Chapter 8: Mary


"Hey Cliffy, how's it goin?" I said.
"Oh hey, who are you?" Cliff said, joking around, "No really, hey Jack!"
I laughed, "Well, I see you and Ann are a little friendly!"
"Yeah...I guess so! But you and Elli, man Jack, I hardly ever see you anymore! You're always with Elli!" He said.
"Hey....I never see you, your always with ANN!" I laughed.
"Hey guys, I AM here you know!" said Ann, butting in on our conversation.
"Hey Ann," I said.
"Hey Jack. So I heard about ahem....Karen and you!" she winked.
"What are you talking about.....Karen and me?" I asked, bewildered.
"Well, she said you were coming on to her and she tried to resist for Elli." said Ann.
"WHAT?! I NEVER would do that! I really like Elli! Karen is obsessed with me, she just made that up1" I yelled.
"Ok Jack, don't worry I didn't think you'd do that anyways. So....what should we talk about?" she asked.
"Well, you know that girl at the library?" started Cliff.
"Oh, Mary?" interrupted Ann.
"Yeah, Mary. Well, do you guys think we should ask her to hang out, or try to hook her up with someone? She seems so lonely in that library all the time." said Cliff.
"I don't think she minds, she loves reading." said Ann.
"Actually, I agree with Cliff. I've seen Mary sometimes in the library windows and she always looks like she's crying. Maybe we should go talk to her?" I chirped.
"Yeah I guess so, I was never good friends with her. When we were little, Popuri, Karen, Elli and I would always be getting into trouble and playing, but Mary was always reading or would tell on us." sighed Ann.
"Oh, did you guys treat her poorly?" I asked.
"No, we tried to be nice, she just acted like we were inferior because we weren't as smart as her. That's all really." she said.
"Well, hows about we go right now?" asked Cliff.
"Sure!" said Ann and I in unison.

We walked to the Library and saw that it was locket. "Great," we sighed. We decided to look around for her. We looked at the beach, the mountain, the lake, the town square, even back at the Inn and Clinic. No sign of her. Then as we walked to the vineyard to check there we saw Mary come out of her room in the library and walked down to get a coat. I motioned for everyone to follow me, and we strolled into the library casually.
"Um, hi. Sorry but I'm closing up the library." said Mary.
"Oh, hi Mary! We didn't come here for books, we wanted to visit you!" I said.
"V-V-Visit me? Why would you want to visit me?" she asked.
"Well....we haven't met you, Cliff and I that is, and wanted to meet you! So...we decided to!" I said, confusing even myself.
"Yeah sure, you probably just came to tease me." she sighed.
Then, Ann came out from hiding behind us.
"Hi Mary, long time no see!" she said.
"Oh...hi Ann." said Mary, looking down and writing something in a book.
"What are ya writing in?" asked Ann curiously.
"Private stuff, you wouldn't understand." she replied.
"Why wouldn't I? We used to be friends." she asked, obviously feeling hurt.
"No, you Karen, Popuri and Elli were friends, not me. Since when were you my friend." said Mary.
"Mary, what are you talking about? If you want to know the real reason we're here.." started Ann, Cliff and I were violently shaking our heads no, "well, we were worried about you. You seemed so lonely all the time and we wanted to meet you and become friends." said Ann.
Cliff and I knew we were in for it.
"What? You feel sorry for me? I feel sorry for all of you! You are all so....so.....so INFERIOR to me! I am so much smarter than you, I am going to get somewhere in life, unlike you three who will end up living in this stupid village all your lives." burst Mary.
"Come on guys, let's get out of here, we don't need to waste our time bothering her, since we are so inferior." I said.
"No Jack, we need to help her." whispered Ann, grabbing my arm and stopping me.
"Mary, why don't you want to be our friends?" asked Ann.
"You are stupid of course! Being associated with you will make me seem stupid too!" said Mary.
I did not like Mary's attitude to us.
"Well, just because we havn't read as much as you, or are learned as much as you, doesn't make us stupid. I happen to know lots of things, and also lots of things that you don't know!" said Ann.
"Ann, cooking doesn't count, that's something only inferior people do anyways." said Mary.
"Yeah well, I can spell, read, write, I know math and lots of other things. And also, what's wrong with this village? I have no problem with living here my whole life, I love it here! Maybe if your nose wasn't stuck in a book all day you would realize that, and maybe have some friends." said Ann sharply.
Mary started crying, "I don't NEED friends!" and with that, Mary ran off.

