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She didn't have a clear grasp on what was going on. Her big mossy eyes blinked at the assembled guests, her small fist wrapped around Auntie Jaheira's finger as she stumbled forward along the trampled path in their backyard. At the end of the very long path was the man her Daddy loved, she had met him, she knew his face. In front of him was an old man, a grandpa in red clothes with a long white beard. Grandpa Elmi. Next to him was a man with a beard that looked like fire and a short chubby man who she knew as Uncle Rumble. On the other side of Grandpa Elmi, Uncle Minsc stood with Boo on his shoulder. Boo, the hamster, wore a bow tie. Uncle Minsc did not and looked incredibly uncomfortable.
“The petals, little bird. Don't forget,” Auntie Jaheira reminded her.
Dehlia had forgotten; her task, a task Daddy and Auntie said was of great importance, was to throw petals along the path. Petals of her favorite flowers and Daddy's favorite flowers and the man-daddy-loves’ favorite flowers were in a basket, looped around her arm that was raised to cling to Auntie Jaheira. Her fingers, stubby, wrinkly, toddler fingers, reached into the basket and she threw the flowers over her head. Auntie Jaheira laughed as a cascade of flowers fell into her hair and on the grass, joined in a chorus of coos and laughter by the people in seats. Dehlia didn't understand why she didn't get to sit. She wanted to sit. Walking was so tiring. She motioned to Jaheira to pick her up.
“Alright, little bird, but you still have to throw the petals.” She lifted Dehlia easily into her arms to Dehlia's delighted giggles. She loved nothing more than flying.
Dehlia threw handful after handful of flowers as Auntie Jaheira stepped in a slow and measure walk up the aisle.
The-man-daddy-loves was in a black suit. It was a fancy suit, Dehlia recognized, though why it was fancy was perhaps beyond her. He smiled at her, the wrinkles on his face lighting up. He scared her normally, his face was angry most of the time. Frowning and glowering were his basic settings. It took her nearly a year to adjust and learn that he just looked like that. Daddy told her he couldn't help it. She felt bad for him mostly. At least Daddy only frowned sometimes, and when he did he cried. The-man-daddy-loves didn't even cry when he frowned, and Dehlia thought that was why the frown didn't stop.
Jaheira stood, holding Dehlia in her arms, between Grandpa Elmi and Minsc.
Then Daddy walked up the aisle. He looked happy, happier than Dehlia could remember seeing before. He was wearing a white suit with a bundle of flowers and ferns in his hands, an explosion of yellow and green that cascaded over his hands. It matched the fern and flower pinned to the-man-daddy-loves suit. Dehlia looked at him, the man her Daddy loved. He was crying; crying and smiling. Big tears falling into the upturned corners of his lips.
When Daddy held hands with the man he was crying too. He cried so much. Dehlia heard him crying through the walls at night. He had cried less recently and she hoped it was because of the-man-daddy-loves. She held his hand sometimes when he cried, wrapping her small fingers around as many of his as she could grab, and sometimes he would scoop her into his arms and hold her tight while he sobbed. Those types of crying were more common than the quiet ones now, the ones where he locked his door and Auntie Jaheira or Uncle Minsc would come to take care of her. She didn't like any crying, but she liked that one least of all. She was thinking that this kind of crying, the one while he smiled, might not be too bad though.
Grandpa Elmi said something about love and something about kissing and then there were cheers and petals and flowers flying everywhere. She giggled as her daddy swept her into his arms and spun her in a dizzying whirlwind of flowers. Someone took a photo, of Dehlia in Ryldin's arms while his new husband gazed at them lovingly and all of their closest friends clapped and cried in a shower of fresh petals. That photo was framed and hung on the mantle and stayed there, in the center of their home, for the rest of their lives.