Gypsy Spirit on the Road to Find Out, Part II

Barely awakening from a great dream of Don, when Darin was running for the pants he had left on the floor of her bedroom. "Mmm good-morning," Mary sighed sleepily with a smile on her face.

Being caught trying to escape a gentleman had to respond in some way. "Morning," Darin growled.

Knowing that look on a man's face when he's running away Mary snapped out of her dream-state and asked with a look of disappointment written all over her face, "Are you leaving so soon Darin?"

"I got to go," he said.

Sitting up in bed with the sleeping bag around her hips and wearing only her birthday suit, she looked into his eyes asking, "Will I see you again today?"

"I don't know," he said looking down to zip his pants.

"Well what's wrong then?" she asked with confusion unable to understand why he felt he had to rush right out. Leaving the bed and closing the distance between them, she didn’t bother to cover herself. Pulling all stops, she shamelessly tried to use her body to get her answers. "Darin look at me" she requested softly as she lifted his chin so that she could look him in the eyes. His head was straight down. "What is wrong?"

"You talk in your sleep Mary," he scowled.

"I can't very well help what I say in my sleep now can I?" she defended with a calm voice then just had to ask, "Would you mind telling me what I said that's got you so upset? I can't remember my dreams." Grabbing her by the arms Darin took a deep breath and let go when she told him, "Stop! That hurts," while glaring into his eyes.

"Who the hell is Don?" he demanded.

"A man I met in Florida," she replied. "Why? Did I mention his name or something?"

"Only about a half a dozen or so times in between all the moanin' and sighin' that I was makin' you do," he snapped sarcastically.

"I did care a great deal for him, but I'm here with you now not with him," Mary reasoned in her defense as she reached for a T-shirt. "I can't help what comes out of my mouth when I'm sleeping. I'm sorry that it hurt you." She was sorry for talking in her sleep, yet the dream was so good.

"Maybe I'll see you later," Darin softened as he walked out into the cold light of the morning sun for all her nosey neighbors to see.

"Me and my big mouth!" Mary exclaimed then grumbled, "Damned full moon's always stirring up trouble." Her goose was cooked and she knew she would never get away with this. Revving his engine Darin peeled out of the driveway alerting all of her nosey neighbors to his departure. It almost seemed like a set up. As if Darin had set her up for the fall, she was about to take when her landlord heard of it. Maybe the whole town was in on it trying to see how fast they could kill a Damned Yankee woman without shooting one.

Washing herself as best she could with cold water, Mary brushed her teeth and put on some make-up to hide her tear swollen eyes then dressed in her cleanest dirty clothes. Knowing that her landlord was going to find out that Darin had been there, she began packing her dirty clothes in her crocheted bag.

A knock on her door as she was almost done with her clothes startled her. "Did you have a man spend the night last night?" he demanded the second Mary opened the door. It was her landlord.

No sense lying about it. "Yes sir. But I didn't invite him and he wasn’t here all night," Mary stated in her defense.

It didn't matter to the landlord if she had invited him or not. "I warned you about this didn't I?" he demanded.

"Yes sir," she replied quietly almost child-like in her manner.

"I want you to clean the place up then come and let me know when you're done," he said as he began walking away. He didn't want any explanations; he just wanted Mary to leave.

"All right," she replied then resumed her packing.

Right after the landlord, left Mandy came over. "What's going on? What did the landlord want?" she asked with her usual excited tones of curiosity.

"I'm being evicted," she stated then asked, "Do you have a broom and a mop? I have to clean the place up. He wants me out of here as soon as possible."

"Do you need any help?"

"I don't have much left to do," Mary replied. "I've just got to wrap this vase Marsden gave me and these two plates and glasses and get the bathroom stuff then I'll be ready to sweep and mop."

"I'll go get my broom," Mandy offered then left and came right back with the broom and mop. "Why's he kicking you out?"

"Because Darin came over last night in a jealous fit and I let him stay," she explained.

"So is he going to be your Sugar Daddy now?" Mandy asked innocently.

"I doubt it."

"Why not?"

