Mary #22

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.

22

Mary finished eating and put her dish in the sink and turned off the light.  She went and lay down on the sofa.  I'm glad to know Johnny didn't know about Sherry and just didn't tell me, she thought.

Jimmy will be back soon and I can talk to him and find out if he knew about Sherry.   I'll have to figure out a way to find out if he knows anything about Elizabeth too without being obvious.  What will I do if she's sick, Mary wondered.  She must be happy if she's still married to Mitch.  I mean it happened so many years ago.  Mitch and I were both so drunk.  When I woke up, he was just there lying next to me - naked.  We both were.  I left before he woke up and got ready for the wedding.  The next time I saw him he was waiting for Elizabeth to walk down the aisle.  He never even glanced at me showing any recognition that anything had happened the night before. 

Mary woke up the next day to the sound of the TV blaring and realized, she'd slept on the sofa.  She got up and fed Lulu and made herself some coffee and took it on the porch.     

Her phone starting ringing and she went to get and walked back outside.  

"Hi Johnny, That was fast.  You read the diary already?”

"No, that's not what I'm calling about” he said frantically.  “Jimmy just called and they are all coming back.  Mitch fell down into a ravine and is in a coma.  I don't know all the details.  They are flying him back to the hospital here and the rest all are driving back.  They should be home tonight sometime.  I thought I'd let you know.”

"How awful, did anyone else get hurt?” 

"Not as far as I know.  I guess he went walking by himself.  Jake and Hannah found him.  It must have been so awful for the kids.” 

“I hope everyone will be all right.  Let me know when you hear something else.” 

"Okay, I'll talk to your later Mary, Bye.”

"Bye, Johnny".

Mary sat stunned at this twist of events.  She could only imagine how Elizabeth must be feeling right now.  Her heart ached for the closeness that she and Elizabeth once had.  She wanted to help her friend through whatever was to be.  She wondered if she should go to her when she got back.  Would Elizabeth even accept her help after the way she’d distanced herself from her over the years?  She would wait until Jimmy got back and talk to him and see what he thought. 

Mary went upstairs and half-hardheartedly changed her clothes.  She didn't really feel like doing anything now.  She was too preoccupied.  She picked up her cell phone and put it in her pocket and walked outside to the barn.  She went to her Pa's workshop and looked at the desk and thought, Pa would have liked that I finished this. 

She came out of the barn and felt restless.  She walked to the back of the fields and into the woods to the creek.  She sat down on the rock, closed her eyes and prayed for Elizabeth. 

Her cell phone went off and she jumped.  "Hello, Johnny?” 

"No, it's Eli.  Are you okay?” 

"Yes why?” 

"I stopped over because I wanted to borrow something of your dad's and the door was open but there was no answer.  Did you go somewhere and forget to close the door?” 

"I'm here but I'm in the woods.  I needed a place to think.” 

"Did something happen?” 

"That's an understatement" she said. 

"Would you like someone to talk to?”

"Thanks, but I want to be by myself for now.  You can take whatever you need of Pa's.” 

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow to check up on you.” 

"Okay" and she hung up.

Mary rolled her pants up and took her shoes off and stepped into the cool creek.  She closed her eyes and was transported back to two little girls playing in the brook promising that they would be best friends forever.  She started crying uncontrollably wishing that she hadn't broken the promise.  She sat down on the rock and calmed down and thought she may have broken the promise but she can make amends.  She put her wet feet in her tennis shoes and walked slowly through the woods and back to the fields.   She was glad when she saw Eli's truck was gone. 

She walked back to the house and poured herself a glass of wine.  She took it and sat on the front porch and just stared out to the road.  She needed something to do that would calm her down.  Then she remembered her Ma's knitting stuff.  Knitting always calmed her Ma down.  She went upstairs and got the knitting needles.  She looked at the yarn that was there.  She picked two colors pink and mulberry.  She decided to make Elizabeth a prayer shawl.  

She knitted the rest of the afternoon on the front porch and then was a little hungry.   She hadn't eaten all day and was feeling a little faint.  She went inside and made herself a big salad with cheese.  She sat at the kitchen table hardly tasting what she was eating but she knew she had to eat. 

When she was done, she put the dishes in the sink.  She sat on the sofa and started to knit again.  Mary thought I’m getting done pretty fast considering I haven’t knitted for a bit.  I bet I can get this done by tomorrow if I keep working on it and she did. 

It was about 1 a.m. and she finally stopped.  

"Lulu, I guess I'm not going to hear anything tonight.  I'm going to go to bed and get up early so I can finish this shawl.  It should only take me a few more hours and I'll be done.  It's coming out wonderfully.” 

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