One Foolish Dream (When Ari married Jackie)

ARI

That afternoon, Aristotle Onassis looked at himself in a full length mirror and smiled as he put the final touches to his outfit. It was 20th October 1968, and today was his wedding day. He was marrying Jackie Kennedy, the widow of the slain president, John F Kennedy. Onassis whistled his favorite song to himself, "One Foolish Dream" as he did up his tie. Today, more than ever, he was a God. He felt like Zeus in the form of a bull when he abducted Europa. 

JACKIE

Although she tended to look small and thin in pictures, Jackie was in fact a tall woman of 1.7m, and was taller than her husband to be, (who was 1.65m), and so she compensated by wearing flat heeled shoes. As her hair was brushed out and styled with a simple white ribbon, she smoothed out her white dress. It wasn't new, she had worn it before, it wasn't Greek made, but Italian. She'd had her traditional wedding dress chosen for her the last time and hadn't been happy as a result, but this time, she was in control, and would wear what she wanted. She had studied the Orthodox Ceremony, and felt confident that she could follow along, and respond in Greek. Her children too, John and Caroline, had been encouraged to learn the language, but their fluency wasn't her concern. Her daughter in particular looked so sad, and she was worried about her, the girl was sitting with her face turned away, staring out of the window.  This had been a big upheaval for the children. A new stepfather, two older step siblings, a strange country. John, younger, more lighthearted, had dealt with it better than Caroline. Caroline had feared she was losing her mother, but to Jackie, the children would always come first, after all, it was mainly for their sakes she had entered this marriage. As she had put it American was "killing Kennedys", and she feared her children would be next. Telis had the means to provide all three of them with privacy and security, two things which had been robbed from her, one after the other, since Dallas in 1963. A tap on the door bought her out of her thoughts. 

"Telis! If that's you, you can't come in...it's bad luck to see a bride before the wedding". 

"It's not Aristo" a voice said, "it's me, Artemis. Can I come in?"

Artemis was Aristo's older sister. Their mother had died when they were children, and thereafter she had taken on that role. Artemis had decorated the chapel for the wedding, and she had also commissioned the wedding crowns. She bought them with her in a velvet silk lined box and opened them for Jackie to see. 

"Aren't they beautiful?" she said as she and Jackie peered in, and even Caroline came over to look, "I only wish we had my mothers, but they were lost when the Turks invaded Smyrna. They were orange blossom too." Artemis then put her hand on her heart and said emotionally, "I'm just imaging the moment when they are placed on your head and Aristo's head, and you are pronounced man and wife".

THE WEDDING

The wedding took place in the Panagitsa Chapel on Skorpios. Artemis had decorated it with pink and white roses, and white candles, which created both an aura of romance, peace, and sanctity as the guests arrived. The little chapel couldn't possibly hold all the people who had been invited, so only close family and friends were to attend the service, everyone else would meet them outside the church and come to the reception which would be held on Ari's mega luxurious yacht, The Christina. Some long range cameras would pick up the sea of umbrellas from the people waiting outside, as it was a rainy day. To Greeks, this is a sign of good luck, however to the Onassis children, Alexander and Christina, none of this mattered. Alongside assorted Kennedys, Bouviers, and Onassis relations, and a few WASP friends of their fathers (who, along with the Kennedys, were amazed that people stood in Greek Orthodox churches, they didn't sit). Christina and Alexander looked more as if they were going to their executions, rather than a wedding. They had entertained the deluded home that their parents would remarry (it had never occurred to them that it had been their mother who had left and then divorced their father), and when their father had announced he was marrying Jackie, there had been a scene. They had even used emotional blackmail, telling Artemis (who like their father had attempted to talk them round) that if they really loved them, then she would not "love the American woman and her children". Jackie, for her part, had married their father to provide for her own children, not her new husbands. She saw no reason to try and befriend, (or really even ever try to befriend), her surly stepchildren. The seeds that had been laid, sprouted in the rain that was falling outside that evening into bitter roots that would twist and harden between Jackie, Alexander and Christina.

