A Mentor For Molly

[Charity]

Written by Charity-youth and teens literature


Be sure to check back each week for added chapters.
I hope you will enjoy reading this book.
In Christ,
Charity (email me for my real name for "Charity" is my internet name)

[Charity]

A MENTOR FOR MOLLY

Written by Charity

June 24, 2004




Dedicated to my family, God and Homeschoolers everywhere.

[Charity]

CHAPTER ONE





The little alarm clock on the night table rang loudly, waking Molly Munrow from a beautiful dream she had been having. It was 6:00 A.M. and time to get up and ready for school. Molly quickly turned off the clock and rolled over in bed throwing her pillow over her head. She had hoped that she could go back to sleep and finish that lovely dream, that wonderful happy dream that existed in another place and in another time. After a minute or two she slowly focused and sat up in bed, stretching and yawning and then rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A new day had come and with it came anticipation and excitement.
Molly sat there for a while and looked out her bedroom window as a little song bird was feeding her newly hatched babes a freshly captured worm. She had watched this little bird build it’s nest not long ago in the high branch of the big poplar tree just eye level of her bedroom window. She had even given the busy little bird the name “Twiggy”, because as she watched the bird build it’s nest, it used little twigs it had brought with each return flight. Just now Twiggy was a very busy mom feeding her hatchlings and Molly remembered how her own mother would make pancakes each morning for her. Those days were memories that molly would always hold dear to her heart. The way her mom would gently kiss her on the cheek each morning and softly say, “wake up little blue-bird and rise to meet the morning sun”. Suddenly Molly felt that deep sadness return to her soul as she thought about the fact that she would never hear those words again from her mother.
Molly’s mother had died four years ago in a terrible car accident. Molly was only eight years old at the time. Mrs. Munrow had left behind a loving husband and two loving children.

The little Munrow family now consisted of James Munrow, a loving but heartbroken father and eleven year old Molly and her sixteen year old brother Mike. Megan Munrow had been the glue that held her family together. Her untimely death had devastated the Munrow family. They say that “time heals all wounds”. After almost four years passing since the accident, there seemed to be no healing at all.
Suddenly Mike swung open the door to Molly’s room causing her to snap out of her morning splendor. “Get Up”, Mike pronounced, “Im hungry and we’re going to be late for school if we don’t get going”. Molly gave Twiggy one more glance and jumped out of bed yelling at Mike to get out of her room. She opened her closet to find just the right outfit to wear for the day, slipped on her new jeans she had bought at a popular teen girls clothing store last week and found her pink shirt she loved. She was dressed and ready for the day.
Downstairs in the kitchen her dad sat at the table reading the newspaper only slightly wet from the paperboy once again throwing the publication in the front yard birdbath rather than landing it on the front porch. “That paperboy will never play baseball”, her dad pronounced as he searched the front page news. James Munrow spent a great deal of time these days, wrapped up in his work and political activities as a representative of the local union through his job at the motor company. He was a big man with blue soulful eyes that seemed to be looking for answers when you looked at him. For the last four years he had seemed so distant and far away. He stayed gone so much these days and Molly enjoyed the mornings because it was the only time she really got to see him.
“Morning daddy” she said cheerfully as she made her way to the kitchen cabinet. “What would you like for breakfast today”?, she asked as she took down the big yellow mixing bowl from the cupboard. She made pancakes each morning just like her mom used to, but she always asked what he would like anyway, knowing it would be the same. “Pancakes will be good”, he said and Molly smiled and put the griddle on the stove. Molly was eleven going on thirty and very wise for her young age. Her birthday was coming up next week. She had gotten very good at running the household and taking care of her father and brother. Mike came into the kitchen and sat down with his dad and waited for Molly to bring him and their father breakfast. The pancakes were great as usual and they ate quietly until their plate was empty.
Mike was a very strong willed young man and turning sixteen had given him the freedom to drive which took the burden from their father to have to do. Mike now had his drivers permit and he was very proud of this fact. He was even more proud of the 1967 Mustang he had restored that had belonged to his mother. It was now his job to drive Molly and himself to school and any other events that may arise. He had a part time job at a local fast food diner on the weekends and sometimes after school, so he always had money of his own. He was becoming a very independent young man indeed.
After the breakfast dishes had been loaded into the dishwasher, Molly sat down for a few more minutes with her dad and brother to make an announcement. “Today I meet my new mentor at school”, she proclaimed. She had been assigned a mentor at school and had told her dad about it weeks ago. He had forgotten and looked up from his paper with a puzzled look. “What is a mentor”?, he asked. Molly once again explained to him that the school had a new program where adults from outside the school volunteered to spend a few hours a week with children who had asked to be in the program. The program was to help kids in school who do not have both parents or are having problems in school. “What problems are you having Molly, I did not know you were having problems”, her dad said rather gruffly. Molly said she really just wanted to be in the program because it sounded fun, like having an adult buddy or a woman that she could talk to. “You have me”, her father once again said gruffly and now had laid down his newspaper. Molly could see her dad was getting irritated once again as he had many times before when Molly mentioned this mentor thing. “It’s just for school dad”, she said and assured him there is nothing to worry about. James Munrow knew he had been neglecting both his children lately. He had not been at meetings every night with the union like Molly and Mike thought he was. James Munrow was spending most his evenings with a bottle of whisky down at the lake where his wife’s Van had plummeted off the bridge that fateful night. He hoped his children would never know how deeply into depression he had sunk. He was not kidding anyone , they knew, everyone knew for that matter.
“Whatever you want to do “, he said finally as Molly sat there waiting for approval. He could see that this meant a lot to her, even though he had no idea what a mentor really was. “Just make sure it does not interfere with your other priorities”, he said. She assured him that the mentor program was a good thing and it would help her with her school work and her dad was satisfied with her response. She handed him the paper about it and it said that the school had this program in which adults from around the area would spend at least one hour per week with their assigned student for grades 4, 5 and 6. There was a permission slip attached and he quickly signed it and picked his morning paper up again and turned the page.


