A/N: Chapter two up and ready to go, here! This was written before I even posted chapter one, so I don't know what to expect in reviews. Thanks if you did, and enjoy!
Mary Porter and the Musician's Metronome
Chapter Two: A Day at the Mall
Mary awoke some ten years later to the rapping on the door of the coat closet next to the stairs. She pulled a pillow over her head. She'd been having such a nice dream! They're been a marimba in it, and a golf cart, and a saxophone… How lovely the tune of the saxophone had been!
The rapping on the door grew louder and more insistent.
"Mary, get your butt out of that closet and into the dining room! Today is Diana's birthday and I want everything to be absolutely perfect! GET UP!" hollered Mrs. Turkey. Mary groaned. Diana's birthday?! She had forgotten. Ugh, what a horrible day it would be!
Mary sat up from her small toddler's bed that took up the whole floor of the closet. A few of the Turkeys' coats were pushed aside to allow for some room. Galoshes and several pairs of sneakers lined the wooden floor under Mary's bed. Some storage cases of Mary's clothes were under the bed also. Shelves lined the dark walls. On them were miscellaneous models of instruments, a few sheets of music, and a cheap Playskool keyboard with 18 keys. Posters of instruments in the Brass, Woodwind, Percussion and Strings families stuck to the wall with the aid of tacks and chewed gum, and a small mirror hung from a nail.
Mary looked into the mirror, observing her deep, dark green eyes. Her skin was a bit pale, and she was a bit short for her age. She had black, snarled hair that was down to her back, and a pair of designer glasses that she valued with her life. In the fifth grade, the School Guidance Councilors had called home and scolded the Turkeys for not having proper eye gear for Mary. The pair of glasses was the only nice thing she owned.
She sighed and tried to tame her hair with a brush. Mary pulled it back into a ponytail and glanced at her forehead. There it was, the old scar that she received in the earthquake that marked her parents' deaths. It was a line that Mary thought looked like a sound wave from an instrument player with good vibrato, but Mrs. Turkey said it looked like the hideous love life of Mr. Next Door, who always seemed to have a different woman with him. Sometimes people stared at it in wonder, and sometimes people had asked to shake her hand or asked for an autograph. Mr. Turkey always managed to shoo them away with the help of Mrs. Turkey, and Diana often asked her, "Why would anyone want to even talk to you?" And this answer Mary did not know. She had no friends, wasn't especially good at anything, and certainly wasn't noticed a lot, unless to be bullied.
"MARY! GET DOWN HEEEEEEERRREEEEEEEEEEE!" screeched the angry voice of Mrs. Turkey. Mary jumped into a pair of faded jeans and a large sweatshirt that used to belong to Diana and rushed down the stairs, afraid that she might not get a meal. It wouldn't be the first time the Turkeys denied Mary food for a couple days and locked her in the closet.
She skidded to a stop in the kitchen and popped two pieces of bread in the toaster. Mary fetched the jam and a knife. The toast popped up and she spread the jam over her meager breakfast.
"Quickly! Eat up, eat up, we have to get you to Mrs. Prune's!"
Mary nearly choked on her toast. Mrs. Prune was an insane old widow who'd been arrested years back for starting a riot at a High School football game. She made Mary clean out her parakeets' cages and talked about her lovely ant farm or her herb garden all day long when she baby-sat. "Mrs. Prune's??"
"That's right, now come on, Mary! EAT, EAT, AND EAT! FASTER, FASTER, FASTER!!!" yelled Mrs. Turkey. The phone rang and Mr. Turkey picked it up hastily while Mary stuffed the last of her toast into her mouth.
"Patty?" called Mr. Turkey in a weak voice. "Prune can't baby-sit. She's gone away to a funeral." Mrs. Turkey gasped.
"And the neighbors are visiting D.C., and Violet, that girl from the local High School, what about her?" asked Mrs. Turkey.
"Dear, she's in a- a, um, competition for her kind right now. And I won't have Diana exposed to- marching!" Mr. Turkey hissed the last word in a whisper as if it were a swear word that Mary and Diana shouldn't hear, which they did not.
"You could leave me home!" Mary piped up. Mrs. Turkey looked at her as if she were insane.
"And have you blasting that hideous noise? Absolutely not!" Mrs. Turley was referring to her playing her keyboard, of course. Mary spirits sunk a bit.
"We can't get anyone now! The Parks are coming in five minutes. She'll have to come with us."
Mary grinned. Today was gonna be fun!
About thirty minutes later, the Turkeys, Mary, and Diana's oriental friend Sondok pulled into the mall parking lot in the Turkey's truck. They parked and made their way through the crowds into the mall.
"I want to go to that store first!!" exclaimed Diana. She and Sondok giggled and ran off, with Mary, Mr. Turkey and Mrs. Turkey following them. They visited several clothing shops, and they even visited a chocolate store. Diana complained her chocolate-covered strawberry wasn't good enough, and Mary got to eat that. The clerk winked at her and handed her a small chocolate bar as well. This was the best day of Mary's life so far.
After lunch in the food court, Diana and Sondok ran over to a stage area with several jazz instruments on it. They waited around, but the band was on lunch break, so they moved on to something else. Mary, however, stayed to look at the lovely Sony keyboard on the stage.
"It's nice, isn't it?" asked one of the jazz musicians who'd returned early from lunch. Mary nodded, never taking her eye off it.
"You play?" the musician asked her.
"A little."
"You want to play it? I'm sure some folks round here would appreciate some jazz, yo!" He hoisted her up on to the stage and brought out his own tenor sax from the stage. Mary started to improvise, happily accompanying a real musician. She'd always wanted to do this!
Just then, Diana and Sondok bolted back to the stage. Diana knocked Mary out of the way and began banging on the keyboard. The musician's eyes shot open in surprise and he screeched the loudest note on his saxophone by accident. He tripped and dented his saxophone, sending drums and cymbals rolling all over the floor around the stage. Diana knocked over and broke the keyboard while running from a base drum that was rolling her way. An alto saxophone crashed on the floor and a few reeds went flying through the air. People screamed and there was mass chaos.
Mr. Turkey grabbed the back of Mary's collar, and his face beet red.
"DID YOU DO THIS?" he yelled. Mary shook her head no.
"Come with me right now, Diana and Sondok! This shopping trip is officially OVER!"
Mary looked back with a tear at the broken instruments that had been so beautiful and saw the musician heaving a snare drum off his chest. He stared in her direction, looking as though he'd seen a ghost. The musician was staring at Mary's forehead.
Mary thought she heard him call out, "Mary Porter?" But her ears were most likely deceiving her, and she knew it was NOT going to be pretty after Sondok was dropped off. She gulped and choked back tears, knowing that she could say goodbye to her keyboard in her closet.
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