, eating and kissing his beautiful and responsive bride. At the Soviet wedding, any guest can get up at any time with a raised glass of alcohol, shout one and only word “Gor’ko!” which literally means “Bitter!” suggesting that only the drink should be bitter, but the newlyweds’ life – as sweet and long as a passionate kiss, and demand the couple to kiss. Alex remembered countless kisses with Anna, and many of them with the slow count, which meant the guests wanted the two couples to compete for the longest kiss. By the time the two newlywed couples bid everyone goodnight at about 10:30 pm, most of the guests had eaten, drunk and danced themselves into the state of a hazy trance. But they were determined to stay longer, “to the end,” as some of them said. They themselves probably did not know, to the end of what.

When it was time for the newlyweds to leave the party, Anna’s father, who was quite drunk already, came up to Alex, took him to the side so that Anna could not hear their conversation and said, slurring words with his drunk tongue, “Son, I am sorry you have to marry my daughter…”

Seeing that Alex was about to protest, he added quickly, “Just listen to me. I know she can be annoying, and capricious, and unbelievably chatty. But what can I say, I love her anyway and she needs to marry someone one day. I am very happy that someone is you.”

Alex smiled back at him and said, “Dad, you don’t have to feel sorry for me.” He waited for Anna’s father to absorb the fact that Alex had called him “Dad.” When Alex saw the spark of gratitude and happiness in his father’s-in-law tipsy eyes, he continued, “I know what I am doing. It’s not like I’ve been forced into this marriage. Besides, I think I am falling in love with Anna.”

“Thank God for that,” Anna’s father said, drunk happy tears streaming down his cheeks. “I could not have wished for a better son-in-law.”

To Part 11

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