by Julie Dewey
“Really? They would do that for you, for us?” I was beyond shocked.
“They would, they are the closest thing to a family I’ve got aside from you that is; it was their idea actually.”
“Well what are we standing here for, let me get dressed and we’ll go meet them!” I dried myself quickly and gave my hair a quick brushing.
Seeing Pauli and Candy looking so out of place at the farm was unsettling. But they said they wanted to give country living a try. Candy stood back away from the roaming cattle, pinching her nose at their smell, she wasn’t afraid of the horses and the scrawny little kittens running about enthralled her, she reached down to pick one but it scurried away too fast. After seeing the farm, we toured them through the village where we lived and brought them back to meet Edna.
Edna was concerned that I hadn’t shown up at Gert’s storefront so she came home to check on me. Finding me with Scotty and his family surprised her but not so much that she forgot her manners. She shook hands with Pauli and Candy and immediately set about preparing sun tea and snacks.
She noted the ring on my finger, a gift from Candy to Scotty and then to me.
“Edna, Scotty and I wish to be married and run the Wright farm.”
“Is this really what your heart desires Mary? You have worked so hard to become a teacher.”
“I still can be. I can teach after the baby is born, I can tutor or find afternoon care for the baby if I am able to get a job.”
Edna softened to the idea but discussing it with Pap was another matter. He thought our approach was mutinous so he retreated to his office and sat behind his large neatly organized oak desk pouring himself one brandy after another.
“Pap, can’t you see I’m different? Please just accept me for who I am! I love Scotty, and I love this baby and I don’t want to have to choose between you. You and Edna have given me everything I could have asked for and I am grateful, but what I have learned is that I don’t need stuff. What I need are people in my life, willing to stay by my side when things get hard. Scotty has been there for me always, and Pauli and Candy have helped him. He and I, well, we’re survivors. We’re orphan train riders, we adapt.”
“I just want you to be happy is all; I don’t want you to struggle anymore. When you came to us, you were so thin; we could count your ribs, did you know that? It scared the bejesus out of us, what you went through as a child, I wouldn’t want it for anyone.”
“Pap, I know, I remember. But look at me now. I am happy, truly happy, and I know what really matters in this life, perhaps more than most. I have suffered abuse and hunger, I have seen death and fighting, I lived in squalor, among filth and few resources if any, yet here I am. I am here. I am not leaving Pap; please accept me how I am. Accept Scotty too, please, for me. I can’t lose any more people in my life.”
I began sobbing, and Pap pulled me into the wide berth of his arms, smoothing my hair and saying, “There, there, it’ll be all right.” And I do believe he was sincere.
We came to an agreement; he didn’t want to lose me either and would do his best to get along with Scotty, although he was beyond angry for his lack of responsibility and putting me in this position. Plus there was the question of the animal murders at the Wright Farm, no one had been arraigned on charges for that as of yet.
“Maybe it happened for a reason, Pap, it is how I have to look at things. If my da didn’t die, I wouldn’t have made it to the city, if my mama didn’t die I wouldn’t have gotten on a train and met you, you wouldn’t have taken me in, you and Edna would not be grandparents soon.”
He took out his hanky and dried his eyes. “Grandpa, that does sound rather nice, doesn’t it?”
We hugged once more and approached the crowd in the living room; it had grown to include Edmund Sarah, Samuel, and Gert too. We toasted to my pregnancy and engagement, and toasted to the contract before Pauli with the rights to the farm. I had never been so happy in my life.
Chapter 25 Heaven Scents
Opening day for Heaven Scents was tomorrow! We were able to fit four small round tables into the store with plenty of room for customers to browse and move around. We covered the tables with bright white lace cloths to best showcase our merchandise. Each table held a display of soaps and lotions, creams, lip balms, dusting powders and bath products. The ladies and I fussed with the packaging before settling on simple ribbons tied around the soaps that were placed inside a large glass canister with lid. The rose soaps had pink ribbons, the lavender had purple, and the orange ginger had orange ribbon and so on. My mind was frenzied; I thought of new products and recipes to experiment with daily and stayed up late at night fostering my culinary skills, often creating my best products from mistakes, such as the case with my orange ginger concoction. Similarly, the idea for soap for men came to me when I was using pine cones in an arrangement for the store window, I had a fleeting memory of a man smelling of clean air and pine and voila, my pine soap was born. I woke in the middle of the night to jot fresh ideas and then had trouble falling back to sleep. My adrenaline kept me moving throughout the day as did the excitement coming from the ladies.
The shop sign that Edmund made was creative and fit perfectly above the door frame. A sign with our hours was prepared and would be hung on the door itself beginning tomorrow morning.
I borrowed money from Edmund to purchase a register and set it in the back of the store so I could check customers out and still take note of who was milling about or had questions. Edna and Sarah were more than willing to help with the register and so were Mary and Sonya, the dear child.
For our grand opening we sent out handwritten notices to every shop in town and we put them in each and every mailbox we could find. We prepared the food ahead of time and would brew fresh coffee in the morning for our first customers.
I did not expect to wake on opening day to a line of shoppers outside the door! It was overwhelming but not impossible for them to walk about the store, using the baskets we provided for their purchases.