MORE TO COME.......

[Charity]

Molly was happy this morning and content that her father had given his permission, even though he did seem less than interested. One more kiss and hug to her dad and she snatched up the paper he had just signed and stuffed it into her book bag. Mike was getting restless and announced that it was time to leave for school. “We’ll see you in the morning dad”, Molly shouted as they both scampered out the door. James Munrow watched his children as they drove off. When he no longer could see the blue Mustang in sight, he slipped a bottle from his briefcase and grabbed a dirty glass from the sink and poured himself a glass of 100 proof courage. He could feel himself slowly slipping away into oblivion. How would he be able to keep living this way? His mind wandered to a time when there was laughter in the house. Laughter and happiness seemed so far away. Tears began to fill the eyes of James Munrow. He lowered his head and let them come, only when he was alone could he let himself cry.
As Molly waved goodbye to Mike, she turned to face the front door of Lincoln Elementary School. Filled with anticipation, she hurried off to her classroom. Mrs. Johnson, Molly’s teacher, greeted her at the door of the room just as the last bell was ringing. “Good morning Miss Munrow, you were almost late again”, Mrs. Johnson proclaimed in a voice louder than Molly would prefer as Molly e quickly moved to her desk and sat down.
“Settle down now class”, shouted Brenda Johnson, a middle aged heavy-set, no nonsense woman with short greying hair and green piercing eyes. She took the roll call and told her students to pass their homework to the front table and return to their seats quickly. A few announcements came over the loudspeaker about an upcoming Sadie-Hawkins dance and that students needed to stop lingering in the halls after classes had begun. After the loudspeaker had gone silent, Mrs. Johnson said in a much more silent tone, “Ok class, I guess we’ll say the pledge of allegiance now, if we must. She did not look very happy about saying the pledge and each morning it was the same look. Her lack of enthusiasm seemed to be infectious to the students who had become accustom to her irascible attitude toward the pledge or the moment of silence. She had a way of letting her students know that under no uncertain terms, she did not agree with or appreciate having to go through these archaic motions. As the pledge was recited, there was not much emotion or dedication from this classroom at all. The children took their seats afterwards and waited for their teacher to speak. Mrs. Johnson then directed Molly and several other children to go to the lunchroom where people were waiting to talk to them. Molly knew that her mentor and other mentors were waiting there to be assigned.
Molly picked up her book bag and scurried out the door, making sure she walked quietly down the hall to the lunchroom. When she arrived she and other students were greeted by Mr. Silas the school principle. He instructed the students to have a seat at a very large table. At another table there were about twenty adults that Molly had never seen before. She knew that one of those people would be her new mentor. She was so excited.
Soon the children’s names were called and they were matched up with their assigned adults. . “Molly Munrow, this is your new mentor Miss. Bradbury”, principle Silas announced. Molly smiled as she looked up into this sweet, kind face. Miss. Bradbury was a pretty woman with a gentle voice and long flowing brown hair. She had big blue eyes and when she smiled, it seemed she was happy all over. She looked at Molly and Molly looked back at her. They both smiled and shook hands and Molly could see in this woman’s eyes, that they were going to be friends.



