Chapter 2“If anyone present has just cause why this marriage should not take place, let him speak now or—”
“Wait!” I yelled. “Stop!” The jungle habitat had to be warm, of course. Despite running all the way from Fleckman’s parking lot, through the lobby, then up two flights of stairs, it wasn’t only exertion or fake climate that had me sweating, though.
“Eli!”
My Johnny—someone else’s Johnny now—our eyes met, and he spoke my name aloud. Hearing his voice was still a treat, be it two months or two minutes since last I’d heard it, as Johnny mostly relied on ASL. The camp we’d met at was for the hearing impaired, me a fifteen-year-old junior counselor; him a forbidden older man on the cusp of aging out. Back then, he refused to speak at all until a deal was struck.
“If you take off your s