We all stood there in shock, especially at Ann, who had blown up at such a delicate situation. Ann started crying too, and said that she and Mary had been best friends when younger, and she didn't know why they had stopped. We walked out of the library and bumped into Gray.
"Hey Gray." I said.
"What did you do to Mary, TELL ME." said Gray.

Everyone knew Gray had a thing for Mary. Gray was very quiet and reclusive, but he was nice once you got to know him. I had only seen him a few times, but he was friends with Cliff so he was nice to me as well.
"We tried to become friends with her, but she said we were inferior and stupid. We didn't want to hurt her feelings." I said.
"Oh, well, she does that sometimes. But, she's so lonely she doesn't know how to interact with other people her age." said Gray sadly.
"Well, you get along with her just fine." I said.
"Yeah, but I've been friends with her forever." he responded.
"Gray, were you friends with Mary when I was?" asked Ann.
"Yeah, well I started being her friend right before you two stopped hanging out." he said, "Why?"
"Well, I always wondered by she stopped visiting me and ignored me. I think I know why..."
"Why?" asked Gray.
"I think she liked you so much and didn't have time to bother with me." replied Ann glumly.
"Oh Ann, I'm sorry. Maybe I can talk to her about you guys. Get her to understand you didn't mean any harm and just wanted to be nice to her." said Gray.
"Ok, thanks." Cliff said.
"Well, I gotta run. Saibara is waiting for me!" he said, then he ran off.

I felt sort of bad for Mary. She seemed like such a nice person, but she was so shy and afraid of changes that she didn't let people know the real her. Ann told me all about Mary, how she was a blast to hang out with, always had creative ideas and had a great sense of humor. She sounded like the kind of person who would make a great friend, and I really wanted to become friends with her! That night, I went to Ann's house for dinner. Cliff, Ann, Karen, Gray, May and Stu were there along with me. Gray was just about to go get Mary.
"Well guys, I'll go get Mary!" he said, putting on his hat and coat.
"Ok, please try to get her to come!" said Ann.
"I'll try." he said, walking out.
"I hope Mary comes, havn't seen her in ages!" remarked Karen.
"Yeah..." said Ann.
"Mary was always so nice to me when I was younger!" said May.
"Yeah me too, when May couldn't play with me, Mary would, and she taught me all these cool things about bugs!" said Stu, May gave him a look, and he smiled nervously, "Not that I'm in to bugs anymore."
"Yeah, I never met her when I first got here, I actually didn't even know she lived here!" I said.
Everyone turned gave me a look.
I scratched the back of my head nervously and started sweating, "Well, I mean, I knew she lived here, but uh.....I mean....well I never met her."
Everyone stopped looking at me and laughed.
"Yeah she's like that. She doesn't like being center of attention." said Ann.
"I actually hadn't met her until yesterday either," said Cliff.
"Well it's a good thing you guys met her, she has a great personality, kind of like me." said Karen, giving me a wink.
She looked at me eagerly, expecting me to say something charming, "Uh yeah Karen, your personality sure is....interesting."
"Why I oughta!" said Karen jumping up.
"Please, please Karen, control yourself. No fighting here!" said Ann.
"So Jack, you havn't been to visit me lately, where have you been?" asked May.
"Um....well you know, busy with the farm....." I started.
"And Elli!" laughed Cliff.
"True, true." I said, laughing.
Everyone started laughing, we all had to stop talking for a few minutes to calm down. Then Karen got out a bottle of wine.
"Who wants wine!" she said.
"I do!" said everyone.
Karen poured everyone a glass then we all made a toast.
"To a happy life in the village!" we toasted.

After 10 minutes of eating and talking, Gray walked back in. Slowly he walked, then Mary stepped out from behind him.
"Attention everyone, Mary has something to say.." he said, then he came and sat down.
"Um...well, I just wanted to apologize for what I said earlier to Ann, Cliff and Jack. You aren't stupid or inferior. I'm sorry." she said.
"Don't worry about it," I said.
"You're forgiven," said Cliff and Ann.

Mary smiled and sat down. We gave her some wine and she drank. She started chatting away and it was like we had been friends for so long. She was really nice.