CHAPTER 25
“How yall gals doin’ this mornin’,” Mary asked as she stood by the kitchen table, smiling down at the twins. “Yall ready fo’ some mo‘ food?”
“Yessum, we ready,” the twins said in unison, as they held on to their plates from the table.
“Then git in there an’ sit down ‘til it’s ready. I’ll call yall when it’s ready. An’ put them plates down.” Then Mary looked at Junior as he remained sitting at the kitchen table. “You too, Junior. Git outta here ‘til I git done.” Junior followed his sisters into the living room, and threw a mischievous grin over his shoulder at Mary as he went.
While the children sat in the living room, Mary went to work on their second breakfast for the morning. It was usually during this time that Mary had to speak to Junior, on more than one occasion, about bothering his sisters. He seemed bent on making them miserable at some point before they headed out of the door in the morning.
“Miz Mayree, Junior pull my hair” or “Miz Mayree, Junior hit me” or “Miz Mayree, Junior took my shoe off” were the usual complaints from the twins. Whatever the annoyance, Mary always responded with the same threat to Junior.
“I’m goin’ tell yo daddy when he git home” was the only response Mary ever had to use to get Junior back on track. It worked every time. Of course, she never really told Fred anything. She understood child’s play.
In no time flat, Mary was calling the children back into the kitchen to finish up breakfast.
They ate until they’d gotten their fill. Mary always knew when they were full because they would start talking and playing around with each other at the table.
“Is yall’s bellies full now?” Mary asked when she knew the children were done.
“Yessum, we full now!” was the cheery response, as the children got up and carried their plates to the sink, one by one. “That was good, Miz Mayree,” Junior responded, repeated by Mary Jane and Mary Jean, respectively.
“Okay, now git yall’s books an’ git outta here,” Mary quipped. “You too, Junior, git outta here an’ go wait for that bus. Yall go learn somethin’.”
With that, the three children rushed from the kitchen, grabbed their books and dashed for the door. “Bye Miz Mayree!” They sang as they rushed out of the house for the roadway, with Junior leading the way. “See ya this evenin’!”
Mary stood in the doorway and waited for the bus to pull up alongside the road. Then she closed the door and stood, looking at the four boxes sitting in the living room. One by one, she moved the boxes to Junior’s room, stacking them neatly away in the farthest corner by the closet. She would leave them there until Fred arrived home.
After cleaning the kitchen, Mary went in to check on Derek, who was sleeping in the bedroom nearest the living room. It was the same bedroom that the twins shared. The Leigh home had three bedrooms. Fred had his room and Junior had his room. And now that Gert was gone, little Derek had been moved out of his parents’ bedroom and into the twins’ bedroom. Fred never explained his decision to anyone and no one ever asked.
As Mary looked in on Derek, she felt relieved that he wasn’t old enough to remember the tragic loss of his mother. She knew that one day someone would have to tell him, but for now, he was the only one in the household who was untouched by it all. Or was he? She wondered.
Mary knew Gert had been a constant presence in Derek’s life since his birth. That’s how mothers were supposed to be, she believed. She knew how much love and affection Gert had showered on Derek, just as she did with the other children. That’s the kind of mother she was.
Mary knew also that Gert was weaning Derek from her breast milk when she passed away. Therefore, she understood his bouts of fussiness and discontent. And if Derek received such love and constant nurturing since birth, how could he not feel the absence of that love now? Surely he must carry an unspeakable void in his young soul also. He would one day be forced to encounter that awful void, Mary concluded as she turned from the doorway.
As Mary walked through the Leigh’ home, she realized it was now her home, also. “So here I'm at, Lord,” she spoke into the quiet. “You sent me here an’ this where I’m goin’ stay.” She could have sworn she heard the walls exhale. She walked to the back door, opened it and stood out on the porch. “Thank ya, Lord,” she said, as her eyes closed against a brand new blushing sun.
Mary didn’t get much work done the first day of her new beginning. She was trying to find her comfort zone inside the walls of her new home. When she was coming and going for those two months, she had no problem fitting in. But now that she’d moved in, she wondered how the children would receive her.
After all, she was not their mother, and she did not want to replace their mother. She just wanted to make their lives a little easier than it had been since they’d lost their mother. And she knew that Fred really needed her there. She also knew that if she lived there, Junior would be able to attend school every day the way he should.
By the time Derek woke up, Mary was relieved. She’d been sitting on the couch, lost in her own thoughts. Earlier that morning, she washed a small load of clothes and hung them out on the clothesline, just to keep herself busy. And she cleaned the house in places that did not need cleaning.
Fred, like Mary, believed strongly in a clean house. In fact, he gave chores to the children years before Gert passed away because he felt “child’n need ta know how ta clean up a house.” Also, he didn’t want Gert to do all the housework while the children sat around “gittin’ lazy,“ as he called it.