A rather elegant older woman wearing a hoop dress had difficulty traversing the isles but otherwise everything was harmonious. Ladies nibbled on fruit slices, cheese and crackers as well as raspberry tarts, others tried the samples we laid out. Everyone who entered the store left with one or more items in their possession. One woman looked around pensively then approached me with the idea of gift baskets. She wanted me to make up several with a variety of products and she would pick them up later that day. I sent Sonya to the hardware store for more sizable baskets and she came back huffing and puffing, saying everyone was talking about the shop. Gift baskets became a large part of my business, from then on I had several prepared and on display at all times. The first month of business came and went swiftly. If Edna didn’t put a plate of food before me at closing time I fear I would have forgotten to eat. I was overjoyed, we all were. After I closed the shop at five o’clock in the evening I set about refilling my product with Sonya’s help. The child could not yet read her ABC’s and was acclimating to our English language, but until she had a firmer grasp on it she was not allowed in kindergarten. Instead she helped me with mixing and packaging, she knew where every new item should be placed and kept a keen eye on the store during operation hours. Candy, our new friend in town, suggested I keep a ledger for my sales, along with a list of materials needed for items so that I may purchase in larger quantities at a reduced price. She ran a retail Mr. and Mrs. Shoppe in the city and was helpful with the customers, a born saleslady if there ever was one.
Gentleman entered the store to make purchases as well as women. They often spent more money than their wives who tried to whittle down my price or ask for numerous samples. The men were matter of fact, and never haggled. One gentleman approached the counter looking at me rather oddly and asked, “So are you back in business then?” I deflected the question, rang him up and packaged his items, certain he had me confused with someone else. Another older man asked if I had any calling cards, and still more lurked
about the space, always making purchases but acting as if I should know them, like they were looking for something.
One afternoon around four forty-five I began dusting the tables and capping the samples so they didn’t dry out. A gentleman with a limp entered the store. A shiver shot down my spine and the hair on my arms rose. I desperately tried to work my way towards the front door, my closest exit. I dusted and rearranged while I chatted with him working my way forward. “So how is business, Gert?” He stepped closer to me with his funny walk.
“Business is booming as you can see. What can I get for you, something for the Mrs. perhaps?” I asked.
“What I asked was, how is business?” Then he proceeded to pace the shop, turned my door sign to closed and asked where the bed was.
I was befuddled. Why on earth would he want to know about my bed?
“Sir, I am sorry, perhaps you have me confused. I really need to close and get home, so maybe you can come back?”
He walked towards me, and I noted a trail of blood, tiny droplets stained my floor and a sudden flashback occurred. He was the one; the man that hurt me, that man had blood dripping too, but why? I forced myself to conjure any memory I could, but he had me by the wrists and was pulling me through the kitchen and up the staircase searching for a bed. He looked around anxiously, gripped my other wrist and tied them together with his belt. He forced me into a chair in my bedroom and began undressing. I struggled to break my hands free and threatened to scream. He stuffed his handkerchief in my mouth and tried to rile himself with his hands, stroking his member up and down. I gagged on the handkerchief and took note of all his scarring and disfigurement. “You like it rough don’t you, sweetheart? I told you I’d be back, what’s wrong you didn’t believe me?” Next, he ungagged me and shoved his mangled penis into my mouth, I spit, and bit down on him, but that egged him on. He pushed me to the bed, lifted my skirts and began his assault. As he did, my memory flooded with images of other men on top of me, some rough, but not the majority. I felt the sting of his belt’s whip, he spared no mercy when he attacked me before and probably wouldn’t now either. He finished servicing himself and dressed, then he untied my wrists, and said he would be back to check on me, make sure my business was clean and all.
When he left I filled the tub, recoiling from his stench and the filthy memories torturing my mind. There were so many men, I remembered taking money from them, remembered inviting them to my room, even Edmund. My dearest Edmund, how could he? How could he look at me now and treat me with kindness. Knowing what I did, shame overcame me. I stripped and stared at my scarred body in the looking glass while I filled the tub. I grabbed my kitchen knife and studied my wrists. I sat in the tub, and began cutting. I cut to feel pain and dull it all at the same time. My cuts sunk deeper and the tub filled higher, turning pink from the blood. My breath slowed and I flickered in and out of consciousness, suddenly desperate to leave a note for Edmund. I sloshed out of the tub, grabbed paper from my nightstand scribbling……I’m sorry……remembered…….too much……crippled man…..blood. Then I passed out.
Chapter 26 Edmund
I would go to Gert with today’s wonderful news! Mary had received her graduation papers and we were planning a surprise party in her honor. Her teacher agreed to a written exam and Mary not only passed but aced the test. Preparations had begun, Edna and Sarah were working on the menu and Gert and I were to work on the invitations and entertainment.
