Chapter 1 – Best Suited.
Sunny day's best suited her disposition. She was in the rose garden when she heard It calling. It seized her like a regret that no longer served a purpose. She turned away hoping that she was wrong. The sweet-pea flowers that were tucked behind her ear hid the disappointment in the return of the unwelcomed visitor.
It filled the air with a high pitch whistle that buzzed in Mary's ears calling her on.
"Mary, It's Time…" It called to her.
Mary's chest heaved. She couldn't turn towards it. Instead, it left her the gift of her traveling bag and umbrella at her feet.
"No…No…I said I am done. The last time was my last time." Mary scolded.
"You're needed." It replied. "This isn't who you are. This wasn't how it was supposed to be for you. You know you must go back."
"I don't know anything, save this…I cannot go back. Last time…It hurt too much." Mary sighed.
"There are things that have to be done. You are unfinished. You are broken." It said.
"If I am broken, than it was my doing. Mine. I don't blame anyone or anything. Place all the blame right here." As Mary spoke she choked back the tears of frustration. "I know what I have done, and I can't change any of it. And I would change it, I would."
"Change is only a matter of courage, Mary." It replied.
"I can't change time." Mary pleaded.
"Then let it change you." It sighed.
Mary began to notice a warming fog slowly begin to creep from along the boxwoods of the garden walls. She took a deep breath and swallowed all of her pain. The fog closed enveloped her. The world around her vanished into the thinness of the air.
"This is not how things were supposed to be. You must know that now child. This was not all your doing. You know this is not all that you are." It answered.
"I am who I always have been." Mary replied as she found the place inside of her that allowed her to compartmentalize the pieces that make her whole.
"What is true…" It said. "will always be."
The wind blew the lingering memory of cold rain puddled on the city sidewalks, right before the fall. She closed her eyes, knowing that this was a goodbye to the tranquility she had found in nothing and a voyage into someone else's something. Optimism begat her regret as its' sound slowly faded to a soft hum that melded into the scenery of the world below.
The north winds shifted. The stifling dark clouds they had been harboring most of the afternoon pushed apart the sky, dividing it into two halves; what was and what should be expected. As if announcing her arrival, the clouds in the west were cleared away with wide grand sunlit beams against what remained of the day. In the time since Mary's last visit, the town of London had become as new and as different as the faces of people that lived there. Most of who barely acknowledged her having arrived so auspiciously through the bustle. For nearly no one had a reason to look up and wonder anymore.
His name was Benjamin, he was eight and his mother had dead. It's the first sentence he would say to anyone when he met them for the first time. It had been over eleven days since his Mum had been consumed by what Benjamin would explain, was a mean, dark and nasty neoplasm upset because he got a terrible cold with annoying running nose that leaked when he slept or when he was in the middle of trying to explaining something to a kid at school; dripping all over, spreading his icky gross germs without concern. The awful Neoplasm, the horrible bully, searched high and low looking for his mummy to help him feel better. When, after all his looking and looking the Neoplasm couldn't find her, he just took Benjamin's Mum instead. Yet, Benjamin was not mad at the Neoplasm. He was not even sad. The way Benjamin figured it…she was a really good mum, and if anyone one could make the Neoplasm's cold go away for good, it would be her. Then maybe the Neoplasm wouldn't be so nasty and wouldn't leave his germs all over for other people to catch and maybe he could have his mom back.
Needless to say Benjamin was special.
He had always believed his father been an international bank thief hidden away on some private island off the coast of Madagascar. He lived in a secret lair built into a cliff that was only accessible by submarine. Benjamin hoped, one day he would be playing in the park, when by some chance he'd come by a yellow balloon just as it was dipping down from sky after it's long journey to him. His father would have attached a letter to the balloon - really an invitation to at long last, come for a visit via an escort by the Queen's Royal Navy. It never happened. Instead, a woman he had never met took him by the hand out of his mother's house, led him to her small red car that smelled like cat pee. Then drove Ben across five villages, onto the motorway and finally to London, to a large building that over looked the park, to a small buzzer at its door. His father was not home when they got there.
So Benjamin sat on a large bench like thing in the drawing room by the large windows that overlooked the park and waited.
He waited after each nanny came and went. All of them complaining as they packed their bags that Benjamin's was unresponsive, difficult, too hard to work with and that his fits were far too exhausting for them. Even the Nannies that were specially trained to handle children with his "condition," said he was just a unique case that lived in his own little world all alone – a world Benjamin made sure to note that none of them belonged in. Down the hall his fathers, assistants and housekeepers argued over the duties of having Ben in the house. His father's valet, Marcus, argued meanly and loudly with someone to send another nanny around immediately. Ben watched amusedly as all the people he knew in the world argued not to take care of him. He wondered when, if ever, he would meet his dad. So he waited. He waited for his father. He waited for his invitation to fall from the sky.
And then it did.
