Eve's Shower

After church, the wind was up, rushing in dark clouds from the west and fluttering white blossoms and hope of rain.
It was also the afternoon of Eve’s bridal shower. And Diana was back in town to host it, before moving to Virginia for her new job.
It was a lawn party arranged near a goldfish pond, also habitat to a duck, supposedly, according to Rose, imported from Belgium.
The spread was arranged mostly by Mom with lace and glass-tiered things, after which Diana brought sausage rolls, chocolate chip scones, wedges of pineapples and melons, strawberries cut and filled with havarti cheese, and lemon squares. There was also strawberry lemonade and iced tea. And Carrie had created table decorations out of round glass vases filled with sliced lemons, oranges, limes, and strawberries, surrounding potted Gerberas in yellow, orange, and red.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves around the white tablecloths, china plates, glass goblets, and Classical music, watching Eve answer nineteen questions about her intended, and stick a gum ball in her mouth for every one she answered incorrectly.
There were gifts, of course, and a picture-guessing game, which Carrie tied to win with Eve’s future mother-in-law.
And then Mrs. English took a picture of all the English and Snicketts girls, all nine of them. It had been so long since they had all been together again. And they would be again soon at Eve’s wedding, only five weeks later.
They all returned with windblown hair and sunburned arms and faces.
Then Carrie called a “ladies night”, plus Joe and Francis, over A&W and “Top Gear”, which lasted until nearly ten o’clock.