Penelope wasn't buying it -- there was no such thing as "happily ever after," or "till death do us part," but the New England autumnal light casting it's shadow on a canopy of yellow and orange leaves, was so seductive that she felt herself being drawn into the moment. Especially when she saw the bride coming around the corner of the farmhouse, making her way to the alter that sat in an open field. She looked glamorous in her simple white dress and blonde hair, holding her bouquet of black calla lilies, walking to the tune of Aerosmith's "Dream on."
Even though it was October in New Hampshire, they all wore sleeveless, including the bride, this being a miracle known to those that understood weather. The morning of the wedding, the photographer had captured a lone red fox running across the field in front of empty white chairs--the chairs that would seat witnesses to the wedding later that day.
During the ceremony a three -year -old boy wandered off and hacked away at a tree with his plastic sword. A baby cried. The restless cows, penned in the barn behind them, mooed in the back round. A dog wandered into the middle, and a lone dragonfly landed on the brides dress and remained there for the duration. She looked like a bride with purpose and she had walked alone, without escort to meet her groom, which convinced Penelope that there might be a chance.