Mary's Path

When she got upstairs, she went straight to her parents. They both slept, and they were both were coughing at regular intervals. Mary put her hand to their foreheads and could feel that they were both warm and sweaty.

She hurried to put the key back where she had found it and went downstairs to pick up a bowl of water and a piece of linen that she could use to bathe her parents’ face and chest with. She hoped the cool water provided some relief while she went down again to heat some of the leftover broth from the previous day.

She couldn’t get her parents to drink more than a couple of spoonsful of the broth and none of them seemed to want to wake up completely even though she shook them all that she could. Eventually, she gave up and sat in front of the fireplace.

The rest of the afternoon and evening she sat and looked into the flames only to sometimes go and check on her parents and try to get them to drink some more broth. When the winter darkness descended over the city, she thought about the offer to move home to Erik’s family.

They were probably sitting in front of the fire now, Mrs. Korpi might be patching a pair of old pants while her husband sat and told the children stories. Erik probably sat and listened to some exciting story his father told and felt calm and safe. She sat alone in front of the fire.

A lonely tear ran down her cheek, Mary did not notice it herself. In a small part of her heart, she regretted her decision to stay, but the love for her parents was too great to abandon them when they needed her most. She remained in front of the fire. Before changing for the night, she put more firewood and checked on her parents one last time.

When she woke up the next morning, she performed her routines as quickly as she could. Today she would go to the market. Mary was both happy and nervous. Would she dare to take all the money with her? What if someone stole them, she knew there were plenty of thieves in the square? But if she brought too little money, she might not be able to buy the food she needed. She stood for a long time looking at the purse. Eventually she decided to bring all the money, but she put the coins in different pockets, hopping that if someone were to rob her, they wouldn’t get it all. She ran upstairs and kissed her parents on the forehead one last time.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said cheerfully, though her stomach had clenched when she felt how warm they both were. “When I get back, I’ll cook you something really good,” she said as she began walking down the stairs.

Mary didn’t like having to leave her parents alone, but she saw no other way out. When she came down to the kitchen, she took out the basket that her mother always used when she was going to the market, it was a little big and unwieldy, Mary thought, but she needed something to put the goods in.

A noise made her look up but she saw nothing, so she continued to prepare. There it was again, it seemed to come from the door. She opened the door carefully. On the other side of the courtyard was Erik. He had pebbles in his hand. He must have thrown a couple at her door. Mary thought it was weird, he used to knock if he wanted to see her.

She waved happily at him. It’s been a long time since they’d seen each other, maybe five or six days ago, and she’d missed him. Erik waved back but didn’t seem so happy.

“Hello,” said Mary.

“Hello.”

“I met your mother yesterday,” Mary said, looking at him. He was still standing on the other side of the courtyard with the stones in his hand. He seemed unsure.

“I know, she told me.” he said after a while. Was he angry with her because she didn’t want to move home to his family, Mary wondered.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked.

“No.”

“Why are you standing over there looking so weird?” she asked.

“Mom says I can’t see you anymore,” he said as if he didn’t really want to admit it. Mary didn’t understand anything. She couldn’t see Erik again, but he was her best friend. She felt the tears coming but stubbornly fought them away.

“Why?”

“She thinks I’m going to get sick if I see you,” he replied, looking at her as if he hadn’t decided if it was true or not.

“I’m not sick,” she protested.

“But your parents are, and mom says we can’t take a chance when it comes to the sickness.”

“So I won’t see you again?” asked Mary desperately, feeling her lower lip start to tremble.

“Not for a long time,” he said, sounding just as sad. Mary couldn’t take it anymore, she couldn’t talk to her parents and the neighbors didn’t want to help her and now she couldn’t see Erik. She felt completely alone in the world and isolated.

The tears welled up and began to run down her cheeks. Erik stood on the other side of the courtyard and looked at her unhappily. He didn’t know what to do.

“Dad said the Lady’s coming tonight, maybe she can help your parents and then maybe we can play again.” he said.

“Who’s the Lady?” asked Mary sobbing.

“Dad says that before the church existed, it was the Lady who was the church. But when the king’s ancestor founded the church, the Lady left. But now she’s coming back to help us get rid of the sickness.”

Mary listened to what he said. She stopped crying and was now wiping her cheeks.

“But how could she be the church, women can’t be priests?” she asked.

“What do I know?“, Erik said, shrugging. “I have to go now,” he said, looking at her. She nodded and looked back at him.

“Bye,” she said, waving a little.

“Bye,” he replied, walking toward the gate leading out to the alley. When he closed it behind him, he turned around and looked at her again before running away.

Mary stood at the door and looked after him. She was alone now and apparently, she would be alone until her parents recovered. She stood for a while longer but then got up and picked up the basket that was left on the table in the kitchen and then went out and closed the door carefully behind her.

She looked at the two goats. She was going to milk them when she got home. Then she went out into the big city and took small alleys leading up to the main square where the market was located.