The light through the stained-glass window of the basement chapel cast long, purple bruises of color across the wooden altar. It was a small, windowless room that smelled of damp concrete and the cedar oil they used to polish the pews.
Chaplain Thomas stood behind the altar, his black cassock smelling faintly of old paper and candle wax. He was a small man with thin white hair that drifted over his ears like cobwebs, and he kept his hands folded over a small leather-bound book.
Ben sat in his wheelchair beside me, his legs covered by a heavy gray blanket, though he had insisted on wearing his polished black dress shoes for the occasion. His skin looked gray under the basement lights, but his grip on my hand was surprisingly firm.
“We are gathered here in the sight of God,” Chaplain Thomas began, his voice echoing slightly against the low concrete ceiling.
The service was short, stripped of the music and flowers we had once talked about when we were teenagers living next door to each other on Maple Street. There was no one else in the pews, just the empty rows of dark oak and the flickering red candle of the sanctuary lamp.
“Sign here, Sarah,” the chaplain said, sliding the white marriage certificate toward me on the edge of the altar.
My fingers were so unsteady the gold-plated pen scraped against the paper, leaving a jagged blue line before I could finish my last name. The ink looked too bright, almost like a fresh spill on the thick parchment.
Ben took the pen from my hand, his stroke bold and clear as he signed his own name right below mine. He did not hesitate, his signature sharp and precise, without the tremor you would expect from a man with ninety days left.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” Ben drawled, sliding a cheap silver band onto my finger, the metal so thin and sharp it left a tiny green mark on my skin within minutes.
The chaplain placed his hands over ours, offering a brief blessing that seemed to hover in the damp basement air before fading away.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you both,” the chaplain said, his eyes lingering on Ben’s pale face for a second too long.
