Rachel's Wedding

Photo by Dar'ya Sip

The early-September light on the lake is unreliable. It's late afternoon; clouds race on the wind, and the water laps the shore. Flashes of sunlight glint off restless waves in quick succession. The surface of the water changes from gray to bright blue as the clouds pass over the sun. I am looking out the window over one of the small lakes near our home in Upstate New York. This is after I get married but before I get pregnant. I've spent the summer waiting for a baby to quicken: a baby I know is close but elusive. Beyond the lake is a cornfield, stretched out across the hills. The tips are turning brown. The corn gathers sweetness, waiting to be cut.

Standing here in the Perla Suite of the Glass Lake Inn, I feel a cool breeze coming off the water. I am wearing a white strapless top with boning in the bodice. My white pants stretch snug across my hips. Draped over it all is a sheer white sheath that I made yesterday. My friend Rachel is wearing a white wedding gown with a train and bell sleeves. The cut of the bodice shows off her long, straight neck and pale shoulders. Her golden hair is swept up into an elaborate twist. Behind me, gathered around the bride, are the two Megs and Rachel's college roommate, Nazeera, who flew in from Prague to be here. I took the train up from the city, where I have been working. Rachel wanted us all to wear white, something breezy, flowing, and all white, at her wedding. Nazeera is wearing an ankle-length peasant dress. It's perfect.

One of the Megs calls me back from the window. "Did you design your dress?" she asks me.

"Yes," I tell her, even though it's really just two rectangles of fabric sewn together. "But it's pretty simple."

"I wish I could sew." Her name is Meg. Her best friend since first grade is named Meg too. We are almost thirty, and the two Megs still look alike: short and pear-shaped; blond, close-cropped wavy hair; intelligent glasses. In fact, they both look just like they did in high school. Rachel and I, on the other hand, are unrecognizable from our teenage selves.

Rachel's mom comes into the room, and a jolt of electricity runs through our little group. It's time. We follow her out of the inn and onto the lawn leading down to the shore. The groom, fifteen or so years older than we are and born and raised in the city, waits for us on the other side of the lake. Rachel's mom hands each of us a large silk scarf. The Megs get royal blue and emerald green, Nazeera a deep gold; mine is peach. We drape them over our shoulders so they hang long in the back, flapping in the wind behind us as we walk. Rachel's mom kisses her on the lips and hurries off to her car. She's driving around the lake to the other side, where the wedding tent is set up. The "gaggle of girls," as Rachel calls us, will be traveling by barge, called like sirens across the water by the groom's saxophone. Rachel is marrying a Jewish jazz musician named Saul. She even converted for him. A chuppah and a glass to break and a rabbi all wait for her in her new life on the other side of this water.

I am sure we are a beautiful sight from the shore, but the wind is rough, and the barge is really just a raft with a motor that some teenage boy is steering from a crouch behind us. My hair stands straight up, and my eyes water from the cold. Our scarves whip frantically as the raft motors through the water. I watch as a long ribbon of golden silk lifts high into the air. It hangs suspended, almost still, in the...