Preparation

I walked back into the kitchen and checked on the appetizers. The trays were lined up on the service bench and wait staff were on standby to bring trays out. The head chef looked at me quizzically as if to ask what was wrong. I forced a smile. “Just double checking we’re ready to go” I said back out of the kitchen door.

My sister stood in the main foyer pinning up her hair. The main foyer of the motel was spectacular. The walls and roof all made out of solid gold and glimmering under the speckled light thrown by the elaborate candelabra. Opposite the glass double doors of the entry and across the room stood a single desk manned by our gorgeous hotel receptionist. As if reading my mind she called out across the foyer to me “20 minutes until they arrive”. I thanked her and then turned my attention back to my sister. “Is the piano here?” I asked. She gestured through the front doors to the circular driveway. In the middle of the front gardens sat a grand piano. “I thought I’d start playing five minutes before they arrive just to set the mood”. She was wearing a long black silk gown and looked every bit the concert pianist. “Perfect” I told her.” And the guests are they in the dining room?” She leaned in closely to me. “About that, I spoke to the old man, and he said as long as it looked like there were guest looking out of the window it was ok. The couple don’t actually want to see anyone.” I was confused. “What does he mean? Are there guests coming?” “Apparently not. He asked if we could put cut outs of peoples silhouettes along the windows in the curtains and not worry about providing service in the dining room.” She said. It seemed to make sense to her but I was totally lost. Why were we cooking? And why did they bother booking out the dining room? And how exactly was this going to work? As I began to ask her all of this she rushed through the front doors to talk to a delivery man who had turned up with several massive bunches of helium balloons.

I made my way to the dining room and found two waitresses arranging cardboard cut outs in the windows. The appetisers were placed on a buffet to one side of the room but apart from that the room was empty. All chairs and tables had been cleared out.

“How are we going to make this work?” I asked. They both looked at me and shrugged. “I thought that we could do the best we could with these four cuts outs and then get the kitchen and wait staff to fill in the gaps. We only need to make it look like there are people in here for about 15 minutes and the staff are here anyway.” One of the girls said. “That might just work. Good thinking. Can you please make sure people are eating and drinking as well?” she nodded and they went back to their task of setting up the cut outs.

I went back out to the foyer and asked the receptionist to send an all staff email letting them know that the foyer was out of bounds for the next half hour and to apologise for inconvenience. I then made my way out the front doors.

The sun had almost completely set, and the big, round moon was sitting low on the horizon. My sister was seated at the piano playing a piece I hadn’t heard before, surrounded by helium balloons that didn’t appear to be tethered but just hung about her like magic. The groom’s father stood at the driveway waiting with an anxious look on his face. He kept glancing at the dining room window. I looked to see how the cut outs looked. The kitchen staff must have joined the waitresses as there seemed to be hundreds of people gathered around the window looking out at us. I walked over to the old man. “Ready?” I asked. He grinned, all signs of worry gone “It’s wonderful” he said. As we turned our heads to look for an approaching limo, the wind picked up around us and I looked up to see a helicopter lowering itself in the centre of the drive way. What a surprise! As it settled down on the driveway, the door opened and a security guard stepped out. He was wearing all black and had an earpiece in his ear, gun in his hand. Suddenly the bride and groom ran out of the hotel, each holding a tray of appetisers. I looked at the old man shocked, my eyes searching for an explanation but he seemed as alarmed as I was. “Did you know they were here?” I asked. “He shook his head, him mouth wide open. The couple ran to the helicopter, the security guard heling them in with the trays and the helicopter lifted off from the driveway into the night sky.

I looked down at the old man who was now sitting on the grass in his expensive suit. He still hadn’t said a word, his mouth still wide open.

Well that was a waste of time, I thought.