16. The World As It Should Be

Spring, one year later, the Silk children rise as early as the sun, their faces bright as daffodils. Dew dampens the hems of their pyjama pants as they wander through the grass with baskets on their arms. The girls have their hair twisted in rags to make it curl into ringlets. Layla is with them, of course. They gather flowers: freesias, lilies of the valley and pale-pink fairy roses.

Back at the house, they spread their treasure over the kitchen table and weave the tiny rosebuds and sprigs of maidenhair fern through willow wreaths, binding them in place with narrow satin ribbons. Nell and Annie make perfumed posies of freesias and lilies and wrap them in paper doilies. When the posies are done, Annie takes Nell to the bathroom to wash her long white hair in rainwater and lemon juice.

Griffin and Perry run outside to find Ben, who has borrowed Fangled, the ride-on mower, from the cemetery. The boys take turns to ride behind their father as he cuts the grass beside the dam, under the Cox’s Orange Pippin and beside the table made of timber from the broken bridge at Gypsy’s Creek. He mows in beautiful curves making the ups and downs of the Kingdom of Silk look like a park.

While the kitchen is clean and quiet, Amber puts the finishing touches on a cake as tall as a castle. She adds sugared violets, white doves and velvet ribbons to the smooth white frosting. It is the most beautiful cake she has ever made and the most complicated. Hidden under the white frosting there are spices, honey, flour, eggs and cherries red as hearts.

At mid-morning, Perry Angel waits on the Cameron’s Creek railway platform. His cheeks are as pink as pigeons’ toes, and the world is reflected in his shining eyes. His feet are brown and bare and there is a generous coating of glitter on his toenails. His shirt is the colour of happiness and he wears a pair of chicken-feather wings. In his arms, he holds a bouquet of freesias, white ones, the sweetest kind.

The ten-thirty express rumbles towards the station, whistling a warning. Perry turns and looks back at the people he loves: Ben and Annie, the Rainbow Girls, Griffin and Layla. Blue is there too and Barney Blacksheep, with Zeus perched on his newly shorn back. Only Nell and Jenkins are not with them.

The train squeals to a stop. Perry turns towards it and waits while the passengers disembark. Sam Sparrow steps onto the platform and helps Sunday, who is pushing a pram with big wheels. The baby inside is all curls and chubby cheeks. Perry puts the freesias in Sunday’s arms. Sam hugs him and the baby claps her dimpled hands.

The Colour Patch Café is closed today. There is barely a car to be seen in the main street of Cameron’s Creek. The bus disappears slowly down the road. Mr Davis has a full load and the pack-rack on top is piled high with folding chairs and picnic baskets.

The Sparrows and the Silks climb into the big yellow taxi bus — all except Ben, Blue, Barney and Zeus. The taxi driver says he is not permitted to transport livestock. Ben is not livestock, but he has to drive the Bedford home.

Zeus stands on the dashboard near the radio and tries to turn the knob with his beak to change the station. Blue and Barney sit in the back and Blue smiles at the taxi as they follow the bus all the way to the Kingdom of Silk.

At two thirty, Nell and Jenkins stroll towards the Cox’s Orange Pippin, arm in arm over the sweet mown grass, between clumps of creamy freesias. Nell wears lavender-grey lace and a hat with a wide brim and a short, hail-spot veil. Henry wears a kilt.

Six barefoot bridesmaids and two pages trail behind them. The pages wear loose white shirts and soft grey trousers. Perry Angel wears his wings. Layla and the Rainbow Girls are dressed in paper taffeta gowns that rustle when they walk, with clouds of pink tulle petticoats and satin sashes. They wear the coronets made that morning over their tumbling ringlets and carry the posies made by Nell and Annie.

The preacher has no official duties today. He sits with Ben and Annie. He has no family of his own, but the Silks have made him part of theirs, just as they have so many others from both Cameron’s Creek and far away.

The celebrant’s name is Sally. Her hair is a cap of smoke and light, her eyes are chocolate pools, her voice is the song of a skylark’s and her face is a pixie queen’s. She welcomes the bridal party and their guests to the cathedral of blossom and earth and air.

‘It seems fitting to gather today, at the foot of a fruit tree, to speak of love,’ she says. ‘Long ago, William Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet. Act two is set in Capulet’s orchard, where Juliet speaks of her love for Romeo. These are her words.’

Sally reads from a small leather-bound book.

 

‘My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.’

Saffron leans towards Perry.

‘That’s just another way of saying love is elastic,’ she whispers. ‘There’s always enough to go around.’

‘Hundreds of years have passed since these words were written, but here at the Kingdom of Silk, it is clear they are no less true today,’ says Sally.

‘Nell Silk and Henry Jenkins will now make their commitments to one another.’

Nell turns to face Mr Jenkins. She speaks calmly and clearly.

 

‘Love does not dim with age.

It grows brighter until
we know that love is
all
that matters.

I have loved and been loved
and will love
again.

I love and have loved
truly and deeply,
but none more than you,
Henry Jenkins.’

Mr Jenkins cannot speak. The paper in his fingers trembles. Nell takes his hands in hers. Their eyes meet and he speaks:

‘Nell Silk,
you make the world a better place.
You are my world …’

Henry is full of joy and empty of words. But that is enough for Nell.

Sally guides them both through the formal vows and declares them husband and wife. There is no need to release caged birds or butterflies; the heavenlies are filled with them. Petals shower the newlyweds as they move to sit in a love seat Ben has made from bent willow. The bridesmaids sit on the grass, as pretty as the blossomy boughs above. The guests drink a toast with water from the Valley of the Unicorns.

Next it is Ben’s turn. Griffin watches his daddy’s hands untie the string from a parcel. Brown paper falls away like autumn leaves, revealing a Naming Day Book. The baby carved on its wooden cover looks like a cherub — all curls and chubby cheeks.

A breath of wind gently moves the pippin blossoms, and Griffin looks up through the branches to the scraps of sky beyond. There is an ache inside him. Layla takes his hand and squeezes it and Nell smiles gently into his soul, silently reminding him Tishkin is with them today, as she is always. Sam and Sunday’s baby laughs and claps her hands. Ben passes the book to Sam.

Sunday has dressed her daughter in a gown smocked with silk and embroidered with rosebuds. It has been worn by many other little girls: Ruby, Florence, Alice and Nell Rose, Katie and Ella Silk, and the Rainbow Girls. A gown of memories, as frail as dragonfly wings, as strong as love.

At last it is Perry’s turn. It was he who helped Sunday and Sam find the perfect name for their baby girl. Today, for the first time, he will speak it to the wind and the soil and the sky of the Kingdom of Silk. His wings tremble a little but he takes a deep breath, raises his eyes to the Bluephyre sky and says the words he knows by heart.

‘Little sister, I name you Nellie-Rose Lee Sparrow.’

The ceremonies are over now and Nellie-Rose is carefully passed from one pair of gentle arms to another.

The guests open their picnic baskets and share stories, sandwiches, sausage rolls, sugared almonds and wedding cake, and sip pineapple punch from tiny glasses. Nobody wants to leave.

Perry squeezes into the love seat, between Nell and Jenkins. He thinks of the one small wish he made just over a year ago and all that has come of it — the dance with petticoats and posies, the Festival of Crisp Winter Glories and, today, the wedding of two of his favourite people. He sits between them and watches the guests talking, laughing and eating like one big family, and Nell is at the heart of it.

And Perry Angel knows, without being told, that the world is as it should be.