Oh Mary

A Short Story

Mary rode her bike down her quiet street.

Nothing ever happened in sleepy Indiana.

She had lived in this neighborhood for many years, and though people came and went, the neighborhood never changed. It was utterly boring to grow up here — in the middle of nowhere. The people were all nice, but had nothing to talk about. There was none of the gossip that a young girl craves. She was almost home when she passed a moving van. Moving vans were not an uncommon thing in Mary’s life. People moved all the time, because their parents got a new job or they wanted to go to a different school. Nonetheless, whenever Mary saw a van, she always got excited at the sight. It was a promise of a new friend, a new person with new stories, or maybe, if she was lucky, there would even be a girl her age who will be her new friend.

The last person who moved into the neighborhood had been a young boy, too young to understand how to play. She had tried to show him how to make his bike coast on the flat asphalt, but he had refused, wanting to play with the pigs and goats that inhabited the neighborhood. Mary refused to get muddy, as she was much too old for that, so she had ignored the boy and turned her nose up at his childish games. It had been very boring while he lived there, all the older girls would coo over how little he was and no new drama appeared. Mary had not minded at all when the boy’s family transferred again.

There had been a girl before the boy, which was very promising since there had seemed to be a long string of boys before that, none worthy of playing with Mary, but this girl was shy. She would never come out to play when Mary called to her and did not want to participate in the neighborhood gossip, saying it was a sin to gossip and be idle. This girl talked a lot about sinning. Mary would see her in mass every Sunday, but she thought the girl went more than that. Mary’s parents had said that the girl’s family was from very far away, a different country even, but this did not interest Mary much. She knew nothing about this other country, though apparently she was from the same place. That did not make sense to Mary. She was born in Indiana, not some other country. How could she be from Indiana but actually be from a different country? This girl, who was not from here, stayed for a long time. Actually, she was still there. Mary would still go play with her every now and again, she just was not very interested in the long term.

Mary was desperate for a new girl her age to finally entertain her. There had been one girl who had lived right next door. She was the same age as Mary and they had gotten along great. Their families had apparently moved in around the same time, so they had been close despite their differences in religion. Mary had not really understood why she never saw her friend on Sundays, but her parents had explained that the family wet to their own type of worship, not mass like her family went to. Mary had tried to talk to her friend about this different worship, but it had sounded about the same as hers, just at a different place and time. She was not sure what the big deal was with church; you went when your parents told you to and then got food afterwards. She was never allowed to play after mass, because her nice dress would get dirty. Her friend did not have this problem, as her parents let her do whatever she wanted. She was so cool. Mary had cried when she moved away. Everyone else was replaceable, just someone to shake up the town for a minute — but not that girl. That girl had actually been Mary’s friend.

Mary could only hope this new family could have someone to meet her very high expectations. She had been disappointed so many times before by this boring town, another boy, or a boring girl would just be too much for her fickle heart to handle. She rode her bike into her garage and ran inside, eager for news about the new neighbors.