END OF CHAPTER ONE

[momof6]

You are a woman of many talents . Can't wait to read the chapters to come. Happy writing ;D

[momof6]

ever thought of getting published? i'm not kidding i really think you should try

[Charity]

Ahh shucks what a nice thing to say, thank you.

I don't really think I am good enough. I know I have a lot of rough edges, but I do love to write. I will put more up soon. My son's birthday is in a few days and we just finished BB season, so I am kinda lazy right now.

Who knows, maybe one day I will get better with practice. I have a lot of good ideas for books.
Thanks again for the compliment.

[momof6]

from looking at the views(37) I am not the only one anxiously waiting for the next chapter to "Molly". You know how it is when you start reading a good book.....hard to put down . Keep up the good work Charity.

[Charity]

These last couple of weeks have been so hectic with VBS and other things, I have not had much time to get the next chapter up. I promise to try yo get it up in the next few days. So glad you like it. Most of the book is finished, it's just a matter of transposing it here because when I wrote it, I did it on a typewriter and did not put it on disk. I have since learned to put everything on disk.

[momof6]

come on........don't keep us in suspense I have patiently waited for the rest of this book.....now I am stomping my feet ;)Looking forward to the end.

Love ya

[Charity]

:-) Ok you are right I have been slack on this. I will try to get on it soon. :-)

[Charity]

CHAPTER 2



Miss Marjory Bradbury had a kind and gentle face. Her thrity-six years on earth had been good to her. Marjory had long soft brown hair that ended at the small of her back and slightly flipped up at the end, gving her the appearance of an adult porcelain doll. Her soft white complexion made her doll-like face even more profound. Marjory had never been married and had always prayed for a child. She had been told years ago that she could never have children and since she had never been married, she had never really put it to the test. It seemed as though her destiny would be to help other people's children. She had so much love to give and had high hopes that the mentor program would give her an outlet in which to help at least one child.
Molly and Miss Bradbury talked for over an hour. They were so surprised to learn how much they had in common. Miss Bradbury had lost her mother at an early age just like Molly had. Miss Bradbury had never known her father and had been raised in foster care for much of her life. One thing that really excited Molly was that Marjory Bradbury also sang and played the guitar. Molly had always dreaamed of being a country-western singer one day. Miss Bradbury agreed to give Molly guitar and singing lessons starting as soon as possible. They were off to a great start and little did either one of them know at the time, but a long and lasting relationship as well.

The day had been long and exhausting for Mr. Munrow. After leaving work at 7:00 P.M. , he had had to attend a union meeting at the local 108. It was nearly midnight by the time he had made it home. He looked in on the kids and they were sleeping soundly. As he kissed the sleeping Molly on the cheek, he noticed a piece of paper clutched in her little hand. Written on the paper was the name and telephone number of a Miss Bradbury and he wondered who that could be. He took the paper and placed it on the little table next to Molly's bed and with one more loving look, he turned off the light and left the room.


Molly had left a cold hamburger in the usual place for her father to eat for dinner but tonight Mr. Munrow could not muster up an appetite. Tonight he had decided that his dinner would be in the liquid form so he made his way into the den to find his bottle. Finally after 3:00 A.M. , he passed out at the desk where he had been sitting. For the rest of the night James Munrow would have many terrible dreams and wake up in a cold sweat. Waking in a panic, the memory of the last nightmare lingered as he replayed that awful car wreck in his mind. If only he and Megan had not had that terrible fight just before she left the house that night. If only he had not been gone so much and never giving Megan a reason to be angry. If only he knew that would be the last time he would ever see her again.

[Charity]

I have finished this book but still have not edited it. I am lazy.

[Charity]

Gosh it's been a while LOL I did actually finish this book but with so many irons in the fire getting it published has just not been on the front burner. My husband even illustrated it and very well I might add. I need to get busy I know.