Chapter Three
Hunter rummaged through Owen’s wardrobe. He and Logan were close enough in size that it was easy enough for them to swap clothes, especially at such short notice for an interview.
“Princess, I’m not sure why you’re worrying!” Logan was stretched out on the bed, his hands behind his head. Of the two of them, Hunter was definitely the more nervous, despite the Guild members having promised her that it was a mere formality.
“Logan, I want them to like you!”
Hunter pulled out a grey jacket with a matching waistcoat. It looked like it was designed to hang loose on Owen, which meant it should fit Logan just right.
“Here you go, try this, just wear it with jeans and a t-shirt, good mix of smart and casual.”
Logan shook his head, but took the hanger she offered. He knew he was going to spend the rest of his life making things up to his princess, so he may as well start now.
They decided to skip the waistcoat, as it was just a little snug, but eventually, Hunter decided he was ready.
“You do scrub up well!”” she teased.
“Wait til I’ve spent time in the ruins with you, what’s the phrase I heard you, Mi-an and Elsie use the other day? Grimes up good?”
Hunter blushed. They’d opened a new movie theatre in Atara, based on something from the Old World, and they’d been discussing one of the actors.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Logan just laughed.
“Fine, let’s get this show on the road, you said 2pm, and it’s quarter to now. I know the Guild is only just across the road, but I don’t want to be late!”
Hans and Jon were waiting for them when they arrived, and swept Logan straight upstairs. Hunter spent the next half hour pacing the floor near the commission board.
“Calm down!” Mi-an said, patting her arm. The sound of laughter filtered down from above. “You have to admit, that sounds promising!”
They came back down about 10 minutes later.
“Ladies, I’m happy to present your new ruins specialist,” Jon said. Mi-an jumped up and down in delight, while Hunter wrapped her arms round Logan in a hug.
“C’mon princess, you mentioned a night under the stars when I got this, didn’t ya?” Logan murmured in her ear.
The letter in the mailbox didn’t give too many details, simply that Mayor Trudy was summoning Hunter to a meeting at City Hall with Heidi and Burgess “at her earliest convenience” that day. Popping into the Commerce Guild first, she let Mi-an know.
“Huh, haven’t heard anything yet,” Mi-an replied. “No unusual commissions from any of them, either.”
“Odd. I’ll let you know what it’s about as soon as,” Hunter replied.
She walked back up Main Street, meeting Heidi as she left her house.
“You gonna tell me what you’re up to?” Hunter teased.
“No, ma’am, wait til we’ve got Burgess and Trudy, then it’ll all make sense!”
Burgess saw them approach as he lingered outside Water World, and dashed across the square, so they all arrived at the City Hall together.
“Oh, wonderful!” cried Trudy as they walked in, “You’re all here, let’s get started!”
“So, the first project I want to look at as part of rebuilding the town, is the Church,” Trudy explained.
“There are two strands to this, the physical building, and the personnel. The second of these is the easiest to solve. I’ve been in touch with the Elders in Meidi, and they have agreed, Burgess, to promote you to Minister, effective immediately!”
“I… I don’t know what to say!” stuttered Burgess.
“Well, I’m hoping that you’ll start by saying yes to the role!” replied Trudy.
“Yes! Of course! But how will I run the Church?”
“You’ll have Dan-bi, of course, and there’s a Sister from Portia, Nora, who is looking to move on for personal reasons. They suggested she may be a good addition here. She’s slightly more forward thinking than Minister Lee who is based there. Light, there was even talk of transferring Miguel there to serve his penance. But, if we have you, Dan-bi and Nora, we can get started and see where we go from there.
“Now, the next thing to discuss is the actual Temple itself. It took some damage in the battle, and in particular, Matilda’s house is half demolished.” Trudy looked at Hunter. “Now, I’m not blaming you, or Logan, for that. The jacuzzi bomb was an inspired decoy.
“What I want to suggest is starting over. There are a couple of outcrops out past Hunter’s workshop, and while the land there is empty now, with the building of the Road to Portia, that whole area where the road joins is going to become prime real estate.
“I’d like the three of you to work on plans for a new Temple as the first building over there.”
