STUFF THAT RUBBS OFF

This fictional short story by Robert could be someone you know!

You won't believe this BUT - - - this is what I heard !!

 

It is almost folly to try to get stuff to rub off another person onto you for luck.

People who gamble try to sit next to a person who is winning especially when playing the slots. They grab their winning machine when they leave and hope their luck transfers to them.

People who are lucky in love (lucky in love is open to interpretation) draw other people to them trying to imitate their success by acting like them.

There is some stuff that rubs off and is unwanted it is in the product of gossip. While there are no official titles for the gossipers but I could nominate some ladies for “The Queen of the Gossipers.”

There is such a thing as an undercurrent of gossip that is easy to accept and does great damage to reputations.  A happening such as this occurred several years ago.

Let me first say our failings and imperfections if left unamplified are of little matter but if the gossipers get a hold of them they become a destructive force in our lives.  Gossipers are the “masters of deceit” and their aim is to harm or destroy.

The “desire to know” is the seed bed where rumors are planted and they quickly spring up into full blown material that can be used to ruin basically good people.

A good person may have some failures in their life and yet be a functioning human being and if left alone be productive. But the true gossiper will do everything within their power to bring them down.

They can take a small secure camp fire and turn it into a raging inferno.

Perhaps not the best example of this is a situation that occurred when I was growing up. You could define me by the word average. Actually that is a little liberal for I was not a good student as my grades reflected. I wasn’t popular and had only a couple of friends and was coming from a family with a moderate income. So there you have me.

I got my first dose of what the gossipers could do when I was just under five, say four and an half.  I got caught playing doctor by the Queen gossiper in town and it spread all over town. It must have been a slow day for gossip otherwise it wouldn’t have demanded so much interest.

For the next five years I lived under the shadow on that event. Even after five years I would still get “You naughty boy” out of some of the prime purveyors of the tongues of fire.  Finally I was rescued from them when we moved many miles away.

My father was raised on a farm and never got away from the love of the country. The town where we moved to had a place on the edge of town for sale and it was perfect for a boy from the country. We were actually in town but there was a barn and a couple of acres of ground.

Before I knew it we had a large chicken coop attached to the barn and were raising chickens.  We sold fryers and eggs. Ours were brown eggs and some people wanted them instead of the white eggs in the stores.

Our nearest neighbor was a widow and a daughter about my age. Even after four or five years I didn’t know them very well. My mother met the woman and found out the county supported them and they had very little to get by on. Mother told them to come down sometimes and she would give them some eggs.

I believe the only time they came down was at the end of the month when their money had run out. Usually my Ma would give them a couple dozen to get them by till the first of the month when she got her check.

The girl Mary rode the same school bus as I did but I never talked to her much. At school none of the girls would have anything to do with her because she wore things the other girls at school would have thrown away long ago.  Her clothes were washed and clean but still had spots on them. It was known they were poor and no one wanted to be friendly to her because of it.

Then things got worse for Mary.  One of the senior boys caught her after she got off of the bus and had his way with her. Then he went around and bragged about it saying she begged him for it.

Once the gossipers got a hold of his story they tried their best to destroy the young girl cause they hadn’t had a tidbit like this for a year or so.

I would have like to have helped her but I didn’t want them making up stories about me. The girl came back to school and had to endure the worst pain that one human could inflict on another human with their mouth.

The teachers tried to stem the swell of persecution to no avail. It was like a pack of hyenas ripping and tearing apart a kill. They were driven by the taste of blood.

No one cared about Mary and what had actually happened; instead they delighted to show how low she was.

I was threaten to shut up when I said what was being told wasn’t true and then I started walking Mary home after she got off the bus just in case someone else tried to molest her.

I was seen with her and there were whispering about me and her but it didn’t get to the frenzy stage. The whole town figured she was a tramp and many boys claimed they visited her often. As she walked the halls of the school she had to endure filthy remarks by both boys and the girls.

Girls would threaten her for being with their boyfriend when none of this was true. I was the only one who would have anything to do with her and I paid a price for that.

The remarks were bad enough but along with them were the fights I had because of sticking up for her.

Both Mary and I were near seventeen and were going to graduate early. I was looking forward to it for I was moving as soon as school was over.

