“Mahalo,” Jolar replied.
“Okay, let’s find a good place to set up.”
“I see just the spot,” Jolar answered, heading towards a small group of people.
“Jolar, no,” I replied. One of the three people was a man wearing maile leaves on his head, around his wrists and ankles, and wearing a grass skirt. He held a shell in his hand, and I was pretty sure that it was for some ceremony or other that the two other people were there for seeing as one was geared up to record video.
“Mitchell, yes,” Jolar replied, reaching the trio.
“Ah, you must Jolar! And Mitchell.” The man beamed at us, and I had a sudden strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Hi! I’m Neal!”
“It’s nice to meet you, Neal,” the man in the suit said.
“Jolar, what did you do?” I asked him.
He smiled at me. “Just put our beach bag over there and come here.”
I did as he asked, turning around to find he held two maile lei crowns in the box, along with three plumeria ones for around our necks.
“You goof, don’t tell me this is what I think it is.”
“What is it, Daddy?” Neil said, plucking at his lei and bringing it to his nose to sniff.
“We did not exchange rings, so I want to marry you all over again while we do.”
I stared at him open mouthed, not even knowing what to say.
“You’re an idiot,” I told him.
“That’s not nice, Papa. You shouldn’t calls people names.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right. Okay, I mean, you’re a smart man but silly. You didn’t need to do this.”
“You make me want to do it every day,” he confessed, and damn it, it was such an adorable thing to say that my eyes began to smart.
“If we may begin, gentlemen?” the man I now knew to be our officiant asked.
I nodded. “We’re here, so might as well,” I replied, giving Jolar a smile to let him know I wasn’t actually mad. We would have a discussion about being quite so extravagant, though.
“Just me and Papa this time, with rings, but you hold the box, okay?” Jolar said to Neal, handing him the velvet box.
“Okay!”
The videographer positioned us where she wanted us, and then it was time.
“Once you each walked alone, until the stars looked down and said to the tides, he must find his other. And the tides replied, “There is another who walks alone, eyes to the sky, searching. And so the sea washed the sands until you trod the same path.”
He gestured at Neal, and Jolar opened the box and took out a ring. “I walked alone until the stars and tides of life brought you to me. With this ring, I thee wed, a symbol of our endless journey through eternity together.”
I sniffled. He had to have memorized this sometime after arranging this in secret.
“Your turn, Papa,” Neal prompted, and I took the ring. Unsure if I was supposed to say the same thing or not, I decided to ad lib. “I walked alone, searching for my future. The stars brought me here, where the tides wash our path, I stand beside you. With this ring, I thee wed and will walk beside you for all eternity.”
I could feel a big, fat tear roll down my nose only to plop into the sand. I really didn’t care.
“May you walk in peace and joy, your steps always in harmony, as husbands from this day forward,.”
