David Lapage, Jr. has written several short stories and quite a few school papers. He has never been published and looks forward to the day he is. While not writing something he enjoys watching movies, tinkering in the garage, and geocaching. He is a huge fan of Local H and enjoys reading. He lives in Illinois with his wife and two cats.
You can find more of his work HERE.
MARY
by
David Lapage, Jr.
In a small town located in the southern part of Illinois, lived a woman named Mary. Mary Pippins is her full name, and she is aware of how close the name is to Mary Poppins, as it is a source of great agitation. When people jokingly refer to her as such, or when the mail comes mistakenly addressed to Ms. Poppins, Mary will roll her eyes and/or frown. Mary has a desire to be liked by others and will not say anything to correct them or risk confrontation even if she feels insulted.
Mary Pippins is a pretty, but plain-looking woman in her early forties. She has chestnut hair and a round, plump face. This goes well with her round, plump body. She wears oversized glasses that add to the spherical effect. Looking at Mary is like looking at a triple-scoop ice cream cone without the cone.
She wears sensible clothes with floral patterns. No logos or symbols. And if you were to run into her on the street you would think that she looked like a teacher or a librarian. You would be spot on with the second guess. Mary Pippins loves books. This is why she became a librarian. She loves the smell of old books and the quiet of the library.
Mary has many books in her one-bedroom apartment, mostly horror which is her favorite genre. She collects hardcovers, paperbacks, and trades. She has old magazines and PDFs of books that she printed from the library’s computer since she doesn’t have one of her own. The books are around the living room, down the hall, in her bedroom, and under the bed. Some on bookcases bought from Goodwill or garage sales. Others are arranged like Tetris blocks, stacked floor to ceiling.
Mary gets many books from the library on loan and does not have much time to read books from her collection. Most nights she can be seen sitting in her favorite chair, sipping cocoa, reading a new bestseller (before the library has even offered it to the public) and occasionally glancing around at her collection of books with pride and joy. It was on one of these nights that Mary made a shocking discovery and got smacked in the face by IT.
One night, Mary rested her weight in her favorite chair, a dumpster find, reading a copy of BETA by Sammy Scott. She was only sixty pages in, and she was sure that this was going to be her selection for the library’s display of “What the Librarians are Reading” this month. Everything was going so well for the main characters, and that pleased her.
As she turned a page her eyes wandered to the books around the room and her heart swelled with delight. A feeling that quickly deflated as she observed movement on one of her books. The book’s spine was black, so it was easy to see the quick little flash of sliver as something moved across the book and disappeared.
Mary set BETA down and slowly stood up, her chair groaning with relief, and adjusted her glasses. She walked across the room to inspect the book that had been trespassed upon. She could see nothing now. The book was sitting on the shelf just as it always had.
Mary shook her head and tossed it up to her seeing things, but as she turned away the silver thing appeared again. It was a bug. A tiny bug about half an inch long with antennae in the back and front. Its body was covered in what looked like fish scales. It was gross and Mary made a retching sound before closing her mouth and swallowing the vomit that threatened to come. It would not do to spew on her books.
The insect had once again disappeared, and Mary thought to ignore the whole incident and go to bed. “Things would be better in the morning,” she said. Had she done this her discovery may have been delayed for quite some time and I would not have this story to tell.
Mary did not go to bed but instead reached up to inspect the book with the black spine. It was a hardcover copy of The Association by Bentley Little and as she opened the book, bits of paper and dust fell out. Mary, fearing the worst, quickly opened the book to find shreds of paper like confetti and holes in the pages. As she thumbed through the book, she felt the cover board separate from the pages and the book come apart in her hands.
Panic gripped Mary as she dropped the two pieces of The Association and quickly grabbed the book that was next to Little’s. She discovered the damage was much the same and saw another bug on page 38. Both knees cracked loudly as Mary bent down to inspect the books on the lower shelves and found them to be in far worse shape with bugs inside them all.
Mary looked up to the top shelf, praying that they were ok. She pulled her favorite chair over and stepped up on it to reach the books up there. On tippy toes, she grabbed a hard cover of It by Stephen King and this proved to be just too much for the old chair. One rear leg snapped in half and Mary fell backwards with a cry. She landed on her back and her head slammed on the hardwood floor, knocking her out. The thousand-plus page book that was completely fine because the silverfish had not progressed up the bookcase that far yet or because silverfish don’t have an appetite for Stephen King (who’s to know?) came down and smacked Mary in the nose, breaking it. Unconscious and choking on her blood, Mary died.
An abrupt ending for Mary, but stories sometimes end that way. Just ask Paul Tremblay.
The End