The store wasn’t opened and it was a quarter past ten, peculiar indeed. I jiggled the door handle but it was locked. I went around back to peer in the windows and everything looked in place. I sat outside the store for a while and panic set in, call it a sixth sense. Never before had Gert failed to open her shop and surely if she had to go somewhere she would have asked one of the women to fill in. Things were out of place. I jiggled the handle once more, ran to the hardware store and borrowed a screwdriver, came back to the shop and took the handle right off, reaching my hand inside to undo the lock. I noted a trail of blood on the floor; the pattern was unusual so I followed it in a circle and towards the back steps. Taking the stairs two at a time I found Gert, lying in a pool of blood, dead.
I ran outside and grabbed a boy who was walking past the shop and told him to run for help immediately.
I went back to Gert, holding her in my lap, cradling her and rocking her back and forth. Why? God Why?
I saw the paper under her bed and waited for someone else to come and fetch it. Candy was the first to arrive. She checked Gert’s pulse, stifled a sob and reached for towels to sop up the pool of blood.
“Your mother is on her way.” Candy said, not knowing what else to do. She sat with me, tears flowing freely, neglecting the puddles of blood, lost in her own train of thought.
“Edmund?” my mother called out frantically.
Candy went to the stairs and guided her up. She was met with a gruesome sight, for now I was covered in blood too.
“What happened, are you okay? Oh my God.” She ran to me, dropping to her knees to see where my blood was coming from. I had never heard her take the Lord’s name in vain before.
Candy explained it wasn’t from me, she turned Gert’s wrists to show Sarah what happened and the two women sat stunned.
The men of the family came; Mary came and heaved at the sight before her. Everyone tried to pull me from Gert, but it was Mary that finally succeeded. Together we lay on Gert’s bed, while the men took the body and cleaned the mess. Mary rubbed my back and head as she did so many years ago on the train, telling me it would be all right.
The women found the note and read it aloud. My suspicions were right. It had to be the deputy. He would pay, of that I was sure.
Chapter 27 Wedding
“Let’s postpone the wedding.” I had been thinking about this and now that we were seated together for supper I stated my feelings on the matter. “It’s just too soon after Gert’s death, Edmund is in mourning and I don’t feel right about a celebration right now.” I placed my hands on my expanding belly, thinking of Edmund. His grief was palpable; he had lost weight and was gaunt. We were all surprised to hear the truth about Gert and her past digressions, but chose to remember her for the joy she brought to each of us. Edmund’s connection to her remained a mystery for now.
“Darling, I know, but the baby will be here soon and you want to be married before her arrival.” Edna was convinced I was carrying a girl.
“I agree with Edna, a little celebration is exactly what this family needs.” Pap said sternly.
“What if the judge marries us in a civil ceremony? Then we can have a reception later, after the baby is born?” Edna and Pap had to agree this was a good idea.
“I have dreamed of your wedding day,” Edna said, “you walking down the aisle to meet your groom, Pap giving you away at the altar, I have dreamed of it so often I know the flowers that make up your bouquet.” Edna sniffed.
“I have too, Edna, but I just feel my celebration can wait, Edmund’s feelings are far more important to me right now. He isn’t the same; he doesn’t talk, hasn’t come to visit me, and spends all his time alone. I worry about him.”
“We all do, Mary.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
The following morning I felt contractions, they were far too soon, and the doctor said it was premature labor brought on by Gert’s death and my concerns over graduating, which were now appeased, thankfully.
Candy had graciously taken over the store while we figured out what to do with it. She preferred it to farm work, and had a knack for merchandising.
I was put on bed rest for the duration of my pregnancy and as a result we decided unanimously that the wedding ceremony was to take place in my bedroom, with the judge presiding. The reception would follow after the holidays.
Edna insisted on flowers, and a new quilt for the bedroom. She fussed and cleaned profusely laundering the curtains and fluffing the pillows as well as snatching each and every dust bunny that gathered in co
rners or lurked under my bed. The day of the wedding came and I was honored to wear Edna’s ivory silk wedding gown, the lustrous fabric was like a second skin, the dresses neckline and sleeves having been embellished with salt water pearl beads by her own mother’s hand. The bottom half of the gown did not show so hemming it was not necessary. I allowed Edna the pleasure of fussing with my hair. She braided it around my head and gave me a halo made from baby’s breath.
To my surprise Scotty purchased his first suit along with new rings for the both of us. They were simple gold bands with our initials and the word forever engraved on the inside. I would wear Candy’s ring as well and they fit beautifully together.
Before the judge performed our ceremony we had a moment of silence for Gert, may she be at peace now and forever more. We had no readings, and no music, just spoken promises and our family, along with the Wrights beside us as our witnesses. I was delighted to see Edmund enter the room before we said our “I do’s” he smiled at me and stood against my dresser wiping at his tears with a handkerchief embroidered with a navy blue E.
He and I had spent the bulk of our lives together; he was my true family and came to be by my side although it was painful for him.
The judge carried on with the service, “Do you, Mary, take Matthew Scotty Wright to be your lawful husband, in sickness and in health until death do you part?”
“I do.” I was propped up in bed, staring into Scott’s eyes, holding his firm hands in my own. He never knew his last name, so we took on the name of Wright to honor the farmer who was exceedingly kind to Scott.
“And do you, Mathew Scotty Wright take Mary to be your wife in sickness and in health until death do you part?”
