Joan Eunice stopped in front of judge and preacher, Winifred took her bouquet from her, stepped back to one side. Alec Train moved Jake into place beside Joan Eunice, placed himself to balance Winifred. The music stopped. Hugo lifted his eyes and said, "Let us pray." (Om Mani Padme Hum. You okay, twin?) (I'm all right now. Om Mani Padme Hum.)

When Hugo said, "Amen," Joe Branca slid in from the side, shot his first picture. Thereafter he moved around like a Chinese stagehand, disturbing no one and never moving at a crucial moment—but getting his shots.

Hugo opened his Book, did not look at it. "We read today from the Book of Psalms. It says here:

"‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

"‘He restoreth my soul;

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

"‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil……..

He closed his Book. "Brothers and Sisters, the Lord saw that Adam was lonely in the Garden of Eden and He said it is not good for man to live alone. So He created Eve to live with Adam. And He said to Adam, My son, you take care of this woman, you hear Me? You treat her right all the time, just like I was watching you every minute. Because I am watching you, every minute and every second. You cherish her and protect her like I tell you and you'll be too busy to get into anything wrongful, and she'll be a comfort to you all the days of your life."

He turned to Salomon. "Jacob Moshe, are you going to do that?"

"I will!"

The Reverend looked at the bride. "And the Lord said to Eve, My daughter, you got to cook for this man and wash his clothes and bring up his babies and not go running around when you should be home, and love him even when he's tired and bad-tempered and not fit to speak to, because men are like that and you must take the bad with the good—you hear Me, Eve?

"Joan Eunice, are you going to do that?"

"Yes, Father Hugo."

"Judge—"

"Jacob Moshe, does there exist any impediment under our laws and customs to you marrying this woman?"

"None."

"Joan Eunice, is there any reason in law or in your heart why you cannot marry this man?"

"There is none, Your Honor."

McCampbell spoke more loudly. "If any witness knows of any cause which would forbid me to bind these two in marriage, I command him to speak." (Eunice, if anyone even clears his throat, I'll—I'll—) (You'll keep quiet, Boss darling; that's what you'll do. Nobody here but our loving friends. Om Mani Padme Hum.) (Om Mani Padme Hum…)

"Jacob Moshe, will you love, honor, and cherish her?"

"I will."

"Joan Eunice, will you love, honor, and cherish him?"

"I will love, honor and obey him." (Huh? Boss you demon, you haven't the slightest intention of obeying!)

Salomon said, "Wait a moment! Judge, she switched the words! I don't expect that and I won't let her promise—"

"Order. YOU keep quiet, Jake; I'm not addressing you. Joan Eunice, is that what you wish to promise?"

"Yes, Your Honor." (Eunice, stay out of this. I know what I'm doing.)

"I must advise you that such a promise is not legally binding under the civil marriage contract of this State but I must warn you, too, that it is not a promise which should be lightly made in these circumstances."

"I know it, Your Honor." (Boss, you're out of your mind!) (Quite possibly. But it's all right, sweetheart. Jake is going to give us exactly the orders we will be humbly pleased to obey. Haven't I been right so far?) (Yes, but you keep scaring me. Suppose he tells us to keep our legs crossed? I've never been any good at that.) (He never will. Instead he'll be magnanimously pleased to humor our little follies—since we've promised to obey him. Relax, sweetheart—this is precisely the way my darling Agnes handled me...when I was not anything like as wise and tolerant as Jake is.)

"Let me hear you state your intention again."

"I, Joan Eunice, do solemnly promise to love, honor, and obey Jacob Moshe—and I will, Your Honor, even if he backs out and won't marry me. He doesn't have to marry me. I'd be perfectly happy just to—"

"Quiet, Joan Eunice. That's enough. Reverend, this is getting out of hand; I'm going to wrap it up with the bare legalities and you can plaster them with anything else they need in your closing prayer. All right?"

"Yes, Judge. They don't need much prayer; they're ready."

"I hope you're right. Jake, you heard this stubborn little, uh, lady. Are you willing to marry her anyhow?"

"Yes."

"Jacob Moshe, do you take Joan Eunice to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do!"

"Joan Eunice, do you take Jacob Moshe to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"Uh, where's the ring? Alec. Jake, take her left hand in your left. Now."

"‘With this ring I thee wed.'"

"Under authority vested in me I pronounce you man and wife. Kiss her, Jake. Take it, Reverend." (And you told me not to louse it up!) (I got us there, didn't I? He's ours. I mean, we're his. Same thing.)

"Let us pray!"

26

On Luna, Kennedy Tunnel B, parelleling Kennedy Tunnel A between Luna City and the Apollo Industrial Complex, was completed and both tunnels were then made one-way, thereby quadrupling the potential traffic. The five- and ten-year projections caused the Commission to decide to go ahead at once with tunnels C and D. On the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges Vacuum Industries, Ltd., Selenterprises, Pan Am, and Diana Transport all took sudden jumps against a generally sagging market. Mercury Newsletter (subsid of MercServ) sent destructaped messages by special couriers to their 7-star clients. Nine percent of these couriers failed to report back, which caused the managing director of MercServ to decide that a vacation at Las-Vegas-in-the-Sky would be good for his health even though there was no proof that Internal Defense agents had detained the couriers or solved the "destruct" combo. A source close to the President denied that there was anything more than seasonal unrest in any city in the country and denounced "irresponsible rumormongers." CBS's "Today's Day with Dave Daly" was replaced by a motion picture with an explanation of technical difficulties. "Today's Day" resumed the next day without Daly, who was—it was announced—on sick leave to recover from extreme fatigue. Miss Molly Maguire, the hottest sensie star of the private film industry, claimed the title of first woman in history to give birth to a child during a sky dive. The babe was safely landed exactly as planned by the midwife team diving with her, the event was filmed in stereosound and color from several angles, and the only casualty was a sprained ankle for Miss Maguire—she was able to hold a press conference thirty minutes after she landed.

Since plane flight had originated in, and sky dive had started over, Mexican soil, whereas the entire party except the plane had landed in Arizona, it was not clear what laws had been violated or whose, or what nationality the child was—as Miss Maguire's citizenship was Pakistani, with Legal permanent residence in the States. The party surrendered voluntarily to the nearest U.S. immigration officer and Miss Maguire apologized most prettily on videocast for having reentered the country of her choice so informally through an inadvertent error in navigation by her pilot, plus a sudden gust of wind. They were released with a warning but the films were impounded—uselessly, as they seemed to show that the child was born, about fifty-fifty, in both countries, but factors of angle and parallax and identification of ground markings—in those film sequences in which the ground showed at all—make it impossible to be certain. Grove Press bought an option on the films, then entered suit to have them released, in the interest of justice.