This post is part of StoryADay May (https://storyaday.org/) #StoryADay #StoryADayMay @storyadaymay #freeshortstory #HollyJahangiri #Llannonn @hjahangiri.author

For those who don’t know, years and years ago, I wrote a novel (currently out of print) set on Llannonn, a planet where courtesy is literally the law. When I went on a blog book tour for the novel, I ran a contest for naming a character in a short story set in the same world. Fellow writer Holly Jahangiri (the real one) was such a determined contestant, I named a character after her, too. That character commandeered the story, and I’ve been writing about her ever since.

I write a Holly story on the Sundays of Story A Day May.

Holly Jahangiri (the fictional one) becomes, is, and retires as a Librarian at a library for living books. It seems that somebody on Llannonn read Fahrenheit 451 and decided a library of people who recite books they’ve memorized was a great idea. Typically for Llannonn, they officialized it. Becoming a living book is now a respectable career, provided you can get a gig in a library.

A Wedding For the Books

by Marian Allen

“What’s a ‘wedding’?” District Policing Commissioner Pel Darzin asked.

“Apparently, it’s an Earth thing,” replied his contracted partner (or, as the Books insisted on calling her, his “spouse”), High Head Librarian Holly Jahangiri. “It happens with sufficient frequency in Earth books that the whole Library is atwitter with it. There are several very popular volumes who call themselves The Cozy Romance Mystery Girls who worked up a ceremony between them, and enlisted everybody else to help.”

“Ah,” said Darzin, not fully understanding, but having become resigned to not fully understanding his … er … spouse’s charges.

For instance, they had rented his wedding outfit from a shop that catered to Earth expats, but insisted that Holly needed to own and keep what she wore. Two of the “Girls” had disputed whether she was “entitled to wear white”, but had been convinced by the others that raising the question was “tacky”.

Several cookbooks had collaborated on the “wedding feast”, which would be a sit-down dinner for fifty; including the books which had been in residence since the library’s establishment, when Holly had been a mere Apprentice Assistant Librarian; Holly’s mother, Darzin’s Mam, and the Library’s principle sponsors.

The cake was a cake plus a great many cupcakes, all decorated with white icing and purple gillyflowers from Holly’s native Meadow of Flowers homestead. Holly was as benighted as Darzin as to why the Girls called it a “Mary Berry” cake when, she had discovered when Cook had allowed her to lick the beaters, it was clearly flavored with sourjuice.

But the day had arrived for the ceremony, which the Llannonninn in attendance (including the main participants) would have found tedious had they not been so bemused by the officiant, who seemed to have some sort of upper-class speech impediment, unless this ritual was actually called “mawwiage, a bwessed awwangement”. Parlourmaid Tambar Miznalia, who had declared herself “obviously” the Maid of Honor, sniffed haughtily at every oddly pronounced word, which made the actual vows difficult to hear. Fortunately, both Darzin (as a policeman) and Holly (as a librarian) were adept at reading lips.

Then the clergyman said, “Man and wife”, and that was over.

According to the Girls’ instructions, Holly and Darzin held a knife in tandem and cut into the cake, which started a stampede for the buffet table. Fortunately, Darzin had stationed fan favorites Officers Patth and Maeek at either end of the table, and they successfully halted the crowd and filled plates for the “newlyweds” before everything got picked over.

It was some time before everyone was seated and had eaten a sufficient quantity for any ordinary purpose, during which time Officer Maeek sang a carefully curated selection of romantic ballads, none of which involved early death, particularly at the hands of a loved one, which curtailed her repertoire severely.

Suddenly, a scream rang out. One of the Girls staggered into the dining hall and collapsed onto the floor.

Darzin and his officers sprang to the stricken woman’s side, but another of the Girls got there first. She raised her face, glowing with pride and delight, and announced, “She’s dead!”

The two Girls rose, hand in hand, bowing to the applause that was led by the other Cozy Romance Mystery Girls.

“Perfect,” the other Girls assured them. “That’s how a Cozy Romance ought to begin.”

While the festivities resumed, Darzin returned to the side of his “bride”.

“I will never understand them,” he admitted.

“Honey,” said Holly, “I no longer even try.”

MY PROMPT FOR TODAY: Holly and the cake I took a picture of at somebody’s wedding.

MA