"Look!" he called back to them softly, never taking his eyes off the dark spot in the sun that came spiraled towards him. Down further and further, the wind whipping around the people on the sidewalks below like leaves on an late autumn day.
No one heard him. They were all too busy discussing how Ben was interfering with their lives.
Yet their she was, his invitation.
Her shoes made a soft click as she landed quite perfectly on the city's pavement. She lowered her bag and umbrella before carefully inspecting herself in the reflection of a large city bus window. Here blue eyes still glistened with secrets. Her raven hair was neatly tucked up underneath her tidy old hat that gave nothing of her away. She studied herself a moment longer, happy she remained as she always was; practically perfect. The bus hissed and heaved forward off to its next stop revealing to Mary her own next destination.
A large steel and glass monstrosity loomed overhead, casting its ominous shadow over the parks and gardens nearby.
"My word," Mary exclaimed as she lifted her face to the sky. She held a hand to shield her eyes from the bright orange and red dusk that danced off its facade.
"I say are you sure that you have the right address?" The Parrot Umbrella squawked as she held it up at her side.
"Really, need you even ask? I swear; I will never get use to homes in these fancy high rises." Mary remarked.
"Well, look over there…isn't that a movie star?" The Parrot pondered.
"I am sure that I have no idea what you are talking about. Besides, when have you ever been to a movie?" She asked the bird beak of her umbrella.
"Never, but I do dream that you will actually take me into one with you one day." The Parrot replied.
"Oh honestly, must it always be about you?" Mary asked with a smile.
"It down right should be. All these years together and you would think I'd get to have a little bit of adventure of my own…but no…no…I am only here for you." The Umbrella complained.
"Indeed, you are right about that." She smiled cheekily.
"Only here to serve you...help you with your troubles, protect you when you need it, give you consultation when it's hard for you to say goodbye. I'm just a bloody stick to you, I know. Heaven forbid you should do something nice for me for a change." The Parrot squawked on. "Can't give me one little trip to the cinema."
"Alright already, that's enough out of you." Mary tapped Parrot's head dismissively. "The cinema? Really now…when there is so much more for us to see in this world."
"Blimey not likely. In fact, all we ever see is the same thing. Sure the families might change but…" It gawked back at her.
"You are quite finished." Mary grabbed the Parrot Umbrella's beak and firmly held it shut as it continued to mutter.
With a whirl of wind, Mary offered her attention to the sight of a cab unloading a mousy young lady under the building's entrance. The young woman, though awkward in demeanor was indeed impeccably dressed, seemingly to offer a good impression as if meeting someone for the first time. Mary smiled a contrite smile. Suddenly, an unexplainable gust of wind blew through the trees. Mary had to hold onto her hat as she watched the young lady try to disembark the cab. The woman held onto its door. Yet, the great gusts of wind quickly jostled her about, lifting her to and fro like flag in a windstorm before finally throwing her off and back into the cab. The cab jumped as it seized and swallowed up all of her. Its' horn began roaring angrily as it abruptly lurched back into the late day traffic, squeezing itself between two passing cars.
Unfettered, Mary adjusted her skirt and blouse and quickly placed the umbrella on the crook of arm. She smiled discreetly as she walked past the clamor of people that bustled in the whipping winds and jostled in and out of the residences that lined the street. Mary made her way toward the grand building's entry. Unnoticed, due to all the commotion of the wind, she simply slipped inside as if it were her home. She pressed the button of lift. As the doors opened, she grinned delighted for not having to explain herself. That was something she abhorred, but others always felt they need so desperately. Yet, just as her smile wrapped the corners of her mouth, warming her cheeks with relief and pending adventure, a hand shot through the lift door, stopping them from closing.
He spoke not a word. He just looked at her. She said nothing to him. He looked at call buttons a moment and turned before casually leaning back against the car wall. He did nothing but look at her. She softly cleared her throat, looking down at her shoes in an effort to find a chance to look away. His eyes pierced every inch of her. She softly smiled back.
"Hmmm…" was all he could muster to think of.
"Hmmm…" was her best reply.
The lift door opened. He offered her the way in. She took it with a nod.
"Your welcome." He replied as he followed her from the lift.
"This is your floor as well?" Mary asked.
"Yes, well, there are no other floors above this one." He answered.
"Oh, so then you're Mr. MacIntyre?" She asked.
"Why? Is something going on in there? Did I arrive at a bad time?" He replied slyly.
"No, you're timing is perfect." Mary smiled.
"Good then. I am Mr. MacIntyre." He answered. "Though, I prefer Richard. And you are?"
Mary smiled coyly at the door. He didn't quite get it. Mary raised her hand to the buzzer more obviously.
"Oh…I have the secret key." Richard waved his hand by the door.
"My name is Mary. Mary Poppins." She said to him. "I'm your new governess. I'm here for Benjamin I mean."
"Well, I hope so. I am far too old for a governess." He said just as the door opened on the two of them together.