Mary #18.

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.

 

18

Mary finished cleaning up the kitchen and then went and turned the kitchen light off.  She noticed the bathroom light was still on.  She went to turn it off and noticed something on the sink.   Eli had left her note that said "If you want to talk give me a call and left his phone number.”  She then remembered her Ma always kept a paper and pen in case someone wanted to write something down. 

She took the number and put it on the coffee table and stared at it.  She thought about his baby, Andrew that died.  Maybe she could get some insight into what her Pa went through when Sherry died.  He might have some idea why her Pa didn't want her to know about it. 

Mary was getting tired and turned the lights off in the living room followed closely by Lulu and went upstairs.  She got into bed and thought about how she had dreaded the day when she got up this morning and it turned out pretty good.  As she was falling asleep, she thought she would read the rest of the diary tomorrow. 

When Mary got up the next morning, she could feel there was a little chill in the air and she could hear it was drizzling outside.  Looks like it might be an indoor day again, she thought.  She got cleaned up and put on jeans and a sweater, then went down and had some breakfast and fed Lulu.   

She put the dishes in the sink, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on the sofa and turned on the TV.  There was really nothing on, so she grabbed for the diary and the phone rang. 

"Hello?” 

"Hi Mar, I have some exciting news.   Sandy and I are getting back together.  When I went over to have dinner, we talked for hours and she said how much she missed being with me.  I made it clear to hear that I didn't mind if we didn't have children and we're not going to get married right away but she's going to move back here with me.” 

"Johnny, that is so great.  I'm so happy for you.”

"Thanks, I've wanted this for such a long time.  I wanted to let you know because I'm probably going to be scarce for a while.  With moving her stuff back in and spending time together there won't be a lot of extra time.” 

"That's okay; you do what you have to do.  I'll be fine here.”

"I know you will.  Let me know if you need anything and I'll drop it off when I can.  I've got to get back to working but I didn't want to wait to tell you.  Talk to you later.”

"Bye, Johnny.”

Mary was smiling as she put the phone down.  At least Johnny's life seems to be getting on track.  Now if only she could get hers figured out and she picked up the diary and went to the page that she left off on. 

There were more pictures of Mary growing up and more stories up until she went off to college.  On the very last page there was this:  I don't know if I'll ever get it done, Mary, but I've saved every outfit from when you were little from Christmas.  I hoped to make a quilt out of them but with my eyes getting worse, I don't think that's probably going to happen.  If I'm not able to, you can do what you want with the clothes.  Also, you'll notice there are two newborn outfits.  One is Sherry's that we took her picture in and then kept with your clothes. 

Mary took the diary and ran upstairs to her bedroom.  She opened the drawer that had the clothes in it and started pulling them out and throwing them on the floor.  She got to the very bottom and she found two white identical newborn gowns.  Why hadn’t she noticed that there were two identical outfits before, she thought.  There were no names on them.  Mary lay on the floor and Lulu came to Mary and laid next to her while she cried.

After some time had gone by, Mary picked up the clothes and put them all back in the drawer.  She also tucked the diary in with the clothes. 

She started down the steps and decided she needed to talk to someone about Sherry.  At first she thought about calling Sadie but then saw the note Eli had left her last night with his phone number and she thought she would call him. 

Mary dialed his number and the phone rang and rang and then the voice mail came on.  Mary decided to hang up.  She couldn't leave him a message what would she say.  It was crazy to call him, she thought.  She didn't really even know him.

Mary went to the kitchen to make herself some coffee to get the chill off.  She stood at the kitchen window drinking her coffee mesmerized by the drizzle when she heard her phone ringing. 

She picked up her phone and said "Hello?” 

"Hi Mary, its Eli did you call?” 

"Yes, I did but I didn't leave a message.  How did you know it was me?”

"Well, it was an out of town area code, so I took a chance it might be you.  Could I help you with something?” 

"Well I" Mary stuttered "I saw your note last night and wanted to tell you I appreciated you leaving it.”

"Aw, it's okay.  It's kind of a dreary day out today.  I can't get much done on the farm.  What are your plans for the day?” 

"I really don't have any.  I'm probably going to light a fire and watch some TV.”

"What about to thank you for dinner last night, I bring some Chinese take-out over and we can have supper together?” 

"Eli you don't have to do that.” 

"No, I want to unless you'd be sick of seeing me two days in a row" and he laughed.

"That would be nice" Mary said. 

"Okay, I'll come by about 8 if that's not too late.” 

"No, 8 will be good.  I'll see you then and thanks” and they hung up.    

 

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