Mary's Fire

The girls were standing in a circle in the field behind the school. Ms. Kotchya had just let them go a bit early for the day. The sun was bright but there air still had a chill. The meadow grass that they had walked through was damp, and the bottoms of their cotton dresses were wet. Their mothers would not be expecting them home for another hour, and they wanted to enjoy this freedom from endless chores. This freedom gave their minds a push and they were a bit giddy.

Natalia spoke up, "What do you want to do with your life?"

Mary's sister Anne replied, "I would like to move to a city."

Clara chimed in, "Me too. How about you Mary?"

They all looked at Mary. Mary looked at them and said simply "I guess I will get married, have children and work on a farm like my mother".

Clara protested, "Don't you want to go a city Mary?"

Anne said, "Why don't you want to go to a city Mary?"

Mary looked at Anne and without any rancor or challenge, and with a good-natured chuckle, she said, "Well, if you want to a city, then go."

"Mary," Natalia, said, "how can you know that is what you want to do?"

Mary said, "Well, that is what I know and it is what I will do.

In her mind, Mary had no doubts, she knew that nearly all the girls in the grades above them had been married and now lived on farms. Although there were a few who left the farm and went to city with their families and even rarer were, those girls who somehow went to the city on their own or with men that they had met.