The water was cool on their ankles as they stepped out and pulled the boat higher on the small beach. They had canoeed together before and no words were necessary as they secured the craft.
It was their wedding day, but only they knew it. Oh, in a few weeks there would be celebrations and back slapping aplenty. To their families and friends, that would be their wedding day. But here, under the tall evergreens, on a Muscoca island in summer, they had come to enact their own ancient marriage rite.
They were barefoot and he had removed his shirt. Though it had been an arduous row, she remained in her shorts and t-shirt. In his light hearted way, he teased her to take her top off too. They had been naked together once or twice, but the attitudes of their mutual upbringing clung a little more strongly to her, and so she stayed dressed while they clambered up onto the flat, mossy rocks.
Both of their families had emigrated from the Middle East when religion and politics had begun to simmer dangerously. Eesha and Abe had been raised in Canada and lived like their friends, but the traditions of their ancestry tugged at them in complex ways. This ambiguity was something they shared.
As wedding plans whirled around them, they felt increasingly alienated. So they had canoeed to this beautiful island, far from any observer: bringing sacred texts, open minds, a sense of reverence, and their intoxicating desire for one another.
They had slept together before but never with much time or privacy. Eesha did not share her parents' view that a woman who slept with men before she married was cheap, but still, she knew she was not as experienced as some of her friends. They had spoken little on the trip, preferring to paddle in silence through the serene, tree-lined lake. Now, they avoided each other's eyes, feeling almost shy.
"Looks flat enough here," Abe said, indicating a large gentle depression in the moss covered rock.
Silently, she began preparing. She flung a large quilt on the spot he had pointed to and laid out objects on it—incense, a flask of wine, a small, fragrant pine bough.
Abe watched her as she moved, marveling that this sexy, curvaceous woman was his, preparing to join with him. She had done a lot of reading and had devised a wedding that drew on some ancient traditions from the culture of their ancestors, and some more modern practices of Paganism. He thought it was all a bit wacky, but it mattered to Eesha, and he sure wasn't into all that catering and costuming crap.
Eesha walked slowly around the quilt with lit incense, circling once then stepping into the middle. She beckoned and Abe stepped toward her.
"We should swim," she said. "It's hot and we can wash." Her tone and manner were unusually distant, but as she raised her arms, inviting him to undress her, he saw a glimpse of her mischievous smile, reminding him of other, more hurried disrobings.
He took off her clothes and she his, but when he would have reached for her, she stepped gently away. Naked, she turned and ran down the rocks to the water. Hypnotized by the sight of her behind as she ran into the lake, he followed more slowly. He had never seen her naked in daylight. They came close together in the water, but again when he reached for her, she slid gently from him.
When they had dried one another playfully, they returned to the makeshift altar. They stood silently for a moment, gazing around them at the tall trees, smelling the aromatic pine resin, feeling the breeze on their skin. Then Eesha picked up a sheet of paper and began to read.
The text was from an ancient hymn of the Goddess, thousands of years old. It told the story of the Goddess Inanna consummating the Sacred Marriage with the shepherd God Dumuzi. Eesha had a low, even, rich voice, and she spoke with deliberation.
"Inanna bathed and anointed herself with scented oil. She covered her body with the royal white robe. She arranged precious lapis beads around her neck. She took her seal in her hand. Dumuzi looked at her joyously. He pressed his neck close to hers. He kissed her."
