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She told me that she actually had to laugh when she realized the utter absurdity of this 'thing' called a wedding veil. She said that it is a contradiction in language. "A wedding should signify a union," she said in a most serious tone. "Not a separation. A union that is solid, secure, a platform from which one can build upwards to reach for infinity and embrace the whole human race. Frank and I should have supported each other in this reaching higher on the scale of our existence, instead of mysteriously tying each other down as servants to some ancient model for relationships which reveals itself as inherently unnatural, which in the end isolated me from my own self. This model had strangled both of our lives, Paul. This is what I'm beginning to feel free off, that allows me to love Frank and not mourn him, that allowed me to love you and take my nighty off for you with love. I really wish that Frank could be here so that I could tell him about my great breakthrough."
I suppose, I must have smiled, maybe grinned, or laughed.
"That's not something to be taken lightly!" she protested. "You're caught up in this river, too. I know are, even as deeply as I was. I also know that you have become freer. Everyone will come to this point who is honest with himself, or herself. The man at the airport was a soldier, Paul! As far as I could tell he was from Russia, a naval officer whose ship lay at anchor in the harbor. I am sure he would have laid his life on the line to defend his world. It didn't really sink in until much later that the soldier I held in my arms had in effect stood ready to kill the very person he himself would be, were he by birth married to the other side. And he would have done it gladly, Paul! The mythological veil, whatever its name may be, hides mankind from itself. Under this veil, atrocities are committed with ease. Maybe that is what I meant when I said we mustn't play games with one another. God only knows how many people have been put to death under this veil, or been tortured to death. In ancient times the death sentence was actually being applied against those who violated the prescribed marriage boundary."
I was amazed at her; flabbergasted! I knew instinctively that she was right. She was telling me in a different context what my experience that evening had in essence been all about. Nobody would have convinced me of this earlier. I would have laughed had anyone suggested that she would say the kind of things she said. I felt closer to her that night than I ever felt towards anyone before. She had laid out my own soul before me and defined for me what I felt, which until this moment had lacked a clear definition.
The next time the waiter came by, I quickly requested another coffee to make those wonderful moments last for us as long as we could make them last. The waiter suggested a fine liquor when he came back, which we sipped ever so slowly to savor the mood we were in. Something was in progress here, something gentle, and something that had no name because it was still too new, even though Jennie had courageously dared to define it.
We left the restaurant totally satisfied. We went to town, strolling hand in hand through the old parts of Lahina, along dimly lit streets, amidst crowds of people. We passed the windows of the town's brightly-lit shops. The absorbing intimacy of the evening had made the pain of the world appear so far away, so unreal, so like a dream. There were many glum faces in the crowd, but those no longer mattered to us. What mattered, was, that we smiled, that we felt intimately at one with each other.
We stopped at every display window, I am sure of that, and often went inside the stores to examine the wares. Everything that a tourist would want was on sale, from seashells to exquisite diamond jewelry. Browsing created the feeling that the world was in the midst of the deepest peace. I relished this feeling. Maybe others did, too. Maybe that's why things appeared so strikingly normal and people had wisely determined to keep it that way.
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