Quilt By Association

Chapter 7

Harriet had planned to go straight home and back to her long-arm machine, but as she started to pull out of Aiden's driveway, she found herself turning the opposite direction, toward Lauren's place.

According to Aunt Beth, Lauren had joined the Loose Threads quilting group three years earlier. She'd been a beginner when she moved to Foggy Point and, unfortunately, had been taught by a quilter who had a very vague understanding of copyright as it applied to patterns and designs. It had taken the Loose Threads two of those three years to undo that bad early training and convince her that, if she wanted to create her own patterns, she couldn't start with someone else's copyrighted photo or drawing-rendering an image in fabric didn't erase the image owner's rights. Lauren had been convinced and was now attending classes in design and stitching at a folk art school in Angel Harbor.

In spite of her acerbic personality, and her tendency to blame Harriet for her quilting misfortunes, Lauren had high-level computer skills and, Harriet had to grudgingly admit, was good at crisis problem-solving.

Lauren lived in a large apartment over a wooden boat sale-and-repair business near the dock in Smuggler's Cove; she'd moved there the previous month. Harriet parked on the street and walked around the boat showroom to a flight of exterior stairs that led to an upstairs porch and Lauren's door. She savored the fish-tinged smell of the sea for a moment before reaching toward the wooden door.

It opened before she knocked.

'So, what do you want me to look up now?” Lauren asked without preamble. “Don't pretend this is a social call. You never come calling unless you want something. Let's have it.'

'Are you busy?” Harriet asked while she tried to think up a reason for her visit other than the real one, which was, in fact, to ask her to look something up on her computer.

'I'm always busy. What do you want?'

'After the last Loose Threads meeting, Aunt Beth and I stayed to look at fabric for functional dog quilts.'

'Can we move on to the part where I have to research something?” Lauren circled her hand to encourage Harriet to move along.

'I'm trying to tell you if you'd stop interrupting.'

Lauren performed her standard eye-roll but kept her mouth shut.

'As I was saying, Aunt Beth and I were at the quilt store after everyone else left, and a woman with a baby came in. She claimed she's brought her sister's baby to Aiden.'

'Why on earth would she do that?'

'She said her sister in Africa died and asked her to bring the baby to him.'

'Oh,” Lauren said in a louder voice. “So, Aiden has a kid we didn't know about, an African one, at that? How'd he explain it? I mean, the part about not telling anyone about it.'

'He didn't. He's out of town, and he doesn't have cell reception.'

'I suppose you want me to find the baby's birth certificate. That could be impossible, depending on whether the baby was born in a hospital or not.'

'Actually, we were wondering if you could check out the sister, the one who brought the baby here. And the mother, if you can.'

'We who were wondering?'

Harriet explained about Neelie showing up at Aiden's and the subsequent arrangements.

'This Neelie sounds like she's got a lot of nerve, trying to bully her way into Aiden's house while he's gone. Are you sure it's a good idea for her to be there with Carla? She's kind of a wimp. Who knows what she'll let the girl carry out of the place before he gets back.'

'Well, that would be why we were hoping you could check her out. She's very pushy. And she broke my cell phone, so if you need to reach me, either call on my business line or call Aunt Beth. Carla is worried about the baby. Mavis is going to call Terry and let him know what's going on.'

'Back up,” Lauren said. “She broke your cell phone?'

'You don't want to know.'

'It's probably a good idea about Terry. Here.” Lauren handed her a small tablet and a pen. “Write the names down and anything else you can think of. I'll see what I can find out.'

'Let me know as soon as you find anything.'

'The usual disclaimers apply.'

'I know, no promises, and your paying customers come first, etc., etc., etc…'

'Have you done your dog block yet?” Lauren asked, changing the subject.

'No, Phyllis gave me a last-minute rush job, and Mavis has the first piece of Joseph's quilt ready to go on my machine as soon as I get home.'

'I'm glad Robin or whoever it was decided we need a few more days. I'm playing with a doghouse block that's showing promise. I went to the senior home again this morning to help Sarah with a software problem, and she showed me hers. And yes, in spite of all her whining, she had a block done. Anyway, she's trying to do something with dog bones. I tried not to laugh, but her bones didn't look like bones, and I'm pretty sure her result would have to have an X rating.'

'Did you tell her that?'

'I laughed, and she stuffed it back into her bag. After that, she wasn't interested in anything I had to say. And I did try to be tactful.'

Harriet wished she could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.

'I like your new place,” she said as she started to leave.

'You want to stay for some tea?” Lauren asked. “I'll understand if you're too busy,” she added in a rush.

'I think I have a few minutes,” Harriet replied. “I'd love a cup of tea.” She set her purse down by Lauren's sofa and followed her into her kitchen.

Harriet hadn't planned on spending an entire hour, but Lauren was reaching out to her, and she couldn't ignore that. She was sipping her peppermint herb tea with clover honey when she realized that, in all the uproar of Neelie's arrival, she'd forgotten to check on Randy. It was unlikely she'd talk to Aiden before the shower, so she'd just add it to her ever-growing list of to-do items.

'Where have you been?” Aunt Beth asked when she finally came into her studio through the outside door.

'Having tea with Lauren.

'Don't you lie to me,” Beth scolded.

'I'm not, and what are you doing here, anyway. Not that I don't love seeing you anytime, but I wasn't expecting you, was I?” She set her purse on the floor by one of the wingback chairs in the small waiting area set up near the door.

'Mavis filled me in on the doings at Aiden's house. I wanted to hear your take on it, and since you don't have a cell phone anymore, I couldn't call and ask. Anyway, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that might come in handy on Mavis's quilt piece.'

'Have you been holding out on me?'

'Well, I can't tell you everything I know, now, can I? You might not need me anymore if I did that.'

'You know that will never happen.” Harriet put her arm around her aunt's shoulders and quickly filled her in on Neelie's arrival at Aiden's and Carla's decision to let the woman and child stay with her.

'Mavis is going to call Terry and let him know what's going on, and I stopped by Lauren's to see what she can find out about Neelie and her sister. She also told me she'd seen Sarah, and that Sarah's attempts at making a dog bone block hadn't gone too well.'

'I've been fiddling with novelty print fabrics with dog images on them,” Beth said. “The problem I'm running into is that none of the fabric companies make an extensive line of pet fabric that coordinates. I've collected half- yard cuts of every dog fabric on the market, and they're all over the map. I've got cartoon images, realistic dogs, pastel backgrounds, bright-colored backgrounds and everything in between. None of it goes together.'

'Remember that class we took where we cut four-inch squares and mixed them all up in a garbage bag and then blindly pulled them out and sewed them into four-patch blocks? It was supposed to prove there were no bad combinations.'

'Supposed to being the operative phrase there.” Beth sighed. “Trust me, my combinations are terrible.'