Cadell and Andy walked out of Emily’s hospital room into the wide corridor lit by the overhead fluorescent lights.
Because this was the pediatric floor, primary colors striped the walls, and cartoon characters were drawn playing along the stripes. Even though it was mid-morning on a Saturday, crowds of people jostled through the corridor. Most of them held bags of toys as they walked into hospital rooms.
He was still keyed up and angry for her, his face blazing with heat that her family would throw her away like that, his body vibrating in his sinews and bones that they didn’t value Andy and wouldn’t have valued Emily like they should have, but his soul was floating somewhere near the ceiling that this woman—this genius, beautiful woman—loved him and was going to marry him.
As they walked, bells on her ankles jingled, and her scarlet and gold scarf fluttered behind her.
He liked it better when she wore her white coat and scrubs, or even better, when she wore nothing at all, but he had to admit that this wedding dress was pretty. It glittered.
Ahead of them, a man stepped out of the crowd, his hands squared on his hips. He wore a bright blue satin coat and pants, trimmed in silver. He looked like he was probably of Indian descent because he had the same caramel skin that Andy had, but white hair puffed around his head.
The old guy pointed at them. “Andal, you need to return to the wedding immediately.”
Cadell strode forward, ready to shove this guy aside or cold-cock him as the situation developed, but Andy grabbed his arm and kept him back.
She drew herself up beside him, straightening until her head came nearly to his biceps, and she said, “I am not returning. I do not want to marry that man that my parents arranged me to.”
In the hallway, people stopped and turned, not staring because this was New York, but watching out of the sides of their eyes. They moved back, clearing a circle.
The man strode forward and stood in front of Andy.
Cadell kept his thumbs pinned to the seams on his jeans even though he itched to reach for the guy and shove him backward. He did, however, step forward to loom over the guy, staring down at the top of the guy’s head that was at the level of Cadell’s chest.
The little guy looked up at Cadell, sneered, and looked back at Andy. He was taller than Andy, and she looked up at him with a fierce expression on her face. Her eyes, lined with layers of makeup to make them look even larger than usual, had widened on her face until he could see white all the way around her dark irises.
That’s right, Andy. You tell him.
The guy said, “You need to come back to your wedding right now. If you do, all will be forgiven, but you must come now. I have a car waiting.”
“Uncle,” she said. “I will not go, and you need to leave, now. This is my hospital, my place of work. You will leave me alone.”
Cadell noted that Andy had called him her uncle. Okay. Family member. He shouldn’t punch unless necessary.
He was kind of hoping it would be necessary.
“You’re not at work,” the uncle said to Andy. “You’re not dressed for work. You’re dressed for your wedding, the wedding that your parents arranged and paid for. Mahadavan is their choice. You need to fulfill your obligation as their daughter.”
A few people in the hallway turned, sensing something very wrong was going on. Cadell had been in enough bar fights with Xan to feel the excitement and resolve in the air.
Most people didn’t stop to look. It was New York, after all. Not their problem unless it became their problem.
Some people shrank back or walked briskly away, many of them sheltering children.
A couple of people crowded up to the front. Some of them were bright-eyed, eager to see a fight.
Three women were grinding their teeth and clenching their fists, ready to intervene. They looked back and forth between Andy and the uncle.
Andy said, “I will not go back. I am a grown woman and will make my own decisions.”
The uncle shook his finger at Cadell while he glared at Andy. “You are not making your own decisions. You are not independent. You owe everything to your parents. This boy is a bad influence on you. He is giving you bad ideas.”
Andy said, “I love him, and he is everything to me.”
Cadell stepped a little closer to her. The crowd in the hallway parted and went around them, but a few people stayed, watching.
The uncle said, “He is putting bad ideas in your head. You will come and marry this good Indian boy right now because you owe your parents!”
Andy told the uncle, “I will not marry Mahadavan. I am going to marry Cadell. We are going to get the marriage license right now.”
“You will not marry this boy!” the old guy shouted.
The uncle grabbed Andy’s arm.
She shook her arm where the uncle held it.
Cadell reached and grabbed the uncle by his shoulders, turned him, and chopped downward to knock the guy’s hand off of Andy. He bent and got right in the guy’s face. “Don’t you touch her.”
Two women in the crowd surged forward, also ready to intervene, but they stopped. Shouting and jabbering crackled in the air all around them, the women telling the old guy to leave the young woman alone and not to touch her.
The uncle’s face twisted up. “Take your hands off me. Police! Police!”
The two women yelled at the uncle’s cries, pointing to the security globes stuck in the ceiling and berating the old guy for grabbing the woman first.
Cadell pushed the uncle back a step, making sure he was well away from Andy.
The people around them jostled and shouted, chewing the old guy a new one.
He straightened and glared down at the jerk. “You don’t say another damn word to her, and you don’t touch her. Andy and I are leaving now. Not another fucking word.”
The uncle flapped his mouth like a dying fish. “I will speak if I want to.”
One of the women yelled at him some more, shaking her finger at him.
Cadell wrapped one arm around Andy and tucked her against his side. He told the people, “Keep that guy here!” and escorted Andy down the hallway.
A small crowd formed around the uncle, yelling at him and berating him, while Cadell led Andy down the corridor to the elevator bank, bustled her in, and got her out of the building.
She clung to his waist, shaking.
He rubbed her arm, saying, “You were great. You did everything right. You were perfect.”