Mary #14

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.  

 

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