Alexander nudged Christina as the priest entered, and gave the only smile he would make that evening. Onassis had asked for a priest that didn't "look like Rasputin", as he didn't want to scare Caroline and John, who he knew would be overawed by the ceremony. Christina and Alexander had resolved to be nice to their stepsiblings, knowing that they were as much victims as they were, so Alexander was smiling because his father hadn't quite got his wish. Then his smile snapped off, as his father entered. 

Christina had hoped that Jackie wasn't going to show up, but she did on the arm of Ted Kennedy, and with her two children following behind as candle bearers. 

The wedding was conducted in Greek, punctuated with the sound of Artemis sniffing, the occasional sob from Christina and a whisper from a WASP of how the ceremony was "dreadfully barbaric". Onassis stood proudly like Midas, everything he touched had turned to gold, and when it came to exchanging the rings, it could almost have been that his touch turned the woman who had abdicated her pedestal, into a trophy to be put in a case. For Jackie, the rings symbolized security. Odysseus had finally come home and rescued her. But even as the couple took their first steps as man and wife around the altar, reality was very much evident. Caroline and John wondered what would be coming next in a ceremony that had involved wedding crowns, the confusing exchanging of the rings with an Onassis family member being involved, and Onassis family members pretending to spit on their mother for good luck as she walked up the small aisle. Ari had two mothers in law, Janet (Jackie's mother) and Rose Kennedy, neither of whom entirely approved of him. Then there was Christina and Alexander, watching with their faces etched in misery, and then there was Jackie's sister Lee, who was a former conquest of Ari's, and felt herself to be discarded. Then there were the Kennedys, who were not just guests, but would go home after the celebrations and instead of staying there as people to get birthday and Christmas cards, would remain a constant presence in Jackie's life. It wasn't just because they were family to her children, it was because Camelot would always bind them in an exclusive members only cloud, one that Ari could never and would never properly penetrate. 

As Jackie and Ari made their way out of the chapel, to the cheers of the guests, followed by a court of resentful stepchildren and numerous Kennedys, Jackie slipped her hand behind her back for Caroline, who she felt slip her hand into hers, and on doing so, she drew her round to her side. She hadn't bothered to look at her stepchildren as she left, but instead had saved a triumphant smug smile for her sister. Even now, the rivalry between the two, which would turn into an almost hatred, could not be contained. It was as if Cupid had been invited but had forgotten to bring his bow, and Eris, The Goddess of Discord, had stepped in to drop the Golden Apple.

THE WEDDING RECEPTION

As Ari and Jackie emerged from the chapel, triumphant in their different ways. They walked out from a soft atmosphere to a stark one of cameras flashing and people cheering and throwing confetti. The Aegean itself seemed to be joining in, as there were lights flashing from the ocean as the coastguard (like Ari's own private Achaean army) patrolled up and down to keep the press boats back, every now and again one of the flashing lights would tip and fall, as the photographer perhaps leant forward a little too much, and fell into the water. After making their way through the jubilant crowd, Ari climbed into a gold jeep, Jackie sat next to him and then pulled Caroline on to her knee, while Ari's two mothers-in-law, Janet and Rose, perched behind somewhat primly. The jeep pulled away, taking the little party down to The Christina, where the reception was going to be held. The other guests could either take the transport offered, as more jeeps pulled up, or walk down to the reception themselves. Alexander was one of these. He waited until his father, and his new family, went ahead, before angrily lighting another cigarette, and walking off himself. Artemis had gently tried to get both himself and Christina to go and offer their father and their new stepmother their congratulations. Both had refused. Alexander started using a phrase that would become habitual when it came to his interactions with his hated stepmother, "No. I won't".  

Tonight The Christina wasn't just a venue. Festooned with white lights that twinkled against the dark sky, she stood as a symbol of Ari's wealth and power, and was presented as a stage for his new marriage. Once on the ship, Jackie left her new husbands side, and settled her children at a table, and after reassuring them that she would be back soon, she went to join Ari in greeting their guests. As the waiters bought some juice over for the children, Caroline found a loose thread on the handmade tablecloth, and started nervously picking at it. For a girl raised in the rarefied Sun King at Versailles atmosphere of her mothers homes, for both herself and her brother, the wedding had been strange, the surroundings were strange, the people were strange, the food was strange, the language was strange, the writing was strange, and even the music was strange. Their mother had reassured them before the wedding that they wouldn't have to leave America, they would still go to school there, they would still see their grandmothers (if not the wider Kennedy clan, who Jackie kept them away from), and she would still see lots of them, and that they too would find Greece a wonderful interesting place, they just needed to give it time, and try to get used to it. 

