I can't remember the first time I saw Mary, I know, I have been told, that I was seven at the time. That means Mary was almost five. My first memory of Mary was of a slight, pale little girl with flowing golden hair walking up to the door of our house, clutching tightly at the large forefinger of her father. Her father and my father had been friends in their distant past. Before they got older, got married and settled their families in opposite ends of the small town they’d lived in all their lives. At that point, for a time, they lost contact. My father established a large real estate agency, and five children. My sister, Janice, then four years later me, one year later my brother Paul, another two years later my twin brothers John And Tony. My mother died soon after the twins’ birth. Janice was only eight at the time, but since then she has filled in for my mother. My younger brothers, me, even father called her mom. In time Mary cane to call her mom as well. We were a happy family, before and after Mary. My father met his old friend again when he walked into his real estate office, looking for a house. His wife had left him and Mary just a few months before, and he'd decided a change of scenery was in order. My father found him a house, and volunteered Janice as a baby sitter for young Mary. I don't know why, the twins were exactly the same age, and even Paul was closer in age to her than I, but it was always Mary and me. Maybe it was because Janice was so busy with Paul and the twins. She needed help so I was deputized to care for Mary. Still, soon the age didn't seem to matter. At times as we grew up, together, Mary seemed older than even I did. A huge river flows through the middle of our town. It's about three hundred metres across and the currents wash anything unfortunate enough to tall, or jump into it through bushland and finally to the sea. All our lives we were taught to fear that river, and though we all knew how to swim before we reached school age no one swam there. The Copyright Jackie Bulner 1999
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A Vision of Mary
Jackie Bulner
dragonfr@projectx.com.au This page has been visited times.
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