Heidi, Hunter and Burgess looked at each other and grinned.
“Yes, of course!”
“Totally!”
“Woo-hoo!”
“So, I’ll let you three get your heads together, and we can meet again next week?” Trudy suggested, before adjourning the meeting.
Hunter, Heidi and Burgess headed down Main Street, buzzing with ideas and excitement. As they approached the rail tracks, they stopped and took in the landscape.
As Trudy had mentioned, there were a couple of areas that would work to maintain the Temple’s traditional high point view.
“That one.” Hunter pointed at the one further away from the workshop. It had a good-sized footprint, and fewer animals to clear, the bumble ants tended to pass over rather than live there.
“That would work,” Heidi mused. “Qi’s robot suit will deal with most of that high area, however, I’d like to try and keep some of it, work it into the building. Leave it with me, if you two want to get to work on packing up the old Temple and figuring out what we need for that.”
Heidi headed back to Construction Junction, while Hunter and Burgess headed to the Commerce Guild.
“Oh wow!” Mi-an squealed. “Firstly, congratulations, Burgess! Secondly, congratulations us! That is a massive project!”
“So, while Heidi is planning the building, I want us to look through the old temple and see what we can salvage. If the city is giving us a blank check to have a fresh start, though, I’d rather replace as much as possible.” Burgess paused in his stream of instructions. “Oh my, is this what it feels like to take charge? I’ve never done it before! I like it!”
The two builders laughed. They’d known Burgess would eventually grow into his own, and it would be fun watching the transformation.
A couple of days later, Hunter and Burgess were at the Temple, packing up the last of the library. That would get moved to City Hall with the town library.
They’d pretty much decided to replace everything else. Hunter, Mi-an and Haru had spent yesterday scrapping everything except the bookcases, the organ, and the murals. The organ was one of the few things that would move to the new temple - Hugo had threatened to stop playing if they replaced it, saying he’d finally got it worn in to how he liked it.
They weren’t quite sure what to do with the murals; while they wanted to replace them, it seemed wrong to destroy the old ones.
The bookcases would be the last to be scrapped.
As Hunter packed them into boxes, the title of one caught her eye.
“Matrimonial Law in Sandrock”
They’d still never come to a conclusion, endlessly talking about the possibility of Hunter marrying one of them - which one depended on the night and the reasons - but she still insisted, all or nothing.
She flicked through the guidance, found the normal stuff, sound mind, no existing marriages, but realised one thing was missing.
She turned to the beginning and read through more carefully, coming to the same conclusion.
“Burgess,” she asked thoughtfully, “have you ever officiated a wedding before?”
“Well, no, now you ask. Minister Matilda always took care of those.”
“But you’ve read all the regulations, haven’t you?”
“Of course, Miz Hunter!” Hunter rolled her eyes, she’d told him to drop the Miz, but he insisted.
“Burgess, is there anywhere in the guides or laws that says a marriage is restricted to two people?”
“Burgess paused. “Well, now that you mention it, I don’t think there is. I think it’s always assumed…”
Hunter grinned.
“How would you feel about opening the Temple with a wedding, Burgess? For four of us?”
“Well, I think that could be arranged. Truth be told, I’ve never seen any of you look so happy as you have recently, so I’d love to help.”
“Just do me a favour and keep it between us for now, will you?”
The next day was Sunday, and Hunter was surprised to wake up alone. She tried pulling the cover off to get up, but realised there was a heavy, ornate box resting on it.
Sitting up, she lifted the box onto her lap, and examined it. No lock, just a simple latch, which she flipped up and opened the box.
Hunter gasped.
Nestled within were three love knots.
A traditional red cord one, that must be from Logan - despite what he wanted people to think, he had a romantic streak a mile wide.
The wire one, she assumed was from Owen. He’d been fascinated by the idea when Hunter had mentioned it and would have focussed on the practical nature of it.
Finally, a carved rose quartz one. The only person in town that collected more rocks than the Builders was Unsuur, so Hunter figured Justice had asked him for help. But, like Owen’s wire one, it would withstand a lot of the wear and tear that it could go through.