"Because I talk in my sleep," she responded with a disgusted tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Explaining the situation Mary ended with, "I feel bad that it happened but, I can't take it back cause it's already done. I don't think Darin is very forgiving about being called another man's name. He was pretty upset when he left."

"You want me to talk to him for you?" Mandy offered.

"No. If he's going to get over it, he will. If not, there's really nothing to be done about it. Even in my sleep I seem to do the wrong things," she commented with a sad smile. She was almost relieved to be evicted to get away from all the gossips there. She felt since making an enemy of Robby that, he was the one who informed the landlord of Darin spending the night, yet couldn't tell Mandy this.

"Are you going to go back home then?" Mandy asked nearly in tears at the thought of losing her best, young adult friend.

"Well they say God never closes one door without opening another. I'll just have to go find an open door somewhere," Mary replied philosophically. "Besides, I don't see how I can get home on twenty dollars unless I hitchhike and that's too dangerous. I had one hundred and thirty five dollars on Friday. I spent twenty on gas, oil, food, and stuff but I think someone broke in while I was gone and took a hundred dollars out of my money jar the other night. I have a feeling I know who did it too."

"That crazy redhead over there never really believed that you didn't turn her in for that vacuum cleaner deal. And you didn't even tell on her," Mandy commented. "She probably told him about Darin, too."

"Yeah, that's who I was thinking of," Mary agreed, as she wrapped the vase Marsden had given her in the old want ads. Honestly, she thought it was Robby. "She's the only one I think would be crazy enough to look behind someone's couch." Collecting her dwindling supply of bath products and make-up, she threw them in her make-up case.

"I'll start sweeping in the living room," Mandy offered.

"Thanks. I'll be done in a couple of minutes and move things so we can sweep under them. I don't want to miss a single piece of dirt or a stray pot seed. He’d probably have me arrested for it."

"You're probably right about that," Mandy agreed. "He's kind of a mean old man."

"It's not like it's anyone's business if I spend the night with a man," Mary grumbled. "I was in the middle of a hot dream of Don when Darin just walked into it. Since I already knew him, I let him get lucky last night."

"You mean you were thinking about Don and doing it with Darin?" Mandy asked with surprise as if she had never heard of fantasizing.

"Yea. Haven't you ever fantasized?" Mary smiled. "It was fantastic too! That is until I called him Don while I was still sleeping." With a sigh, she added, "I blame this all on the full moon last night. Everything was so crazy last night you and Robby fighting and all. I wonder if this is the kind of wild full moon that, Jesus was put to death under. It was the same month the first full moon of the Spring Equinox. Maybe that's what's going to happen to me now," she commented moving out the couch for Mandy to sweep under it. "It's not that I'm comparing myself to Jesus, it's just that I feel I'm being judged just as unfairly that's all. He was also judged unfairly so that is the similarity."

"Have people been that hard on you here?" Mandy asked.

"I've been called every derogatory name in the book here," she complained for the first time. "People have been whispering behind my back thinking I don't hear them. And, the things they're saying, are judgments on a person, they know nothing about. Not one of the whispers have ever bothered to come right out and ask me, who I am, what I'm doing or anything else about me. Then there are all those idiots at the bar. All they want is a piece of ass. Now they're all saying that I'm selling myself and that's not true, either. So, you can clearly see, that I'm being judged without anyone bothering to find out the facts. You're the only one that hasn't done that to me. And, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that, Mandy. You've been a real friend."

When they finished sweeping and mopping the floor with cold water, Mary and Mandy loaded her things into the trunk of her car then Mary took one last look around, making sure she wasn't leaving anything behind. They had even scrubbed the toilet and sink in the bathroom with cleaning products that Mandy brought over. The apartment was clean.

"Well I'd better go let ole' grouchy pants know that I'm done in here," Mary commented smiling half-heartedly. "I'll stop back to let you know what happens."

Taking a deep breath as she stepped up to the landlord's door, she knocked. "Well the place is all clean. I did the best I could with cold water," she informed him.

"You wait here and I'll go check it out," he ordered and left Mary with his wife.

"Why did you let that man spend the night?" his wife and Balinda's mother asked as if she were disappointed in her.

"I have been having such a hard time since Stony left and I just needed someone to hold me," Mary explained. "Surly as a woman you can understand that can't you?"