One evening Mary came over to get some eggs and my mother said go out and get Mary a couple dozen.

 

Mom said you will have to look for them cause the hens got into the barn and laid some in the hay. I started to argue but knew I never won an argument with Mom so I didn’t bother.

The eggs were hard to find in the loose hay but we had just about enough when Mary pushed me down and started to wrestle with me. It was the first time I had ever saw her try to have a little fun. I felt of her as we wrestled and realized she had no underwear on.

Then I did the unthinkable, I kissed her and she kissed me back and things kept heating up (that’s one way to put it) and before we knew we were … we lay there not knowing what to say or do when I heard my ma call out, “Have you about finished?”

Those words brought many things to mind but I yelled, “Yes just one more.”

Mary took her basket and thanked my Ma and ran home.

We never talked about what happen the next day or for that matter never at all.

I had planned to move away but instead I got a job in town and decided to stay.

I scarcely saw Mary for they had moved to the next town for some reason. On a couple times when I had business over there I saw her and waved as she turned away.

Five years went by and one day when I came home and saw that Mary was there. She had spent the afternoon with my mother and ma sharply said, “Sit down,” so I did.

Ma didn’t talk like this unless it was serious. My father came in and didn’t look too happy either.  I figured that they knew something that I didn’t know when Ma told me that Mary was sick and wasn’t going to live but a short time. She asked me if I remembered a time about five or so years ago when Mary came over and got some eggs and the hens had laid them in the hay.

Not did I remember but I remembered ever step we took as if it had just happened.

I simply said, “Yes I think so.”

Ma said, “Do you need me to refresh your recollection?”

I said, “No I don’t think so.”

She said, “Good.  Mary has a problem and wants us to help her if we can.”

Ma went into the next room and got a small girl who had been playing in the next room and brought her in and gave her to me. The child crawled up into my lap and gave me a hug.  Everybody sat there saying nothing for a long while.

The girl was playing with a string tie I was wearing when Mary spoke and said, “This is your daughter, and here is her birth certificate stating you are her daddy.”

She continued, “Regardless of what everyone says I have only been with two men in my life; the one who raped me and you know who the other was.

I wasn’t going to bother you with this for I thought you might want to marry a respectable girl and I didn’t want this hanging over you. Since I have gotten sick and I wouldn’t leave her with my mother I wanted to let you decide what you want to do with her. She is a fine young lady and is very smart.

There are some tests you can run if you don’t believe me but you must admit she looks a lot like her daddy. The reason we moved was because I was pregnant and I didn’t want anyone to know about it from this town. Your mother has said she would watch over her for you while you worked. There was no one else, only you, and the one I would make pay if I had been able.”

She said, “I must go in the hospice tomorrow and it won’t be long for me.”

As I looked at the girl on my lap I was all but speechless.  I knew Mary was telling me the truth and here was my flesh and blood in my arms.

Love that Sweet Five Year Old Girl

During this moment of bonding I became a believer in love at first sight.

For the next four weeks I visited Mary and sometimes brought Alice with me depending on her mood.

Then one day it was over. I sat out in the park area outside the hospice for some time wishing. I wished I had enough moxie to stand up to all of the people and their vile attitudes of loving a lie.

I wished I had been a better friend to Mary. I wished I had married her and been there when Alice was born, I wished I knew what a fine woman she was and gave her the love she deserved. I saw to it Mary had a decent funeral and put a stone with the inscription, “A woman this town was not worthy of. “

I told mom I was leaving this town for I was sick of it and its vile people. I could transfer and wanted to get as far from here as possible.

Alice and I located in a mid-sized town where no one knew us.  We rented from a young widow who watched Alice while I worked. She fell in love with the child and I became fond of the young widow who recently lost her husband in the ongoing war.

I needed some time to get over Mary and she wanted time to let some of her wounds to heal but as we got to know one another the faster the healing went.

It was a small wedding with a five year old bridesmaid.

I sent my mom a picture of her new daughter-in-law and our family as it now stood. I told mom I wouldn’t be coming back there ever but they were welcome anytime they wished to come.

Mom said she would like to come some day but my father said he couldn’t leave his chickens and wouldn’t be able to make it.

Finis