At the bottom of the box was a chain, white, yellow and rose gold twisted together, with a cage big enough to hold all three hearts together.
The door burst open, and the three men fell into the room: they’d been leaning on it, listening for a reaction.
“Somethin’ y’all want to ask me?” Hunter said, cocking an eyebrow.
All three dropped to one knee.
Owen cleared his throat and started.
“Hunter, darlin’ I know we haven't figured out the wedding thing yet, but we will.”
Logan took over, “So we wanted to give you, give each other, something to mark this as official.”
“So, for now, at least,” finished Justice, “we wanted to exchange love knots as a symbol.”
Hunter glanced at each of them, and realised they also wore matching love knots, with space to add one that represented her.
“Hunter,” they said in sync, “will you be ours forever?”
“Yes! A thousand times yes!” Hunter cried.
The guys piled onto the bed with her. It was only much later that Hunter remembered to tell them what she’d discovered.
“So, if you were serious about the wedding, I may have an answer!”
The temple was finished faster than any build previously, and the official opening was set for the first day of summer.
On opening day, the only people who knew the full plans besides the four of them were Burgess, Mi-an, Unsuur, Elsie, and Haru.
Everyone turned up in their Sunday best, so Hunter, Justice, Logan, and Owen didn’t look out of place. The three men wore suits, and Hunter wore the turquoise silk dress she’d worn the night they all got together.
With help from Miz Vivi, she’d tracked down some turquoise silk cord that matched, and the night before she had given them each a heart knot. Now all of them wore a sign representing each of the others.
As Burgess drew to the end of his sermon, he paused and nodded to them.
“Now the rebuilding of Sandrock would not have been possible without the work of four people in particular. They fought to save us, to save the town. Without them, Sandrock would be finished.
“Hunter, Justice, Logan, Owen, would you come to the front, please?”
They walked up the aisle, Hunter in the middle, with the three guys either side. They were flanked by Mi-an and Elsie on one side, Haru and Unsuur on the other.
“Now, what I am about to do may seem unusual, but I promise there is nothing to say we can’t!
“Today, I ask you to join me as Hunter, Justice, Logan and Owen join together in marriage.”
There were mutters of surprise round the congregation, but they seemed happy rather than judgemental.
“Might I ask your attendants to prepare you, please?”
Elsie, Mi-an, Haru, and Unsuur each pulled out a length of ribbon and attached it to a wrist.
“Now, please clasp your hands together,” Burgess asked.
Once they had done so, their attendants took turns to wrap the ribbon round all four hands, joining them together.
“By the power given to me by the Holy Spirit,” Burgess intoned, “I hereby pronounce you - all of you - united under the Everlasting Sun!”
The congregation cheered, and the four of them kissed, losing track of where they were, until Elsie nudged Logan in the back. “Get a room, will ya!?”
Owen held his hand up for silence.
“I’m sorry we surprised y’all like this, we were still expecting something to prevent it at the last minute.
“But now it’s official, my wife, my husbands an' I would be happy if y’all would join us at the saloon to celebrate. Party starts at 6pm!”
As they left the temple, Andy ran up, hugging each of them in turn. “Now I know why Haru made me wear a stoopid suit today!”
“Just the man, actually,” said Logan, levelling a stare at Andy.
“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” He shouted.
Logan laughed. “Nope, you’ve not done anything. We have though.” He indicated the four of them.
“Well, yes, I know, reckon bout the whole town saw that!”
“No, not that,” Hunter replied. “We’ve been talking to Trudy, and if you’re happy with the idea, we’d like to adopt you and move you in with us.”
“Like I’d have a ma and pa again?” he asked, his bottom lip starting to wobble.
“A ma and three pa’s,” Owen corrected him. “If you want to and all?”
“I’d have a family again?” he whispered.
Hunter nodded.
“Then course I’mma saying yes!” Andy shouted.
“We need to get the paperwork sorted, and finish upgrading the house,” Logan warned him, “but we’ll get you moved in as soon as possible, he promised.
And ran off to tell Jasmine his news. “We’re going to have trouble with that pair in a few years,” Hunter noted.
“We’ll worry about that when it happens,” Owen reassured her.
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