Chapter 1“We gather here today, in Tennessee, to join Goose and Patrick in holy matrimony.”
Our officiant’s name was Mae. Ironically, we’d met the one-hundred-year-old former USO singer at the local youth center back in New York, where Carrie had worked the previous summer to help put on a production of The Wizard of Oz.
“I’ve done a lot of these weddings over the past forty years,” Mae said. “But this is my first in a forest on Halloween.”
Jack-o-lanterns winked at us, with golden light flickering behind their triangular, oval, or comma shaped eyes. I’d counted twenty, among more uncarved pumpkins, big and small, orange, green, white. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and a collection of other gourd types, many misshapen, added whimsy and a touch of spookiness. Some sat on scatter
