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.I got up and left the store, quiet as I could,” Mary tells Rachel.She had walked down the beach, climbed the bank and, skirting the houses, come to the narrow place called the Neck, all without really noticing where she was.What did it matter if Thomas wanted to take charge of the store and records? What if he did again begin making decisions? She was tired of always pushing and pulling people, sick of the sharp edge of resentment in their voices when they said her name, “…that Mary Bundle,” like she was some strange kind of fish—different and unlikeable.In all the years she'd been married to Ned she'd never been accepted by the Andrews crowd, not once in all that time had she ever been called Mary Andrews.“I'm tired,” she told herself, “worn out with keepin' on at them.”It was a marvel to her the way most people lived—how they couldn't see beyond the job they were doing to the job that had to be done.Couldn't see that to grow more vegetables the marsh had to be ditched and drained, that years ahead of when you needed it, wood had to be cut, that larger vegetable cellars had to be dug and stoned in, the river had to be kept from silting up, weeds burnt, barns mucked out, hay made, that roofs, wharves and boats had to be worked on all the time.Oh, they saw the little bits of work all right, but never seemed to recognize that things had to be done in a certain order—a certain way if you were going to fit it all in.Moving aimlessly through the wet morning grass Mary came to the new graves outside the roofless church and stepped inside.She walked around the rough-framed walls that had weathered to a silver grey.The church, she decided, was a good example of what happened when you didn't have a knack for getting things done.Meg wanted the church, so did Sarah, but they were too nice to make people keep at it, to drive people until no one had a civil word to say about you.Bits of cut lumber were strewn all around.Inside the empty doorway a partly constructed roof truss lay half covered in dead grass.In one corner warped window frames were propped, in another an iron rod, probably the same one Peter had used to do away with the Indian, rested against some uprights.She recalled Meg's saying the rod should be built into the church, some notion about turning evil to good.It made no sense to Mary, how could you turn evil to good? That was something to be thankful for—at least she'd never cluttered her head with the old religious stuff Meg went on with!As Mary stood looking at the grey enclosure these thoughts barely skimmed the surface of her mind.Underneath she was still thinking of Lavinia and Thomas, still seeing the sleeping couple, still feeling the wave of weariness, waste and dissatisfaction that pulled at her, threatening to drown everything she was sure of.Could this be what happened to people—what made them take up religion, or become weak and witless like poor Ida Norris?During the next few days Mary remained disheartened.But she held her peace and watched the pattern of life close over, mesh together as it always did after some upheaval.Frank Norris came home from the ice with news that there was a big revival going on in Shamblers Cove and that the preacher would be down on the Cape by May or June.Emma's and Peter's little boy Benny became part of Sarah's household, so petted by Sarah, Annie and Charlie, that he went around the place with a great smile of wonder on his face.The Vincents wanted to take Comfort, but Meg would not be parted from the baby.Already two babies, young Toma and Mary's daughter Tessa, spent most of their time in Meg's kitchen.But they were now getting big and both Meg and Pash welcomed the arrival of another infant.Thomas Hutchings did not say what his plans were, but hove his boat over and began recaulking her as if he'd never been away.Mary marvelled at how quickly things returned to what they had been—like taking a bucket of water out of the sea, she {thought.Not one soul asked her advice or noticed the blackness that had dropped down on her.On the fourth day after his arrival, Thomas let out word he had something to tell them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]