When the Stars come out to Play

Mary

I wake up with a throbbing headache. The ones you get when you sleep too deep after being exhausted. I stumble out of bed and get ready, because I am actually a little excited about exploring the house now that Rens is out. As I go down the stairs, I hear humming coming from the general direction of the kitchen. I assume that must be Mary. I sit down on one of the chairs at the kitchen counter where she is expertly kneading dough into submission. Mary is a homely-looking woman with brown hair tucked in a tight bun. I feel uncomfortable as I do not know what she knows and thinks of me, but when the woman looks up, her face is open and inviting: "Good Morning Winnie, as you might have guessed, I am Mary. It is so nice to finally meet you. Were you able to get some sleep last night?"

I grunt "Hey" and dumbly stick out my hand in a small wave. Mary chuckles lightly. "I think that counts as a no?" I rub my throbbing temples and answer: "I conked out as soon as I got in bed but I woke up with a bad headache. " Oh, dear" Mary responds and heads to a cupboard to pull out a bottle of Motrine. She hands me a pill and a glass of water. "This will fix that pesky headache."

I gratefully accept the medication, while Mary heads to the fancy espresso machine. "I am making a cup, do you want one?"

"God yes, please and thank you. How do you take it?" She asks, while performing magic with coffee beans in a machine that seems to require an advanced degree in engineering. " Just some cream please." She putters on for about a minute in silence and hands me the most delicious smelling cup of coffee that I ever had the pleasure of tasting. Yet again, I find myself incapable of uttering anything beyond a grunted "thank you" as I devour the cup of coffee. Mary studies me over the rim of her coffee cup. She has a humorous sparkle in her eyes when she inquires, half smiling: "Good?" I guess I can't blame her. I must look like a starving cougar devouring a piece of juicy meat, moaning and slurping, as I consume the delectable hot drink.

When I finished, I respond: "That is the best cup of coffee I have ever had in my life." Mary chuckles: "Good! I am glad you are so easy to please. Oh, yes, if you feed me and lace me with coffee, I will be your best friend forever." I retort playfully. Mary gets back to her dough and I watch her in silence for a few moments. " I would love to learn how t cook one day." Mary looks up at me askance. " You never learned? I thought they taught cooking in schools these days?." I shrug: "I focused on other subjects, wanting to gather as many credits as possible, so I could secure a scholarship and leave as soon as I graduated and leave home." Mary nods in understanding and doesn't ask the expected questions. I guess Sorensen would have told her about the situation I was in, or what he remembers anyway, because what does he know?

"Would you like some pancakes for breakfast?", Mary asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. " Nah thank you, my stomach is not ready for food yet. I'll grab a banana later." I say, despite feeling hungry. I just can't stomach the idea of pancakes. I know it sounds so silly, but so many memories are attached to that one breakfast."Thanks for the coffee, Mary, I feel like exploring the garden or should I say National Park? Do I have to worry about any critters attacking me in that wilderness?" I ask jokingly. Mary chuffs out a laugh while shaking her head in negation: "Only thing you have to worry about out there are hostile rabbits. They jump around aggressively and ruthlessly defend their greenery by violently twitching their noses." I giggle. I like this woman already. It feels so good to laugh. I can't for the life of me remember when that happened last.

I spend the next two hours enjoying the acreage outside. I took a stroll around the beautifully designed pond. I enjoyed the wealth of fragrant flowers and trees, touching and smelling as many as I could. I had never seen so many bees and other insects in one place. They are so fascinating. I could easily watch them for hours. But hunger drew me back to the house. The minute I step through the door, the mouth-watering odor of food hits my senses. Yeah yeah, I know, I have a severe weakness for food. Sue me. I run up the stairs two at a time, enter the kitchen with a big grin saying: "Oh my God Mary, that smells like heaven" and find Sorensen talking softly to her at the kitchen counter. ...And there goes that enthusiastic smile.. I quickly turn around to escape talking to Sorensen.

"Guinevere?" Sorensen asks. I school my expression as best I can to neutral and face him, one eyebrow up questioningly. "Mary informed me you went out to explore the garden. What do you think of it? I bet you loved the pond. It has fish in it after all." I hold his gaze for about a minute, letting his words linger in uncomfortable silence. Then I respond with as much contempt as I can muster: "Really Sorensen, fish? You think you still know me? It has been 8 years. Get over yourself." I turn on my heel and walk quickly up to my room. "So much for food, sigh".

I spend the next few hours aimlessly roving the internet, with the dulcet tones of my rumbling stomach as background music. I mean I can handle hunger. It was basically a default state in my house, but man did that food smell good. After what must have been at least three hours. I hear a gentle tap on the door. All my senses go to alert but before I can even answer, Mary asks me if she can come in.

"Certainly" I respond casually. When she enters, I notice she is carrying a plate of exquisite goodness and I can't help but smile at the welcome food. "I figured you would be hungry by now? I am starving!" I respond as I eagerly accept the food. "I would have offered sooner, but you seemed eager to get up to your room?" Mary quips. Do I hear a modicum of sarcasm there, Mary? I ignore the subtle question, moaning and making appreciative grunts as I stuff my face full of food. Mary realizing I am not going to explain my earlier behavior, retreats from my room with a "I am here until five, if you need anything else, otherwise see you tomorrow'". I am proud to say, I haven't forgotten all my manners: I yell a garbled-due-to -full-mouth "Thank you so much for the food" at the closing door.

The next three days, I luckily don't see Sorensen at all. Either he is spending his weekend somewhere else or he does what he can to avoid me. Whatever the reason, I am grateful. I spend those days exploring more of the house and the garden, or casually bantering with Mary. I confess that I have taken a liking to her, inasmuch as I am capable of actually liking humans. Not only does she feed me, she seems to have caught on to the fact that I would feel extremely uncomfortable discussing anything remotely serious, keeping all conversations limited to food and my bottomless pit of a stomach.

It is Sunday, and I am working my way through a second serving of Mary's amazing spaghetti Bolognese when she off-handedly inquires if I am stressed for school tomorrow. I decide there is no harm in responding honestly and say: "I am terrified, my stomach is a churning ball of anxiety right now. Ya coulda fooled me, the way you are working away at that spaghetti" she quips good-naturedly. "I am stressed, not dead." I deadpan. She snorts a laugh. "You'll do great, I am sure. I guess it is somewhat scary to start at a new school in the middle of the year, but from what I have heard, you are a straight-A student. Did Sorensen tell her that? Probably. No way I'd ask though. I shrug. " It is not so much the subjects I worry about. It's the people. I just don't like people, or their questions. In my former school, everybody knew me, meaning they knew to leave me alone. Here I will have to start all over, convincing my fellow students and the faculty to leave me alone." Mary looks at me askance, as if waiting for me to elaborate; naturally I don't. "Hey." she says positively. "It doesn't have to be that way, life might surprise you, and you could actually meet a person you like, worse you might even make a friend." I scoff at that' " Mary, I don't do friends, they end up disappointing you in the worst ways." I can tell she wants to respond to that, but she seems to think better of it, at the last second. "On that note" I continue, " It is time I go upstairs and prepare for my first school day, we want to look our best don't we? Have a great night Mary. If I haven't mentioned it yet: Thank you for the amazing food."I rinse off my plate and put it in the dishwasher, before I head up the stairs to my sanctuary. Tomorrow is going to suck.