Great expectations for a family: Mary regrets her job loss: Mary's life excursions 12.

 If only she hadn't lost her job.  Dull and unrewarding as it was Mary liked heading off each day and the routine involved.  She hadn't really cared that she was the typing dog's body, one whom no-one appreciated.  You see Mary had never had great expectations for life and small as her family was, before her parents died, she, at least did have a family.  Then her great Uncle's unexpected bequest had come along and thrilled as Mary was to now have her own home and garden in the tiny village which time seemed to have forgot, time was hanging on her hands, and she longed for the rush and bustle of city life, one with which she was entirely familiar and in her rented apartment she had neighbours close by.  Not that they ever talked much but they would smile and say hello and they knew her name was Mary, not luv, or dear, or darlin'.  Mary missed them.

There were great people in this small village but so many of them seemed so old and Mary just could not get used to the idea, she felt such an outsider, as she most certainly was and she was lonely to a degree which she'd never thought possible before.

Surely she must have some other unknown relatives somewhere but she had no knowledge of them and now that mum, dad and Uncle Cyril had passed on, she had no-one to ask.

It was with a sad heart that she went off to explore the shopping area once again.

Last time she'd gone around that funny little corner and down that ancient street she'd found another park and the children and parents had completely captured her as well as the ducks and birds wandering around looking for food scraps.  Mary did love the open air and the fact that there were no high risers here, everything was so flat and very spread out like some big variegated tapestry each portion of which held a small capsule of village life.

But to-day she ignored the park and found some old dilapidated shops, if they could be called that, the area was not well cared for and although they seemed to sell things, all the places looked dingy and she hesitated to go inside.

On one small corner, though, there was a little dress shop and with the garments in the window adding a touch of colour Mary decided to go in.

There was a reasonably young woman there who introduced herself as the owner, Tilly, and she was very solicitous at enquiring what Mary was actually after.

Mary had to confess she wasn't after anything in particular but it was good to know there was a dress shop there, and Tilly explained how all the local girls would come for their dresses for the country dances and shoes and accessories too.

Suddenly Mary decided she'd like a couple of nice dresses, all she currently had were business suits which weren't the most attractive of garments and she was getting a bit fed up with casual clothes on a daily basis.

Tilly had her trying on dresses in no time and was really very helpful with colours and designs pointing out to Mary what suited her and what accessories would look nice.

She simply wanted things suitable for everyday but she still wanted to look nice and Tilly told her of the local Avon agent who sold make-up. Asking for Mary's address she told Mary that she'd get Susie to call on her.  Susie was obviously the Avon agent and Mary thought it was time she started making the most of her appearance.

Bravely she asked Susie what facilities there were for hairdressing services as by now Mary's hair was getting quite long and she often just tied it back so it would not fall in her eyes.

There was a local hairdresser for ladies but she came in to the village on Friday's only and Tilly took Mary outside and showed here where to head to take her to the salon, but she re-iterated that she'd need to come back on a Friday.

Mary ended up with three dresses, three pretty pairs of shoes and a variety of necklaces and wrist adornments and several brooches.  She was thrilled to bits to have such pretty clothes and was quite beside herself with the realisation that she no longer had to worry about what she could afford.  Not that anything in the shop was extravagantly priced.  Tilly knew her market.

Clutching her purchases in the new bag she had bought and the dress bags Tilly had carefully folded her new dresses into Mary thought she'd just go down that street a bit further to see what she could discover.

Talking to Tilly who could not have been much older than herself had lifted her confidence and she felt she could cope with whatever new experience evolved.

Presently she came to a rather large shop front with a sign over its entrance way stating "Farmer's supplies". That sign looked very old indeed. Mary wondered just what it meant but decided to go in anyway.

She wandered around looking at the many strange contraptions and the large bags of produce which must have been for chick food etc she guessed and found she really did not like the smell of the place but still she allowed herself to go right down to the end where she found another entrance into a side of the building which was light filled and spacious and had a huge glass window looking out onto the street and another door into the back lane, although how people found their way there was lost on Mary.

It also smelt a bit better but she felt reminded of the smell emerging from a local pet shop in the city which always seemed to have a doggy smell about it, no matter how clean and well tendered the animals were.

She came across a cage full of kittens but divided so they were not all in together, they seemed to be separated by their litters.

One ginger one took her eye, he was just such a frisky little thing and played expertly with the little ball game with which they were provided.  She was just so taken with his skills and he responded instantly to her as she put her fingers through the cage. It had to be a boy surely it just seemed so much more athletic than the other ones.

In the same cage there was another little white and ginger ktten and this one was just so gentle in comparison May decided it must have been the other one's sister.

She found herself talking about the animals with a young man in the shop and they went together to have a look at some of the other animals.

But, inevitably she was drawn back to the original kittens she had spotted.

Although she'd been thinking of a dog it was now kittens she was enticed by and the young man turned out to be the shop assistant.  He had a charm all of his own and a glib tongue.

Mary said she'd love a kitten but she didn't know the first thing about caring for them or what she'd need and how about a vet, was there one in town?

Anyway, to cut a short story short Mary had been informed of the local vet, had been supplied with every little luxury a cat could think of, food, kitty litter and the promise of delivering her two chosen kittens at the end of the day when the shop closed. 

Mary returned home full of excitement and busied herself around the house trying to work out where she'd locate her new little friends and family.  Now Mary was not quite so alone in the world nor so short of pretty dresses.