An Unforgettable Melody Ch. 11

Ch. 11 song titles

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Bach)

Prince of Denmark’s March (Clarke)

Wedding March (Mendelssohn)

Heartbeat (Carrie Underwood)

An Unforgettable Melody Ch. 11

Ashley’s words of wisdom turned out to be some of the best advice Mike and Melody could have ever received. Though they made little progress in learning more about Melody’s dreams, they took the mindset of not letting it take over their lives. Rather, they enjoyed every moment of their engagement and savored it as the once-in-a-lifetime experience that it was meant to be.

Realizing that, by any measure, their relationship thus far had progressed extremely quickly, the couple decided that they wanted to be engaged for nearly a year before getting married, booking the church for the first of June the following year. Melody took great pleasure in planning out every detail of the wedding, at least the ones she cared about. She found out very quickly that there were elements that she had very specific ideas about, such as the photos and reception, but other parts of the wedding were not high on her priority list, like the flowers and rehearsal dinner.

For those elements, Jane relished in helping with the planning process, booking a beautiful collection of flower arrangements that would be used the next day for the church service. She also reserved the pool house of one of her oldest friends from her own church, seeing it as the perfect place to serve barbeque for the rehearsal dinner. Melody, on the other hand, got to work on finding a caterer for the dessert reception she had decided on. The photos, naturally, would be handled by Evelyn, and would be guaranteed to be better than anything a hired photographer could possibly provide.

With the venue booked, the next step would be organizing the wedding party for both the bride and groom. Mike, naturally, chose his four male cousins, ranging in age from sixteen to thirty-one. Additionally, he picked Stuart as his Best Man, knowing he’d put together the perfect bachelor party that even Mike’s sixteen year-old cousin could participate in fully. As for Melody, Darcy was the obvious pick for the Maid of Honor, with four of her friends from Ashley’s bible study classes agreeing to be her bridesmaids. Finally, the couple personally asked Sasha Johnson to be the flower girl at the ceremony. After an ear-splitting scream, the girl spent the next twenty minutes bouncing around their apartment excitedly, much to her mother’s amusement and brother’s annoyance.

As the wedding plans progressed, summer gradually turned into fall, bringing about Mike’s favorite time of year: college football season. Melody’s first experience at an Auburn football game was quite overwhelming for her, though still a lot of fun. She experienced all of the school traditions before the game, toured the music buildings where Mike studied, and met a few of his former professors, all of whom had embarrassing stories about Mike to tell her. Picking up on the rules of football very quickly, she was able to discuss strategies and tactics with Mike and Brad quite naturally, much to their pleasant surprise.

Soon, Mike’s early October birthday arrived. In probably the best surprise gift he had received in a long time, Melody gave him a brand new PlayStation 4, complete with the new Star Wars: Battlefront game. Mike at first insisted that Melody had spent too much, but she paid him no mind, as she knew she had properly saved for his gift for two months previous. She also reminded him that both of them would surely benefit from the gift. The couple soon began their online domination of the game, quickly becoming very good. Melody, in accordance with her Call of Duty skills, was a monster in ground combat missions, while Mike turned out to be a natural in the air combat levels.

Melody took particular joy in discovering the joys of Halloween. Attending Stuart’s party, they decided on a couple’s costume of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Melody, of course, opted for Leia’s slave costume from Return of the Jedi and the pair easily won the costume contest, edging Stuart and Darcy’s costumes of Mario and Princess Peach. Mike, however, took home the real prize: the mind-blowing fuck session that followed the party, costume and all.

The end of the year brought several family gatherings for the pair. Melody met Jane’s side of the family at Thanksgiving, which consisted of Jane’s mother and three brothers. Mike’s only cousin on his mom’s side, Bonnie, was unable to come due to being eight months pregnant with her first child. Melody enjoyed meeting the family members, and connected very well with Mike’s grandmother, reminiscing with her about her husband, Harry. She came away with Grandmommy’s seal of approval, dubbing her a “darling young lady.”

As Christmas approached, the pair decided not to buy a large amount of gifts for each other, and instead put the money they would have spent into savings for their first home down the road. With time off from work at the ASO and Evelyn handling photography work for the holiday season, they spent the week leading up to Christmas together, relaxing at home away from people before the next round of family gatherings began. During this time, Melody got to experience her first snowfall, which she took in with her usual child-like wonder and excitement. Additionally, she and Sasha made a deadly combination in snowball fights, as it took everything Mike and Tyler had just to defend themselves from their onslaught.

Two days before Christmas, the couple excitedly went to the premier of the most hotly anticipated movie of the year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mike was instantly a fan of the new hero, Rey, and loved watching the strong female lead becoming the new Jedi in training. Melody’s favorite character was Maz; she hoped the old gal would become the new Yoda to Rey. Watching the film’s climax, both Mike and Melody cried out in shock at seeing Han Solo struck down by his own son. As the credits rolled, they agreed that it was better than the prequel trilogy and brilliantly set the director up to branch out into new and creative directions for the follow-up films.

After an intimate Christmas Eve together, they met up with Jane and Brad on Christmas Day, exchanging gifts with them before traveling up to Hilton Head for the Braxton family gathering. The three-day trip was an enjoyable one for them, if a bit overwhelming for Melody, as Brad’s side of the family was quite large; by Mike’s count, Melody would bring the total to thirty-one members. Mike spent a large amount of time with his guy cousins, getting razzed for being the first of them to experience “The Final Game Over,” as they called it. Despite their hazing, they were all genuinely excited for him. Of Mike’s four female cousins, two were older than Melody and two were younger. The younger ones were fun, both being college sophomores, but were a tad immature for Melody’s taste. His older cousins, however, hit it off with Melody very well, both being women of strong faith and character. As they each had two children of their own, Melody quickly found herself aspiring to be like them in a few years.

As the new year began, the couple resumed their counseling sessions with Ashley, studying the Book of Isaiah as best as they were able to. Despite Ashley’s insights from the ministerial side of things, they were still unable to make any sort of connection as to why Melody’s dreams would be triggered by scripture associated with a Biblical prophet. However, since the dream did not escalate in intensity and did not seem to depict either Mike or Melody, their fears of what it could mean diminished somewhat. By the end of the counseling sessions, they concluded that this mystery was something that only time could solve, and resolved to simply live their lives, not being controlled by something clearly out of their hands. This helped to calm Mike and Melody immensely in the months leading up to their wedding.

When the time finally came for the bachelor and bachelorette parties, Stuart and Darcy were well prepared. For Mike, Stuart put together a night of gaming, starting with laser tag and a huge arcade, followed by a marathon of Call of Duty and Super Smash Bros. that lasted long into the night. Mike was particularly appreciative that Stuart had worked to ensure that everything was appropriate for his youngest cousin to fully participate. Darcy put together a relaxing spa day for Melody and her bridesmaids, starting out with hot stone massages and some time in the sauna, and finishing with dinner at The Melting Pot. By the time the big day had finally arrived, both Mike and Melody were relaxed, refreshed, and ready for anything.

As Mike stood in front of the mirror, making some final adjustments to his navy blue vest and tie, he heard a knock on the door of the Sunday school classroom. “Come on in,” he replied.

Stuart entered, shaking Mike’s hand firmly. “You ready for this, man?” he asked with a huge smile on his face.

“Completely,” he said. “How’s Melody?” She had insisted Mike not be able to see her until she walked down the isle that day.

“Doin’ ok, Darcy said she had the standard nerves.