Mary #44

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44

Mary puttered around the house until she heard a knock at the back door.   She opened it.

“Hi, I see you two came together.”

“Yeah, Johnny’s house is on the way so I told him I would pick him up” Jimmy said.

“Elizabeth is still sleeping.”

“No, I’m not” Elizabeth said as she came into the kitchen.

“I was just lying in bed resting and heard a car drive in.”  She went and gave Jimmy and Johnny a big hug.

“How are you feeling?  You look good.  I’m glad Jimmy asked me to come, I was wondering how your first treatment went.”

“It was okay.  A little touch and go with a little nausea and tiredness but I’m doing well I think.”

“I remember Donna being tired.  She took a lot of naps.”

“Do you guys want some coffee?  I made some apple cake too.”

“Yeah” both guys said enthusiastically.

“Why don’t you go in the living room with Elizabeth and I’ll get it ready.”

“Okay” and they all went.

Mary could hear Elizabeth explaining all about her treatments while she heated the coffee and got out plates, silverware and napkins for the cake.  By the time she was done cutting the cake and putting it on the plates the coffee was done.  She looked into the living room and said “You guys still like your coffee black?”

“Yes” both of them said.

She brought the coffee and the cake in for everyone and Jimmy said “So what’s up?  What did you want to talk to us about?”

Mary was a little nervous to bring up the B&B and said “Before I get to that I have something I want to show you” and she went and got the diary and showed it to him.

“What’s this” he asked.

“I found it in one of Ma’s dressers.”

He took the key and opened it up and started leafing through it.  He started laughing.

“It’s like a little scrapbook of pictures and words explaining the pictures.  Look here’s a picture of all of us making faces” and he showed the picture to all of them.  “How cool is this?  Does everyone have one of these?” He noticed the grim look on Elizabeth and Johnny’s face and asked “Is something wrong?”

“I guess it depends how you look at it” Johnny said looking at Mary.

“Mary?"

“Jimmy I had a sister.”

He laughed. 

“Get out of here.  You don't have a sister.”

“Yes, I did.  Ma wrote it in my book.”

“That can’t be right.  I certainly would have known if you did.”

“I was born a twin.  My sister, Sherry died.”

“I don’t believe it.  There must be some mistake.”

Mary got up and got her diary and opened the page to Sherry’s picture.  He read under the caption and said “I’ll be damned!  Do you remember Johnny?"

He shook his head no.

“I was older I should remember.  Let me think” and he sat for a few minutes and said “I’m starting to remember going to West Virginia when you were born but I don’t remember a funeral.  I do remember spending a lot of time at one of Ma’s old friend’s houses quite a bit though.  Maybe they never took us to the funeral.”

“That’s probably why neither of you remember it happening” Elizabeth said.

“Am I the last one to know about this?”

“I apologize for that Jimmy.  I found it when you were gone.  I gave Johnny his book and I was going to give you yours when you came back but then everything got so hectic.  I actually forgot about it until now.”

“So Johnny, did you have any revelations in yours” he asked.

“No, looks like yours and mine are the same.”  Johnny then said to lighten the mood “unless you know about another brother that I don’t” and he laughed.

“No, thank goodness” and Jimmy laughed too.  Then he said “If I’m shocked, I can only imagine how you feel Mary.”

“Shocked is an understatement.  I was upset but then I talked to Eli.”

“The guy who cuts the grass?”

“Don’t forget, he also helped with the farm when neither of us wanted to do it” Johnny chimed in.

“I know” Jimmy said.

“Yeah, I talked about it with him.  Since he had a child that died, I thought he could give me some insight into why Pa didn’t want me to know.  He helped me quite a bit.”

“That’s good I guess” and then Jimmy asked “So what else did you want to talk to us about?  I don’t know if my heart can take any more surprises today.”

Mary said “I lost my job.”

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