If anyone does Saturday Centus you might somewhat
remember this story started as a centus. In June of 2010, I wrote a
few chapters on Mary and then stopped. I had so much to write about
her, writing weekly for centus wasn't enough. I then wrote and wrote
until I had over 30,000 words so far. In writing it though as I got
further and further my original premise somehow got blown out of the
water, ha, ha. I stopped writing her story in March of 2011. I still
haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this out but I thought I
would put out what I have so far. Please remember this is a really
rough draft and when I wrote it, I had no chapters. Before I decided to
put this on the blog I had to go back and figure out where I could make
them. I would suggest this is a terrible way of doing it lol. The
first chapter started on March 23rd, 2012.
14
When Mary got up, she started taking all the knick knacks
that were all around and putting them in boxes.
She took her mother's jewelry box and the vintage vanity set that was on
her Ma's dresser and put it in her room.
Mary had fond memories of it. She
remembered looking at the back of the brush and hand held mirror with the
delicate pink flowers adorning it. Her
Ma used to fix her hair with it when she was little girl. She would tell her stories about her grandma
and grandpa while fixing her hair. She
would always tell her when she left the holler to move to Ohio, her Ma gave it
to her. Hannah would tell Mary how her
Ma fixed her hair with it when she was a girl too. It was a family heirloom and she was to have
it eventually. Her Ma would then tell
Mary how her grandpa who had very little money saved and saved so on
their wedding night he could give it to Mary's grandma. It was one of her grandma's most prized possessions and
when she gave it to her Ma; she knew she had her Ma's blessing to move away.
All the boxes were closed up and she looked around the
room. Besides the bedding everything
else was down. She moved all the boxes
in front of the closet and left them in case Jimmy or Johnny wanted to go
through them to see if there was something they wanted.
She took the diaries, went back to her room, opened the
jewelry box and took the little envelope out that said Hannah's keys and went
downstairs. She put them on the coffee
table and decided to make something to eat since it was starting to get dark
already.
She wanted comfort food knowing that she was going to be
looking at the book her Ma had made. She
had taken out some ground meat earlier and decided to make some sloppy
joe's. Her Ma would always make it when
times were rough and green beans. She
looked around Ma's recipe file and found the recipe and checked and she had all
the ingredients. She even had some fresh
green beans. As she started cooking, her
thoughts wandered to what could be in that book. Would it make her happy or sad? She did know she felt anxious about it.
Mary sat at the table eating her sloppy joe's and green
beans while Lulu sat and watched. When she got done, she got up wrapped up the
food she didn't eat and started washing dishes.
She thought maybe I should call Johnny and tell him about the diaries or
whatever they are. She decided to call
him and ask him for dinner the next night.
After she would read hers, then she would decide whether to tell him of
her discovery or wait.
When she had all the dishes done and wiped off the table,
she headed straight for the phone.
"Hi Johnny" Mary said.
"Hi Mar, what's happening?”
"For some reason, Jimmy bought me a big corned
beef. I don't know what he was
thinking. I was going to make corned
beef and cabbage tomorrow and wanted to know if you would come over and help me
eat it.”
"Sure, I couldn't turn that down. Besides, I don't get home cooked meals very
often or at least that are edible" and they laughed.
"I was cleaning out Ma and Pa's room today. I'm giving most of their clothes away and a
lot are going to get thrown out because they're no good. I have them in boxes in their room. Maybe when you come you can look at them and
see if there's anything you want.”
"That sounds good to me. What time should I be there?”
“Probably about 7 would be good".
“Okay, I'll see you then.
Have a good night, Bye.”
"Bye, Johnny" Mary said as she thought I hope I
have a good night.
Mary looked at the three books on the table. She picked up the first one and looked at the
picture of Jimmy. He must have been
about three years old. She smiled when
she saw the curly brown haired boy.
"How come he got all the curls, Lulu"? She then noticed his name and underneath it
said Our First Born Jimmy. “The
Thinker”
She picked up the second one with Johnny's picture. He was the same age. He was the only one of the kids that had
blond hair like her Pa but his hair was straight like hers. Under his name was the words Our Second Born
Johnny. “The Tender-hearted”
She hesitantly picked up her book. She looked to be about three years old as
well. There she stood in front of her Ma's
flower bed in a beautiful summer dress with her hair in a
ponytail. On her book was written “Our only living daughter Mary.”
"That's odd" she said out loud. "Only living daughter? What does that mean? Why would Ma not say Our Third Born like she
did with the boys? And... where's my
word describing me?”
Mary grabbed for
the three keys frantically trying to find the one that would open her book that
she hoped would help her find answers.
Finally, she opened the book and gasped when she first recognized her
Ma's handwriting.
