Mary Not Broken (The Bishop Women) by King Deborah L

Author:King, Deborah L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

September 1945

Dear Mary,

How are you? Tell the truth, are you hurt or anything? I will come back and kick his ass again. Just tell me when. My job is ok. It has a lot of ups and downs, ha ha! Sometimes I meet real nice people and somebody gave me a card and said I should be a model! Maybe I will leave this elevator job and go work for that new Ebony magazine. Have you seen it? You know what? I think I will. Anyway, school is going well. I will be a real teacher pretty soon. I’m starting to think I might not like it but we will see. I get letters from Martha a lot. She said Papa wants her to get married but she thinks it might be too late if you know what I mean. He even said she could marry that soldier boy, Leroy Wilson. Well whatever happens, I hope they do it soon. Ellie—I mean Miss Elizabeth—wrote me a letter too. All she talks about is how smart she is. She uses big words that I don’t even know and I go to college. She really thinks a lot of herself.

Mary, I know why you didn’t come with me, but you still should come visit. I have a nice flat and a real soft couch for you, or you could take the bed and I take the couch. You know I love the lights just like you said I would. I think you should come in the spring when it’s real pretty and not too hot. Please come to visit. I can even buy you a ticket. Just think about it.

Love, Ruthie

P.S. Chicago Teachers College has some fine men. You would love it here!

Mary read the letter twice and then stuffed it back into the envelope. No, Bevers would never allow her to go. She wasn’t going to visit Chicago until she could move back there for good. Ruthie always gave her updates on the family, like she was the only one with the information. Of course, Ellie was smart. She was a smarty-pants too, always acting like she knew more than everybody. Mary thought it was very disrespectful when the not-so-little girl corrected their parents. And Martha... Mary was honestly worried for her. The fifteen-year-old wanted to marry a soldier probably going to war, and she was having a baby. Mary had been that young when she married Mason, and look how her life had turned out.

Mary went to church most Sundays, sometimes with a veil or pancake makeup to cover a bruise. At home, she did most of the cooking and a little of the cleaning. She kept herself as pretty as she could and still visited the college library at least twice a week. But after four years of pretending, Mary could never quite call herself the good wife. In the three years since Slim’s death, she’d avoided the Tip Top Club, but she and Lena Ledell still found ways to have ungodly fun.

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