Sisters 48

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CHAPTER 48
“I keep forgetting how out of all this you are, Lainey. Must all be a shock, aye?”

“Talk to me, chwaer fychan. What in hell is going on with him?”

“Not just him, is it? She’s changed, has Alice. Really changed”

“Head injury?”

“Oh, nothing like that, Lainey. No, it’s all perception and focus with Alice. I mean, well, look at what she was like the day she got that car smacking shit out of her. She was singing as she left me, world opening up for her, first surgery scheduled. She was different after she woke up, and I don’t mean messed up. Just seemed to shift her priorities a bit. Threatened the GP that she’d clear off somewhere foreign to have the op done if she wasn’t signed off for it here. Oh, yes: that was Arwel’s little trick, aye? She’s had the op, now, so in theory she’s all legal, or will be, so he stuck a ring on her finger while she was still out from the general. Wasted no time, our uncle”

I tried to think of the right words that didn’t include terms such as ‘idiot’, but Sar beat me to the punch.

“Lainey, I know. You don’t have to say anything, because I said it all and the two of them shot me down in flames. You saw him in the hospital, aye? That was bad enough, but when she went under voluntarily I thought he was going to break. I don’t think he’s been straight since Aunty Hannah went, to be honest”

“Aye. We had a long chat when I was over there, when she was ill. You been told to mind your own business as well?”

“Oh yes. They’re all in on it. Moot now, though, what with her saying yes and all that. Anyway, isn’t likely to happen for a while, what with needing the Gender Recognition people to say yes and all that. Trouble is that she’d already thought of that before she went under”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she can’t get married yet, but she can still have a civil partnership thing like you and Siân did”

“Would Arwel accept that?”

“Lainey, when Alice sets her mind to something, it gets done. There’s talk about legalising gay marriage, anyway”

“Yffern, don’t say that around Arwel!”

“No, no, it’s the other bit of it, aye? They do that, they’ve got to let people with CPs change them into marriages. Wouldn’t make sense otherwise”

“And?”

“She gets her certificate and they swap the CP for a wedding. Dissolve one, tie the knot again, and Arwel just says aye, that gives me two pissups and the trout gets two for one with the wedding, aye”

“Sar, you can’t get your voice anywhere near deep enough to impersonate him, and it’s probably hurting your throat. Explain, please, in words of two syllables or less”

“Easy, aye? They get legal protection as a couple while Alice is legally male, so if her health goes again he gets a say. When she’s legally female, the CP has to be dissolved, so they then get wed properly. That is how she’s sold it to him. They’ve already got a date”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, when?”

“Third of next month in Canterbury. Get your drinking head on, girl”

There was more, dates for a girls’ night out and so on, but it was slowly starting to make sense to me. The state she had been in after the crash still gave me the horrors, and I worried that somewhere in her mistreated brain there was a time bomb waiting to go off. The two of them were not only right in their preparations; I was steadily coming to see that they were right for each other. I had seen her as a soft and vulnerable person, and each decision she took showed me how wrong I had been.

In the end, we didn’t get THAT drunk, apart from Enid, Tony’s mam, who got more than a little tearful a couple of times, but there were more than enough friends of all ages around to hold her hand. It was a short ceremony, but I was astonished by the aftermath, which involved a formal blessing in a proper Roman church by an honest to goodness man in a long dress and a funny collar. I collared him afterwards, the same priest we had found asleep and entangled that night in Dover, and he was very clear in his views. The same man who had actually presided at my sister’s wedding.

I normally find that most priests of organised religions are very clear in their views and that said views are clearly confused, as well as vicious and hurtful. Angharad Roberts was still a fine and shining example of love and tolerance, of course, but Pat seemed to have found a way of remaining sensible.

“I didn’t think you Papists went in for this sort of thing, Pat”

He was sipping something that clearly wasn’t apple juice, Tony beside him as Arwel and Alice occupied the rest of the guests in congratulations and photography.

“I married your sister, Elaine”

“And Sarah is a woman and Tony a man”

“And what’s Alice, Elaine?”

He dropped his voice. “And what was Sarah? I have no doubt about what Sarah IS, fuck me no, and that is the key. I said to Sarah once that there were limits to me, bounds over which I would not step, and one of those was marrying two people who were not of different genders”

“She told me. You said ‘born’, if I remember rightly”

He got a truly evil grin on his face. “Absolutely, woman! Now what gender was your sister born?”

“They put boy on her birth certificate”

“Not the question I asked, was it? Has your sister ever been a boy?”

I thought about that answer, and I could see his point clearly. No meat on a Friday, so eat fish. It comes out of the water, you like the taste, you want to eat it on a Friday, so class it as a fish and you are sorted.

“She’s never been a boy”

“And she’s got it. Elaine, I could not bless your own union. You are a lesbian, and that is against His Holy Word. I do not condemn you, I am simply a member of a club with a lot of bylaws. Does that concern you?”

“We want a wedding some day, a marriage not a social contract, aye? What’s your point?”

“You will not get that here, and nor will I perform such a sacrilege. That’s my hard line. Now, thinking of what I said about your sister, was my old mate Alan ever fucking real? I’ll put that another way: was Alice ever a boy?”