"Yes, I can understand that feelin'," she replied sympathetically. "I'm really not the one pushin' to get you out of here it's my husband. My daughter Balinda has done the same thing as you are . . . travelin' around. I know sometimes it, just gets too hard to handle alone. You seem like a real nice young woman, just a little lost right now."

"Well if I could be sure my car would make it home I'd go," she admitted wiping away the tears that began to fall. "But all the tires are bald and have a bunch of plugs in them and it needs a good tune-up. Trouble is, everyone wants to take it out in trade to fix it. I'm not willing to trade what they wanted so it never got done."

"You could sell it and get a Greyhound bus ticket home," she suggested.

"I’ve gotten pretty attached to that car," Mary admitted. "I want to drive it home. Everything else has been taken from me since I've been gone, I couldn't take going home without the only thing I have left that's worth something. It's rusty and old but when it's tuned up, it runs even in the fifty below weather we get in Minnesota. I'm going to find a way to get home with my car."

At that moment the landlord returned grumbling, "You didn't clean out the refrigerator."

"Oh I'm sorry. I never even had any food in it so it couldn't be that dirty," Mary reasoned.

"When they shut off your lights the moisture in there condensed into water that is standing in there and now is molding," he complained. "I have a good mind not to give you back part of your rent."

"If you have a bucket of hot water and some bleach, I'll go back and clean it out," she offered quickly wanting to show them, her intentions were good.

"There's no way she can do a decent job of cleaning without hot water," his wife stepped in to defend her situation. At this point, she remained quiet and let them argue it out.

"Here's forty five dollars of your rent back," he said handing her the money. "If you’re smart, you'll buy a bus ticket home."

"Thank you," she replied without offering him an explanation while taking the money and shoving it deep into her front pocket. "Can I check my mail box? I'm expecting a letter from my dad and I haven't checked it in a couple of days."

"When you're done bring the keys back here," he said gruffly.

"I will," she replied sliding out the door. Her father's letter was there with a short note saying ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss. Neither do travelers. Go back home Honey. Love Dad.’ He had included a check for forty dollars.

After dropping the keys off at the landlord's Mary went to tell Mandy, all about her adventure with him. "I think he just has to keep a rough exterior. His wife can reason with him pretty well but he's got a soft side too."

"Am I going to see you again?" Mandy asked with sad eyes.

"I've got a couple of options that I can check out," Mary said. "If I find a place to stay I'll come see you and let you know where I am. If Darin does come back, tell him thanks for nothing. I'll see you later. I've got to go look around," then left before she began crying again.

With all her clothes dirty again, Mary drove to the Collegedale laundry mat she had located, and loaded up three washing machines with everything she had with her. She wanted to wash that experience out of her clothes, even if she couldn't wash it off her body. Even her sleeping bag and underwear were going to be clean.

Sitting and watching the hypnotic movement of the front loaders wash her clothes; she needed a plan for her next move. Listing the pros and cons, for each offer that might still be open to her. There was Terrell, who was telling people that she was selling her body. "That eliminates him," then checked him for a big negative. She could have her own room; that was a plus. He would want her when he wasn't busy with his other women. Negative. "Two out of three negatives" she commented quietly. "He's out."

Then she would consider her first offer, Jammie. Pluses- She had known him the longest. She would have her own room there. She didn't have to give him anything sexual, she hoped. He knew Stony too and that she had come there with him. On the negative side, she saw that apparition of what looked demonic surrounding his person when he was high. I can deal with the demons better than I can deal with what Terrell has in mind, Mary reasoned inwardly. She knew from her religious upbringing that if you call on God in the name of Christ Jesus, they couldn't take you over. She could do that. She didn't want to have sex anymore; she wanted to hold out for something real. Jammie's was the best offer going. Still she didn't want to go there too early in the day. She would wait until dinnertime, catch a meal, a shower, wear some clean clothes, spend the night, and think about what she would do in the morning.

Sitting in a café in Collegedale, Mary tried to get her lunch down past the knots, which had temporally returned to her stomach. She needed to be rescued and prayed that God would come back to her and keep her safe even in the Devil's house.