Mary Bloom, the good sister, rose early on Saturday morning and made a big breakfast for the Bloom family and for Roderick, who had slept over. She made great stacks of pancakes, bacon, scrapple and sausage, and served everyone at the big table in the dining room. Mr. and Mrs. Bloom sat at each end; Roderick and Molly on one side; Mary, Margaret and Catherine on the other. Mr. Fuzzums sat on Catherine's lap.
Mr. Bloom lifted his fork to eat, but Mary stopped him. "Let's say Grace", she said, and held out her hands. Everyone paused and grasped the hands of those sitting on either side. "For this bountiful table, we have nobody to thank except ourselves, especially me, since I did the cooking. Amen."
"Amen!" said everyone except Margaret, who rarely speaks, and Mr. Fuzzums, who speaks only to Catherine.
"What a lovely Grace", said Mrs. Bloom, as she passed the scrapple. "Did you learn that in Sunday School?"
Mary nodded and offered the platter of pancakes to Mr. Bloom, who piled several on his plate and passed the platter on to Roderick. "Pass the maple syrup, please?" he asked.
Roderick took three pancakes and passed the platter to Molly, who took six. As he served himself, he spoke across the table to Mary. "How's your bottom today?"
"Much better, thank you", said Mary, and she wiggled slightly in her chair to demonstrate the point.
Mr. Bloom had lifted a bite of sausage to his lips, but paused. "Was something wrong with your..?" He wasn't sure if it was polite to say "bottom" at the breakfast table, so he left the sentence unfinished.
"Miss Agassiz spanks me when I make mistakes in Science class", said Mary, a little ruefully.
Mrs. Bloom looked thoughtful. "What an interesting teaching method!"
"Yes", said Mary. "It keeps my mind focused".
Everyone agreed that it is a good thing to have a focused mind, and that the possibility of a spanking would tend to accomplish this.
Mr. Bloom wanted to change the subject from the state of Mary's bottom. He looked at Roderick. "So...have you and Molly finally...?"
Roderick didn't quite understand the question. Actually, he understood exactly what Mr. Bloom was asking, but wasn't sure how to respond, and stalled for time.
Mr. Bloom asked more explicitly: "Did you two have sex last night?"
Roderick looked at Molly. "Did we?"
Molly shook her head. "I don't think so", she said, in a manner that seemed to say that even if they had done so it wouldn't have been all that important.
Roderick looked back at Mr. Bloom. "I guess not."
"Damn!" said Mr. Bloom, slapping the table. He wasn't mad, just surprised. "When I was your age, I couldn't keep my hands off June. We used to sneak off from Sunday School and..."
"Henry! " Mrs. Bloom interrupted. "We didn't meet until just after college. Remember? Paris? Right after graduation?"
Mr. Bloom looked a little nonplussed. An advertising man, he is a great communicator and loves the "big idea", but tends to be factually challenged at times.
Mary sniffed. "Sex before marriage is sinful", she said, fingering her "V" necklace. Mary really believes this, she simply makes an exception if the sex is for money, or if it's sort of accidental. Roderick isn't sure whether he agrees with Mary, but he admires the way she stands for something.
Molly got up and left the table to get ready for karate. Roderick helped Mary clear the table and load the dishwasher, then offered to help her with her homework. They sat down at the kitchen table with Mary's History and Science books and started to work.
Roderick noticed that Mary was sitting very, very close to him, and that she was wearing her "schoolgirl" outfit, which he thought odd because it was a Saturday.
They worked on World History first, a worksheet about the Paleolithic Agricultural Revolution. Mary is hopeless at History, primarily because she declines to read the text. "History is sinful", she likes to say. "I don't like to read about unpunished sex before marriage".
Roderick thought it would be easier if he just did the History homework himself, so he set Mary to work on her Science problems. Mary is much better at Science, primarily due to the influence of Miss Agassiz's uniquely motivating teaching method.
They both finished in about twenty minutes. Roderick offered to go through the History with Mary, but she declined, wrinkling her nose the way she does when she thinks about unpunished sex before marriage. He checked her Science homework, and found that she had done a pretty good job, except that she had the wrong answer for problem three.
"Are you going to spank me?", asked Mary when Roderick showed her the mistake.
"Um...no". Roderick likes Mary's sense of discipline, but prefers not to be the disciplinarian.
"But I made a mistake and need to be spanked!"
"Well.." Roderick stalled for time. "Maybe when you're sixteen. I have to go now."
Mary pouted, but did not press the matter. She thanked Roderick for helping with her homework, walked him to the front door and lingered on the porch. He looked back and waved. She waved back shyly, mouthing the word "Goodbye".
She ran next door and made breakfast for Mrs. Peacock, then helped her to the sun room. They were about to read Elsie Dinsmore, when Mrs. Peacock interjected.
"Is something the matter dear?"
"Well..." Mary wasn't sure how to begin.
"You can tell me anything, dear".
Suddenly, Mary burst into tears. "I had a horrible week! It's not fair! I asked my Dad to pimp for me, but my Mom won't let him because she says I'm too young, and my Science teacher is really mean, she spanks me when I make mistakes, and there's this boy I really like who sleeps with my older sister, but he says he won't spank me until I'm older. It's so hard to be a teen."
Mrs. Peacock hugged her and consoled her. "There, there, my child", she consoled, stroking her hair. "I understand. I was a teen once, too."
Mary looked at her in surprise. "Really? You were?" It made her feel better knowing that Mrs. Peacock was once a teen.
They chatted awhile longer, then Mary read from Elsie Dinsmore. When Mrs. Peacock fell asleep, Mary returned home and retrieved her schoolwork from the kitchen. She added some spelling and grammar mistakes to the History homework to make it look authentic. Then she picked up her Science homework and thought about correcting problem three.
Leaving it uncorrected, she slipped the paper into her notebook.
