Love, Mary Katherine
September 9, 1956
Dear Diary,
June and I watched Elvis on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” When he sang “Love Me Tender” I thought I was going faint.
Mother walked in while he was performing “Ready Teddy” and yelled for Father. They were outraged by the way Elvis shook his hips, but June and I liked it.
I can’t wait until tomorrow. Teddy and I are going to our special place. It’s so special that I can’t even tell you. It’s tippy top secret. I talked to June and I think I’m ready to go the whole way with Teddy. I know he wants to even though he said he’ll wait. But he’s headed back to school and I don’t want to wait any longer. I just hope it doesn’t hurt like June said.
Love, Mary Katherine
I closed my diary and leaned back on the easy chair. I closed my eyes and pictured my and Teddy’s special place. It was in an abandoned cabin in the woods. Teddy was so gentle and made me feel so special. And even though it hurt, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. I lay in his arms a long time afterward and we talked about our dreams.
“So what do you want to be when you grow up?” I had asked.
He kissed the top of my head. “Your husband.”
I sat up and leaned down until I was staring him in the face. “Do you mean that?”
He lifted his head and kissed me. “Of course I mean it. You know I’ve never met anyone like you before. I’m crazy about you.”
I smiled and we kissed some more.
I lay back down. “So, besides my husband, what do you want to be?”
“Maybe a lawyer.”
“I hate lawyers,” I spit out.
“That’s only because your father is a lawyer and you hate him.”
“True. But I could never hate you.”
“So, what do you want to be, Mary?”
“A mother. I’ve always wanted to have lots of children. Five or six.”
“Five or six? That’s a lot of children. How about three? Maybe I’ll let you talk me into four.”
Teddy and I had agreed on four children that night and he never learned, as far as I knew, that I had one of them.
Rachel
After I left Howard’s house, I stopped by the cleaning agency to ask for more work. I figured I could fit in another job and sort of hoped that maybe I could find someone to replace Howard. Cleaning his bathroom made me want to vomit. He’d left a pile of yellowed toenail clippings by the toilet, which looked like it hadn’t been flushed in days.
“One just came in,” Annie said. “An older woman. She sounded really nice. Said cleaning her house is just getting to be too much for her.”
Annie wrote down the information and handed the slip of paper to me. I looked at the name and address she’d written. “Mary McAlaster. Three forty-five Berkshire Drive.” I looked at Annie. “Isn’t this that ritzy area on top of the hill across from the college?”
Annie smiled. “Yes. Those homes are big so probably count on a full day.”
I left the agency and stopped at Jack’s Bar. I’d promised Claire I’d drop off the dress she’d let me borrow back when I actually had a life and went on dates. The Before Piper era. I figured I’d see Nick. He usually stopped in for Wednesday’s wing special before heading to his second-shift job at the Harley plant. He built motorcycles and loved riding them. He promised to take me for a ride, but that was before Piper came into my life and turned it upside down. I didn’t blame her, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have moments of resentment.
The bar, located in the neighborhood where I used to live, had its regulars. Nick, a few years older than me, was one of them. I missed bartending at Jack’s. The bar, with its exposed brick walls and creaky wooden floor, wasn’t much to look at but it had a charm all its own. Despite feeling like I was working in a cave, with its lack of natural light, I’d spent more time at Jack’s than I had anywhere else, except college, in the past two years. I was grateful that when I needed a job, Jack had given me one. And he always worked around my class schedule.
As soon as I walked in the door, I saw Nick in his usual seat chewing on wings. He nodded. I waved to Claire, who was slicing limes behind the bar, and slid into the stool next to Nick. “I thought maybe I’d find you here.”
Nick smiled. “Guess I’m a creature of habit.”
Secretly, I liked Nick. His appearance was always a bit messy, but it worked for him. I liked his tousled brown hair, five o-clock shadow, tight gray T-shirt and jeans. And his eyes. His chocolate-colored eyes were like exclamation points at the end of a really great sentence. Come with me! Don’t go! I love you!
Claire walked over, wiping her hands on a white rag. I handed her the bag containing her dress. “Thanks for letting me borrow it.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to hold on to it?”
I laughed. “Like I’m going to need a dress like that anytime soon. My dating days are over.”
“Yeah, right,” Claire said. “I’m ninety-nine point six percent certain you’ll date again.”
I laughed. Claire always had to look at things in terms of percentages. It was annoying yet somewhat charming. I’m sixty-six percent sure your bread is moldy or I’m eighty-nine percent certain you already bought that shade of nail polish, she’d say. She was the only person I knew who had this peculiar habit. And if I were a betting girl, I’d have listened to her. She was right ninety-nine point nine percent of the time!
Nick picked up a paper towel and wiped off his messy hands. Whenever he ate wings, we knew to pile a half-dozen paper towels on the bar beside him. He hated using napkins. Said they were too thin and always ripped. He took a sip of his beer. “It would be a damn shame if you never dated again, Rachel.”
I have to admit my heart fluttered. I caught Claire’s glance out of the corner of my eye. She knew I thought Nick was sexy. “Why would it be a shame?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You just seem like the type of girl who should have someone special. Settle down. Have kids.”
I held up my hand. “Stop! No kids. I have a kid now and I never want another one.”
“Piper is your sister,” Nick said. “That’s not exactly the same thing.”
I could feel my anger begin to boil. “The hell it isn’t. Who’s raising her? Me. Who gets up in the middle of the night
