Page 28 of Wedding Bells By the Creek

To Helen’s joy, Tia enveloped her in a quick hug. It was the first time since their reunion that her daughter had shown such casual and open affection. ‘Of course I don’t mind. That was a lovely thing for you to do. I hope the little girl loved her.’

Helen swallowed a giant lump in her throat. ‘Oh, she did. She wouldn’t put it down.’

‘What happened to her?’

‘She and her mother left. I like to think they went on to a better life.’

The two of them stood silent for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts. Helen felt their fragile relationship had just taken a big step forward.

‘So,’ Tia’s voice finally broke the silence. ‘A wedding dress. Where do I start?’

‘What sort of a dress do you want?’ Helen asked.

‘I’m not a girlie girl. So nothing big and no flounces or frills.’

‘Well, I guess that’s a starting point. Let’s find a sales person. We only have two days before we have to get you back to work.’

The sales girl’s name was Lori. She was immaculately made up and tottered around on a pair of impossibly high heels. She was full of questions about the wedding. Where and when was it to be held? What was the theme? Theme? Helen had never realised a wedding needed a theme.

‘I’m not exactly sure when,’ Tia said in answer to the questions. ‘But soon. And we come from a tiny outback town, so I want something that suits outdoors. Not a churchy, froo froo, frilly thing. I drive a truck, you know. A really, really big one.’

Lori looked at her as if she found that hard to believe. Helen had a feeling that Lori’s vision of a big truck was very different from Tia’s reality.

‘You do want a long dress, don’t you?’ Lori asked with a touch of horror in her voice.

‘Yes!’ said Helen.

‘Maybe not,’ said Tia at the same moment.

Mother and daughter laughed together, but Lori looked uncertain.

Helen was left on a chair when Lori took Tia into a changing room, between walls lined with wedding dresses. It was a place she had never expected to be. In a wedding dress shop, waiting for her daughter. The full impact of what was happening began to strike home. Her daughter was getting married. And after all these years apart, Helen was going to be there to witness her happiness. She struggled for a moment against the tears, and then gave up the fight the moment Tia walked out of the dressing room.

She was beautiful.

The dress was a symphony in white. The tight fitting off-the-shoulder bodice was lace, embellished with seed pearls and sparkling beads. A belt of diamantes encircled Tia’s waist, emphasising its narrowness, before a huge skirt made of layer upon layer of tulle billowed out. The ball gown was something out of a fairy tale. Tia’s vibrant hair was caught back, exposing the long slope of her neck and the shape of her shoulders.

Tears ran down Helen’s face. Those tears were for the frightened child who had run away and for the beautiful woman that child had become. There were tears of sadness for the years that they had lost, and tears of joy for this moment together. There were tears of joy at the happiness on her daughter’s face … and perhaps some tears for Helen herself, who had never known such a moment.

Then Tia grinned. He mouth curled into a cheeky grin that took Helen back in time to a day long before the trouble that tore them apart. Eight-year-old Felicity had found some fabric Helen was planning to turn into a dress. It was just a light cream cotton. Plain and cheap, but the little girl had draped it over her head like a veil. She had strutted through their tiny flat saying, ‘Look, Mummy. I’m getting married.’

And now she was.

‘I … I don’t know what to say,’ Helen said. ‘That’s a beautiful dress. You look amazing in it.’

‘It is, isn’t it,’ Tia said. ‘I just had to try it on.’

‘You look wonderful,’ the assistant gushed. ‘It’s the one. I know it is. It’s gorgeous. Let’s get you a veil, then all you need is some jewellery. And shoes, of course. We have some lovely white satin … with diamantes and the highest heels ever!’

‘All I need is another dress,’ Tia said laughing. ‘This is beautiful. But it’s not me. And it just isn’t right for my wedding.’

‘You said you were getting married outdoors, this would be beautiful in a garden setting.’ Lori wasn’t giving up that easily.

‘I won’t be in a garden. We’ll be standing beside a creek in the outback.’ Tia’s eyes twinkled with laughter at the shocked look on the assistant’s face.

‘Well,’ the girl finally gathered her wits. ‘I guess you would want something a little simpler then.’

‘I guess so.’

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