I had to shake my head in admiration. “How the hell do you keep your brain from tangling itself in knots?”

“First Corinthians, thirteen eleven. Childish and bloody stupid thoughts have been put away. I try to see the reality, not the surface. Too many people in this world, including those in my line of work, forget the second commandment”

That threw me, and he caught my expression. “No, woman, not images and idols; that was the old book. Matthew twenty-two, thirty-six to forty. The one about loving your neighbour. Supposed to be the foundation of the Church, but gets overlooked a bit too much. Now, got a couple of quid? I need to top up the swear box”

I handed him the coins, and he winked as he put them into a small plastic bag with quite a few other coins.

“Elaine, be sure of one thing: once my old friend has gained official recognition of something I should have realised years ago, I will be more than happy to see the two of them back here, or in any of His many houses, to do the real thing. God makes marriages, not man. There’s Janet free at last; catch you again, girl”

Where do these people come from? Angharad Roberts used exactly the same source material as Father Pat, and the two results could not have been more different. Then again, Carwyn Roberts had helped his wife along that path with something other than kind words and loving kindness. I resolved to ring a contact in Heddlu Gogledd Cymru when I got a chance.

If he had been able to cow my harridan of a mother-in-law, what might he be doing to a certain former Chapel organist?

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i so want permission to use this part, with proper credit

Teresa L.'s picture

: normally find that most priests of organised religions are very clear in their views and that said views are clearly confused, as well as vicious and hurtful. Angharad Roberts was still a fine and shining example of love and tolerance, of course, but Pat seemed to have found a way of remaining sensible.

“I didn’t think you Papists went in for this sort of thing, Pat”

He was sipping something that clearly wasn’t apple juice, Tony beside him as Arwel and Alice occupied the rest of the guests in congratulations and photography.

“I married your sister, Elaine”

“And Sarah is a woman and Tony a man”

“And what’s Alice, Elaine?”

He dropped his voice. “And what was Sarah? I have no doubt about what Sarah IS, fuck me no, and that is the key. I said to Sarah once that there were limits to me, bounds over which I would not step, and one of those was marrying two people who were not of different genders”

“She told me. You said ‘born’, if I remember rightly”

He got a truly evil grin on his face. “Absolutely, woman! Now what gender was your sister born?”

“They put boy on her birth certificate”

“Not the question I asked, was it? Has your sister ever been a boy?”

I thought about that answer, and I could see his point clearly. No meat on a Friday, so eat fish. It comes out of the water, you like the taste, you want to eat it on a Friday, so class it as a fish and you are sorted.

“She’s never been a boy”

“And she’s got it. Elaine, I could not bless your own union. You are a lesbian, and that is against His Holy Word. I do not condemn you, I am simply a member of a club with a lot of bylaws. Does that concern you?”

“We want a wedding some day, a marriage not a social contract, aye? What’s your point?”

“You will not get that here, and nor will I perform such a sacrilege. That’s my hard line. Now, thinking of what I said about your sister, was my old mate Alan ever fucking real? I’ll put that another way: was Alice ever a boy?”

I had to shake my head in admiration. “How the hell do you keep your brain from tangling itself in knots?”

“First Corinthians, thirteen eleven. Childish and bloody stupid thoughts have been put away. I try to see the reality, not the surface. Too many people in this world, including those in my line of work, forget the second commandment”

That threw me, and he caught my expression. “No, woman, not images and idols; that was the old book. Matthew twenty-two, thirty-six to forty. The one about loving your neighbour. Supposed to be the foundation of the Church, but gets overlooked a bit too much. Now, got a couple of quid? I need to top up the swear box”

that is a perfect way to frame it to those of religious bent (well we have to work on the same sex part, but its a start :D)

loving it as always

Hugs,

Teresa L.

Teresa L.

Pat and sermons

I have been looking for an excuse to have the foul-mouthed old logic-chopper make an appearance. That speech is just one of a number I have written for him, another being the sermon he wrote to tray and get Anne off her knees in 'Cold Feet'.

If something I have written can be of use in any way, of course it can be used.

In The Land Of OZ

joannebarbarella's picture

Unfortunately we don't seem to have a wizard, but our pollies are tying themselves in legalistic and semantic knots obsessing over whether or not to allow a conscience-based parliamentary vote on legalising same-sex marriage. Never mind that two-thirds of the people who vote for them say it should be allowed and we can't have a plebiscite; that would be too democratic, so quite a few politicians will be compelled to vote the party line against their own consciences or get chucked out of the party.

Meanwhile, enlightened societies like Ireland (I never thought I'd be saying that!) show us the way forward.

I do like your characters. They are so real...or are we unreal?

"foul-mouthed old"

Podracer's picture

and welcome fellow. I enjoyed seeing Pat again.
I see some happiness ahead for Alice and Arwel but surely not all peaceful times, the world being what it is.

Is the name Arwel related to Hywel? That was the name of a neighbour.

"Reach for the sun."

Arwel

...is related to Hywel as he is Hywel's father. Both names involve the verb gweld, to see, and Hywel is generally translated as 'far-seeing' while Arwel is more obscure. One idea of the meaning is in the sense of 'clearly seen', 'prominent', 'very visible', 'standing out'.

Of course, their surname Powell is 'son of Hywel'...