***this is where I started getting crazy (aaannnndd really bored at work). I actually looked up the marriage laws for both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Also, Boston, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island is a 51 mile trip. From city center to city center. As per Mapquest***

About a month after she kissed him for the first time, he asked her to marry him. This of course being the first time he had ever done this, he bumbled his way through. He asked her at the traveling carnival, between the fortune teller and the funnel cake stand. Not the most romantic of locations, but it was there that moment felt absolutely right. She squealed with delight and threw her arms around his neck as he spun her around. That’s when she spotted the photo booth. That little used piece of machinery captured their happiest moment. There was no ring and this was still a great secret, they were the only ones that knew.

The next Monday, after school, she had him drive her to a public library. She got on the internet and began looking earnestly for information, writing down little snippets from time to time as he wandered the stacks aimlessly. After about forty five minutes she had the information she needed and they left. She waited until they had driven a good distance away from the library to start talking. “We should get married in Rhode Island,” she stated. “Why,” he asked “I’ve never been to Rhode Island.” “Because, in Rhode Island you can get a marriage license and married on the same day. Here we would have to wait three days after getting the license. I also found a little church in Providence that I need to contact about reserving my birthday for the wedding.” She paused there, breathless with excitement, “unless you absolutely want to get married here or want a court ceremony.” He had been smiling the entire time she had been rambling. “Church wedding, definitely. There is no way that I could face my mother if I didn’t invite her AND got married in some place other than a church. I don’t care what state we get married in, but Rhode Island is probably safer.”

She arranged for the church by way of a pay phone and an obscene amount of quarters. After much convincing that she wanted to keep her wedding plans as private as possible; she finally got a priest to agree to perform a wedding ceremony at 4PM on her birthday. The only things he knew about her is that her name was Maria and she and the groom would undoubtedly have a license. He also knew that her family would object to the marriage if they knew. She sent the deposit check by money order.

Happiness abounded. She sometimes had Rocco take her to the mall where she would quickly buy whatever happened to be “in” as an excuse for the time away. She hated the mall, it was all tramps and drooling boys, the tramps weren’t so bad but the drooling boys sometimes had problems keeping their hands to themselves. She bought tickets for movies she never watched. Tickets and receipts for such things being left in her pockets deliberately. Things were going so well, then, all hell broke loose.