Jackie had taken a certain amount of pleasure in coolly greeting her sister when Lee came to offer her congratulations, but she hadn't finished with her yet. Before she took her first dance with Ari, Jackie asked the band to stop playing, because she wished to make an announcement. Looking around at the sea of faces, some familiar, some unfamiliar, she wanted to show them, and the world, just what the man she had married was capable of giving her, as if the yacht they were on, and the private island it were moored on, both of which she was now mistress of, was not enough. After a drumroll to build up the suspense, Jackie showed them all her wedding ring. To say it was impressive is an understatement, even a Mughal Emperor would have envied it. The ring which everyone (except Alexander and Christina, who had deliberately turned their backs and looked over the rail at the dark Aegean) were looking at, was a jaw dropping 40.42- carat marquise-cut diamond called the Lesotho III. There were gasps and "oohs" and "aaahs" from the crowd with people whispering to each other, as Jackie showed the ring off proudly, knowing that she was the envy of everyone there, especially her sister. Then she turned to Caroline, who had rejoined her at her side, and took it off her finger to let her daughter hold it. Lee could hardly keep back her laughter, when Caroline threw it in the air as if she were throwing a tennis ball, but later, when she asked to see it, Jackie gave her the excuse that she wasn't showing it anymore, because she was scared it would get scratched. 

After the ring was safely back on Jackie's finger, the newlyweds made their first dance. Traditionally, the bride and the groom would choose a song that was meaningful to both of them, or in Greek weddings they would dance a traditional dance called the Kalamatianos, which involves everyone in a circle with the bride and groom as the focus. However, as this wedding was not wholly Greek (although some of the Americans had been game enough to try dancing the Sirtaki on the beach with Ari as their teacher, much to Jackie's mirth), Ari had abandoned tradition to dance with Jackie to his favorite song, "One Foolish Dream".    

THE WEDDING NIGHT

When the newlyweds finally left the party in the early hours, as "rosy fingered dawn" was creeping over the sea, and got on their private plane. They discovered that Ari's sister, Artemis, had some of the seats taken out, and a big bed decorated in pink put in. The newlyweds ripped off their clothes, and flung them into a corner, and made mad passionate love. A steward (somehow) didn't know they were there, and walked in on them. Despite these surroundings however, there must have been a thought in the back of Ari's mind. It's true, he felt younger than he had in years with his new passionate wife, of whom he had once said, had "a carnal soul", but with every thrust, with every drop of sweat, with every moan, with every pulsating sensation, with every fluid eruption, with every breath that came out like the Minotaur snorting, the shadow of JFK must have begun to form in his mind. He must have had a thought, no matter how small, no matter how he shushed it, no matter how he ignored it, no matter how he was determined to prove that he was the better lover, was she comparing him to the eternally young and handsome, the tanned and athletic, broad-shouldered and virile, John F Kennedy. The American ideal of masculinity? Jackie's first husband. Jackie too, no matter what position she was bent into, no matter how many times she wriggled and stretched in Dionysian ecstasy, no matter how many times she touched his chest or buried her head in his neck, no matter how many times she threw her head back and gasped and screamed, or clasped him to her as the sensation between her legs and stretching to her stomach reached a crescendo, did she too have the flicker of a thought that he was comparing her not to Maria Callas, (she was nothing now), but to her own sister, Lee? In everything since they were children, she had striven to be better than her. Was she? Even now? In this strange situation of making love to her second husband, on a plane?   

As the dawn broke, painting the sky sleepy blues and purples, the two presences began to rise up and take shape. Almost as if they had waited until after the wedding, they left the shadowy world of the mind, lengthening, stretching with the growing light and spreading out their long hands to eternally latch on to their sleeping rivals, an action that would always be on the periphery of their marriage, an awareness that would torment both. One of the shadows, JFK, might have been gone, but he would never be forgotten, the last few hours had proved it. The other shadow, whose name had never been said, but had remained in everyone's mind, was Maria Callas.