Viki's Place: Mary #16

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.

Mary had a restless night. When she got up in the morning, she felt like she had been run over by a truck. She felt like going right back to sleep but she got up instead, went upstairs and put some clothes on. She came downstairs, put the coffee on and fed Lulu.

She grabbed a couple of cookies and her coffee and started to head to the front porch. She stopped, went into the living room, picked up the diary and went outside and sat on the rocker. As she looked out to the road, she could see the fog starting to lift. "It's going to be a beautiful day Lulu.” She quickly turned past the page with pictures of her and Sherry and went to the next page and started reading. As she read, each page was a different story about her when she was growing up and different things she had done or said. There were also more pictures either by herself, with her brothers or with her Ma and Pa. She laughed hysterically when she saw the picture of her and her brothers all making funny faces. The laughter stopped when she got to the picture of her, Elizabeth and Lulu. It was taken the day she found Lulu. “I didn't remember you were that old girl" and she patted Lulu on the head.

Mary had lost track of time and looked at her watch. It was close to noon already and she was already three quarters of the way through. I should be able to finish this up in another hour or so. She went back to reading and heard a noise and looked up. She saw a black truck pulling into the driveway. She remembered that's what color Eli's truck was. She quickly put the diary down when the truck pulled up to the front porch.

"How ya’ doing Mary" Eli asked.

"Pretty good, are you here to mow? It looks like it's going to be a great day.’

"Yeah, I thought I'd get started. The grass is getting pretty high. I won't be bothering you will I?”

"No, go on. I've got some things to do in the house. If you get thirsty, give me a holler and I'll get you something.”

"Okay, thanks. I'll just go in the barn and get the mower. See you later" and with that Eli was off to the barn.

Mary picked up her stuff from the porch and went inside. She put the diary on the coffee table and took her dishes in the kitchen. She poured herself another cup of coffee and looked out the kitchen window. She could see Eli on the riding mower doing the back.

While looking at him, she thought he resembled her Pa some. He was tall and slender and had curly hair like him. Although she had to admit to herself, he was much more handsome. He also had the bluest eyes she ever saw.

She sat down at the table and remembered the diary and then decided to wait until later in the evening to finish it up. She already had enough to think about. She loved that her Ma made the diary for her but she still didn’t know what to think about Sherry. She couldn’t understand why her Pa didn't want her to know about her. Didn't she have a right to know? Since her Ma and Pa weren’t here anymore, she would never get to ask them. Then to see the picture of Elizabeth and herself, something told her she was getting signs that she would have to make amends with Elizabeth but wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it.

Mary got up and put her cup in the sink. She looked outside and saw Eli was way in the back of the property mowing. She thought she would start packing up some of the dining room. She went out the back door to the barn and gathered more boxes and some old newspapers she found and brought them inside. Before she started, she put more records on the turnstile. She added Peter, Paul and Mary and the Mama's and the Papa's. The music started and she decided to tackle the corner cabinet that her Pa had built for her Ma. She wrapped the knick knacks in the paper and put them in the box. Then she headed to the buffet and started putting the tablecloths, napkins and dishes in the boxes. She sang along while she worked and couldn't believe that she could remember all the words after not having heard them for years.

"Mary, Mary" she heard yelling at the back door.

She jumped to her feet and went to the kitchen. There was Eli, standing at the back door with his hand bleeding. "Eli, what happened?”

"It looks a lot worse than it is. I just need to wash it and put some bandages on it.”

"Are you sure, maybe you need to go to the hospital?”

"Trust me Mary; I was premed at one time. Once it's cleaned up and I put some pressure on it, I'll be fine.”

Mary opened the door, turned the water on in the sink, and got a clean towel and some bandages. When she came back Eli was washing his hands with soap, then took the towel and was holding it on his hand. After a few minutes, Eli looked at his finger and the blood had almost stopped. He took a couple of bandages and put it on his finger and said "See, good as new" and smiled.

"What happened?"

“Oh, I did a stupid thing that your dad told me never to do. There was some grass stuck in the blade and I reached my hand in without turning it off and got cut. Right when I did it, I remembered your dad saying not to and I pulled my hand out but my one finger got nicked.”

"Why don't you sit down for a while and have something to drink. Do you want a coke?”

"Yeah, I could sit for a while".

Mary went and got a glass and was pouring the coke and said "So, you were a pre-med student. What happened, if it's not too personal?”

"I was in pre-med before Rachel died. We had this crazy idea besides farming; I would be a country doctor. This way if the farm didn't make any money, we could still live in the house. When she died, I didn't have it in me anymore and decided to try the farm on my own. Okay, now I have a question. Was that The Mama and the Papa's I heard playing?”

Mary groaned "Yeah, that's right. I don't suppose you didn't hear me singing?”

He laughed and said "Of course I heard you singing. You sounded great. I haven't heard that though since I was a kid.”

"Well, Ma and Pa played it for us kids. I was playing it for old time’s sake. Are you hungry, I could make you a sandwich or something?”

"I better get going with the grass. I still have some mowing to do in the back and the front. So, I'll be at it for a few more hours. The weather guy said we might be getting some rain later and I want to make sure I get it all done. I could use a sandwich when I'm done though if you don't mind.”

"I'll tell you what. I'll do better than that. Since you won't be done for a few hours, how about if I put on a pork roast and sauerkraut?”

"Great, a stick to your ribs kind of meal I would be very thankful” and he went outside.