Something Borrowed, Something New
Sara Crompton was the oldest daughter of an Anglican Church minister. She was brought up strictly to believe that sex was meant to be confined within marriage. She met and fell in love with Peter Spalding, at first sight, at a church youth function. They were both nineteen years old.
They got married quickly before their desire for each other overcame their self-restraint. Or so it seemed, but Sara had an unplanned adventure on the night before the wedding. It happened on a bride-to-be night out with her girlfriends. She’d let herself become uncharacteristically intoxicated while with them, and met an irresistibly attractive stranger at a bar.
Sara’s mother had devoted herself to the hurried wedding arrangements and Sara did not become a bridezilla. She even followed the tradition of something borrowed (her mother’s wedding veil) and something new (her own wedding dress). She was the traditional beautiful bride in white at the ceremony.
She married Peter at the Likuliku Resort on Malolo Island in the Mamanuko Archipelago, a short boat ride from the Fijian capital. After the wedding, they stayed on to honeymoon.
_________
A headline in the Fiji Times two days later:
Newly-wed Drowns at Malolo Island
__________
Because of suspicious injuries, found on autopsy, Peter was charged with manslaughter.
Giving tearful testimony at his trial, he said that he and his deceased wife were both poor swimmers and had unintentionally gone out of their depth in the lagoon at the resort. It was a tragedy he wished he had been able to avoid. He loved Sara very much but she had wanted to swim in the sea against his advice.
Her injuries, he said shame-facedly, had been caused when he had to push her off when she clung to him and dragged him under the surface. He wished he had died with her but his fear of drowning, and the survival instinct, had driven him temporarily out of his mind.
The Fijian jury acquitted Peter.
At the young age of twenty, back in Auckland, he settled into life as a widower, never forgetting what Sara had confessed on their wedding night.
They got married quickly before their desire for each other overcame their self-restraint. Or so it seemed, but Sara had an unplanned adventure on the night before the wedding. It happened on a bride-to-be night out with her girlfriends. She’d let herself become uncharacteristically intoxicated while with them, and met an irresistibly attractive stranger at a bar.
Sara’s mother had devoted herself to the hurried wedding arrangements and Sara did not become a bridezilla. She even followed the tradition of something borrowed (her mother’s wedding veil) and something new (her own wedding dress). She was the traditional beautiful bride in white at the ceremony.
She married Peter at the Likuliku Resort on Malolo Island in the Mamanuko Archipelago, a short boat ride from the Fijian capital. After the wedding, they stayed on to honeymoon.
_________
A headline in the Fiji Times two days later:
Newly-wed Drowns at Malolo Island
__________
Because of suspicious injuries, found on autopsy, Peter was charged with manslaughter.
Giving tearful testimony at his trial, he said that he and his deceased wife were both poor swimmers and had unintentionally gone out of their depth in the lagoon at the resort. It was a tragedy he wished he had been able to avoid. He loved Sara very much but she had wanted to swim in the sea against his advice.
Her injuries, he said shame-facedly, had been caused when he had to push her off when she clung to him and dragged him under the surface. He wished he had died with her but his fear of drowning, and the survival instinct, had driven him temporarily out of his mind.
The Fijian jury acquitted Peter.
At the young age of twenty, back in Auckland, he settled into life as a widower, never forgetting what Sara had confessed on their wedding night.
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