Within the small rural town of Crios Wyoming there is a family, which I have referred to several times previous.

The Scott Family.

Consisting of the (deceased) Claudia Scott, Damian Scott, (at the moment alive), Boy Scott, Juhn Scott, and Eve Scott.

Claudia, Damian, and Boy have a sister named Adrienne.

Adrienne is married to James Taylor. They have two daughters, Rosemary (Mary) and Rose.

Adrienne is not a bad mother, James is not a bad father, Mary is not a bad daughter, and Rose is not a bad sister.

But they are a bad family.

Adrienne works as a fashion designer, her work is sent to magazines such as Vogue, 17 Magazine, and other such things. She travels a lot, her husband is a photographer, so they have a stay at home nanny. A nanny can never take the place of a mother or a father.

Mary is a good daughter, she doesn’t want to be a burden to her parents, so she always does as she is told.

But you see, the trouble with Mary is…she does exactly as she’s told.

Wear this. Yes ma’am

Ugh. No, are you blind? Those clash horribly, change right now. Yes ma’am.

I can’t take you to school today, find someone else to take you, also I can’t give you an allowance just yet, there are these nice shoes I want to get. Yes ma’am.

I have to go to work tonight, I wont be able to take you to that study session of yours, cancel it. Yes ma’am.

You have a B+ in school! What’s wrong with you? You’re aunt Claudia has straight A+’s and you work twice as hard as her and you’re a better girl than that bitch will ever be! You’re grounded until this gets better. Yes ma’am.

This room is a mess! Clean it up right now! Homework? Forget it, I want my house clean. Fix this right now. Yes ma’am.

Mary your hair is so hideous, ugh those jeans, I told you those clash change! NOW! Yes ma’am.

Mary has interests and friends and hobbies, she just never gets to actually do them, not when her mother is around.

There is no time to draw, her mother thinks she’s horrible at it and is wasting both time and money on it. Better do something useful, like learn how to apply make up.

There is no time to go out with her friends after school, time, money, and effort is being blown away by the second she isn’t studying to beat her “bitch of an Aunt Claudia”.

There is no time to read, no time to play, no time to surf the net, no time for anything. There just isn’t time because time spent on that is time that could be used to “gain an advantage over Aunt Claudia”.

Adrienne and Claudia are sisters with a 20 year age difference. Adrienne has Eve’s hair (brown) and Juhn’s eyes (brown), Claudia has the better half of the gene pool with ebony hair and large onyx eyes.

Claudia has always been, of all her siblings, the smartest, most talented, and kindest.

To Damian she had been a muse, jam sessions every week together, inspiration for lyrics and songs, a sister he could rely on.

To Boy she had been his link to the world, his companion, his best friend, his other half.

To Eve she had been a daughter worth raising, sweet, caring, understanding, peaceful.

To Juhn she had been a student, someone he could pass all his knowledge onto.

To her friends she had been the glue that held them together.

To Hato she had been a confidant, someone who held all her secrets, her best friend.

What was Adrienne to all these people? A nuisance to her brothers, a disappointment to her father, and another daughter to her mother. To her friends she was the Queen B, she had no best friends.

Adrienne was jealous of Claudia, and yet…for all the jealousy and hate, she could not come to fully be angry at her little sister, even mourned her death.

When Claudia died Mary lost her purpose. To defeat “that evil bitch Aunt Claudia”, who, in Mary’s opinion, was a great aunt, if anything more of a sister/mother than her real sister and mother were.

And so her mother stopped telling her what to do, she was…forgotten. Instead she moved on to Rose who took an active interest in fashion and the word of design. Mary was left to her own devices, and for the first time in her life she lived. She shopped for her own clothes, she did her own hair, she read books, she worked on her art, she hung out with her friends, she surfed the net. Mary existed for Mary.

“Did you know Mary, that an artist’s social role is to be antisocial?” Black eyes bore deep into her own brown ones. Aunt Claudia smiled at her while wiping her face with a rag.

“Aunt Claudia you missed a spot, and what do you mean by that?” Claudia’s pale hands scratched at a spot of flour that had landed on her cheek.

“An artist said that, did you know, he also said that an artist has no responsibility to anyone but himself.” I tilted my head.

“And this matters…why?” I have never really hated my aunt…she’s such a mom.

“You know why.” The laughter that is usually held in those onyx eyes is gone. Her look is strong, fierce. I fake innocence.

“I do?” Her lips pull down in a frown. She resumes making whatever it is she’s making.

Two months after this conversation Ms. Claudia, as you know, is found dead. That was the last conversation between Claudia and Mary. Mary remembers that day vividly, she also remembers that during the funeral her mother cried. Her distant cousin came. She remembers that day well.

“How is Mary coping?”

“Not well…” How would she know? She hasn’t even looked at me.

“It’s so…surprising, why would Claudia run away like that? She had so much talent, she had a future…a bright future” Because no one ever listened, a feeling I know all too well.

“I know…Mary’ll probably end up like that as well” What?

“What?”

“Mary is just so…boring…she has no future.” Excuse me? Mom what are you saying?

“Surely she does! She likes to draw!”

“But she isn’t good at it, she doesn’t practice often enough.” You told me not to!

“She’ll learn in time”

“It’s more than just that, she’s…she’s such a slob…she’s dull. It’s just that…she’s Mary.”

Mom…you make it sound like being myself is nothing. I’m just Mary. You make it sound like being me is bad.

“At least Rose isn’t a bit like her sister, now she has promise” You’ll ruin her too, just watch Mom…just watch.

Mary has now graduated from high school. She’s gone to college, moved out of Crios and started her own life. She’s become famous as an artist, her greatest works being the ones she painted in Claudia’s honor, the blackbird trio.

She also has one more painting which has become world famous.

It is a canvas of white, going inward it slowly turns blue, within the blue there is a small pale girl with honey colored hair and large brown eyes, she’s standing drenched and her features are blurred. She is barefoot and her clothes are rags. Dangling from her hand is a toy rabbit. Everything is blurry as if rain soaks the viewer’s eyes. The only vivid thing is her eyes, her large brown eyes.

They ask “why?”

Why do you look at me like that?

Why am I here?

Why am I alone?

Why am I like this?

Why am I so drenched in rain?

Why does no one help me?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

You see, the trouble with Mary is that she does exactly what you tell her to do.

Claudia knows this so she tells Mary, “Someday, you should ask ‘Why’ instead of just doing”

Mary remembers, so she asks why.