Quilt By Association

Mavis opened the door when Harriet and Beth arrived at DeAnn's.

'Come on in, the party's just getting started.'

She ushered them into a greatroom-style family room. Connie sat on a beige overstuffed sofa with Kissa in her lap. DeAnn's two sons were dangling toys in front of Iloai, and for the moment, it was keeping her distracted.

DeAnn entered the room, combing her wet hair with her fingers. She'd obviously just gotten out of the shower.

'Thanks for coming,” she said to the group in general.

'Aiden should be here any minute,” Harriet said.

'He's here,” Aiden said from the door to the family room. “I knocked, but no one answered, so I let myself in.'

'Please, come in,” DeAnn said and ushered him to an overstuffed chair at an angle to the sofa the babies were sitting on. He avoided eye contact with Harriet.

He rattled off a string of words Harriet assumed were Lugandan-she spoke seven languages, but she'd never tackled any of the African tongues. Iloai kept batting at the toy DeAnn's son was holding in front of her, but Kissa turned and looked at Aiden.

'Mata?” he said and looked at Kissa.

'Cupa,” she babbled and reached toward him.

'Does she have a bottle?” he asked Connie.

She handed him a plastic bottle of milk, and he held it in front of first Iloai then Kissa.

'Hina,” said Iloai in a clear little girl voice.

'Cupa, cupa,” Kissa said in an increasingly frantic tone.

Aiden handed her the bottle. He looked at Iloai and pointed at his mouth.

'Mumwa,” he said.

Iloai looked at him and, again in her clear little voice, said, “Ngutu.'

Connie pulled a second bottle from Kissa's diaper bag and handed it to Iloai. The little girl took it and started drinking from it.

'I'm sure she drinks from a cup by now, but children often regress when they're stressed, especially in the presence of a smaller child.'

DeAnn sat down beside Iloai and slowly eased the child onto her lap. The little girl nestled into her arm and drank from the bottle.

Aiden sat back in his chair and tented his fingers, resting his chin on them. After a few moments, he sat forward again.

'Okay,” he began. “I'm no expert in linguistics, but this one…” He pointed at Kissa, who was now dozing in Connie's arms. “She seemed to understand what I was saying, to the degree you can tell what babies understand. I was saying milk and bottle.

'That one,” he said, pointing to Iloai, “didn't react to the Lugandan words but countered with other words I didn't recognize. I'm not fluent in the other two languages spoken in Uganda, but I'm familiar enough with them I don't think she was speaking either of them.'

'So, what does that mean?” DeAnn asked.

'It means we were sold a bill of goods,” DeAnn's husband said. He had slipped into the room unnoticed.

'I wouldn't jump to conclusions based on what I say,” Aiden said. He stood up. “Hi, David,” he said and offered his hand. DeAnn's husband shook it.

'Thanks for coming by and trying to help. Iloai here is having a real rough time, and we're at a loss about what to do for her.'

'For what it's worth-and keep in mind, this is just based on my own experience in Uganda, and Africa's a big place,” Aiden said. “But I've seen a lot of Ugandan children, and Iloai doesn't look like them. She doesn't really look African to me.'

'That's strange,” Harriet said. “If she isn't from Africa, why would it matter? Why wouldn't they just say where she was from?'

'That's exactly what we'll be asking Joseph at Little Lamb in the morning,” David said.

'He should be able to settle things quickly enough,” Aunt Beth said. “Maybe they just made a mistake with her paperwork.'

'Or maybe she just doesn't look typical for her region,” Aiden offered. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” He looked at DeAnn and then David. They both shook their heads. “Sorry I couldn't be more help.” He stood up. “I've got a dog I need to check on,” he said, contradicting what he'd told Harriet earlier, and left.

Mavis got up and followed him out. She was gone for a few minutes.

'Aiden would like to speak to you outside,” she told Harriet when she returned, and sat down in the chair he had vacated.

Harriet felt a mixture of anger and humiliation. This was the part of small-town life she hated. Her aunt's friends all felt like they had the right to interfere in her personal life.

Still, it wasn't going to help the two little girls for her to cause a scene by refusing to go, so she picked up her purse and left. If she were to be honest with herself, she didn't like being at odds with Aiden and really did want an opportunity to talk to him, but she'd wanted it to be his idea.

He was leaning against her car when she came through the front door and onto the porch. He was staring at the toe of his shoe as if some alien life form were emerging from it. His silky black hair had fallen forward over his eyes.

'You want to go get a cup of coffee?” he asked when he finally looked up.

'Sure,” she said, and followed him to his vintage Ford Bronco.

Chapter 23

'How are the dogs doing?” she asked when they were in the car and Aiden had pulled away from the curb.

'Most of them will rebound. They all have skin lesions of one sort or another. Most of them have dental problems that are a result of poor nutrition, poor conditions and, in some cases, poor bloodlines. One of the reasons we brought them back is so we could clip and shave them under better conditions.'

'Why do people do that to animals?” Harriet said.

'I don't know-it's an illness. The weird part is that the people don't look crazy to the outside world. These people in Ephrata worked outside the home, and I bet if you asked people they worked with, they wouldn't have a clue.'

Harriet started to relax. It felt good to be talking to him about normal things again, not that dog hoarding could be considered normal. But it was his job, and she liked hearing him talk with such passion about it.

'The local authorities might not have found this situation if it hadn't been for an alert UPS driver. The family worked hard at keeping people away from their house. The kids were homeschooled, and they weren't allowed to have friends over.

'The mistake they made was letting the kids have computer access. One of them ordered a video game and gave the street address and-enter the UPS guy. The parents were out, and the kid answered the door. The driver took one whiff and called nine-one-one. He thought he was reporting a child welfare case, and I guess he was, but he had no idea what was inside the house and in the outbuildings around it.'

'I'm so sorry, Aiden. This must be awful for you.'

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the coffee shop. He'd driven them to The Steaming Cup, the same place she'd had her phone altercation with Neelie. She watched his face as he parked in the small lot, looking for any indication he'd done it on purpose, but she saw none.

She ordered a hot caramel apple cider at the counter.

'That sounds good,” Aiden said. “I'll have the same thing.'

A group of teenagers were sprawled on the upholstered chairs, so he led her to a table across the room. He