The students rose and did as instructed. Harriet and Carla only needed to step around their table, since they were already at the front of the room, so they were looking directly at Selestina when her hand began to shake. She tried to get up, only to fall back into her chair. She clutched her right hand over her chest.
Harriet was just in time to catch her as she started to slide to the floor. With her arms under Selestina's armpits, she kicked the chair out of the way and lowered the older woman to the floor.
'Call nine-one-one,” she yelled.
The class stood rooted where they stood.
'Where's your phone?” Carla answered.
'In the front pocket of my bag.'
Carla pulled out the phone and dialed. In a clear firm voice, she relayed necessary information to the operator.
'Give me that quilt,” Harriet ordered, but the woman in denim had already started pulling the sample quilt from the display board.
'No,” Selestina moaned.
To her credit, the woman didn't stop. She tossed the quilt to Harriet; she covered Selestina, who was beginning to shiver. Patience folded up her jacket and started to put it under Selestina's head.
'Not under the head,” the woman in embroidered denim said as she approached. “Here.” She pushed Patience out of the way, put the folded jacked under Selestina's feet and tucked the quilt around her. “She's going into shock,” she announced. She grasped the teacher's wrist with professional-looking expertise between her thumb and fingers and glanced at her watch.
Harriet could hear sirens. “Come on, come on,” she whispered to herself. She wasn't sure what was wrong with Selestina, but the woman's skin was covered with a sheen of moisture, and she continued to shake. Her breathing was rapid, and a small trickle of spit slid from the corner of her mouth.
Everyone jumped when the door slammed open and the paramedics rushed in. Harriet stepped aside and guided Patience away from Selestina.
'Let them do their work,” she said.
Two young men in blue jumpsuits and a red-haired woman with pale freckles and crow's feet surrounded Selestina. The redhead spoke to the denim-clad lady, who identified herself as Dr. Jan Hayes.
The young men started IV fluids as a pair of firemen came in pushing a gurney. Dr. Hayes loosened Selestina's skirt and blouse, borrowed a stethoscope and listened to her chest. Harriet could tell by the expression on the doctor's face she didn't like what she heard.
'Let's go ahead and transport her,” she said and stepped back while the three paramedics collapsed the gurney next to Selestina and lifted her on to it, raising it back up in one fluid motion. Dr. Hayes trotted alongside as they wheeled out the door and disappeared.
Harriet and Carla were putting their tools back in their bags when Patience returned.
'What are you doing?” she demanded, looking around the room. Everyone was in the process of gathering their things. “Class will continue,” she said, her chin held high in defiance. “I'm sure Selestina would want class to continue.” But her chin quivered, and her face was unnaturally white.
'Maybe we could take a little break,” Harriet suggested, hoping they weren't about to see a repeat performance of the one that had just played out. She went around her table and gently grasped Patience's arm. “Why don't you sit for a minute, gather yourself? Isn't it about time for the scheduled coffee break? Carla here could get you something to drink.
'Okay, folks, let's go on ahead to coffee,” she added to the students, who were standing or sitting at their work tables. “Class will resume when we get back.'
Carla stood up and nodded. “What can I bring you?” she asked. “Tea? Coffee?'
'A bit of tea would be nice,” Patience said, and sat in the chair Harriet had eased her toward.
Carla returned a few minutes later with a steaming cup of peppermint tea and a chocolate cake donut clasped in a paper napkin.
'Good job,” Harriet said quietly. The corner of Carla's mouth twitched up slightly in what might have been a smile.
Patience sipped the tea, and the color started to return to her cheeks. She took a big bite of the donut. When she had finished chewing, she wiped her mouth and set the pastry on the table.
'Thank you,” she said. “I think we can proceed. I know Selestina will expect me to continue with class until she returns.” She said it as if her boss had stepped out to the ladies room and would be coming right back. Harriet was pretty sure Selestina wasn't returning for the foreseeable future; but they were all here, and not having class wasn't going to do anything for anyone.
'I just heard what happened.” Mavis came up the aisle to the front table. She looked at Patience. “Can I do anything to help?'
Patience stood up. “No, thank you. I'll just put Selestina's tools away and get my sewing bag.” She put Selestina's thimble and scissors back on the tray, picked it up and disappeared behind the curtain.
'Are you okay?” Mavis asked Harriet. “And you?” She grasped Carla's hand.
'We're fine,” Harriet assured her. “I'm not sure the same can be said for Selestina.'
Chapter Nine
'I heard a woman in the restroom say Selestina had collapsed and was taken away in an ambulance,” Mavis said.
'That's pretty much what happened,” Harriet told her. “Everything seemed fine when she started her lecture then all of a sudden, down she went.'
'She got real pale,” Carla added.
'Well, you never know. Maybe she has a bad heart. When Lucille Graham had her attack last summer, she was at church. We stood up to sing a hymn and down she went like a sack of potatoes.'
Mavis glanced at her watch. “Looks like things are under control here, so I guess I'll get back to dyeing. I'm not sure when we'll finish. We've only got a little more to go on today's samples.
'We'll meet you back at the Tree House,” Harriet said. “It won't surprise me if we run over, given today's disruption.'
Mavis left, and Patience reappeared with a quilting bag that looked like it had been hand-made, using a lavender pre-quilted fabric and with wooden dowels for handles. She pulled out a large wooden hoop that already held a muslin fabric sandwich.
'Success in hand quilting is all about your wrist motion,” she began.
She proceeded to demonstrate how to insert a threaded needle into the hooped fabric and, with a gentle rocking motion and correct thimble placement, create a small, neat quilt stitch. She soon had the class practicing their own stitching, and proved to be a competent teacher.
The room was silent except for her words of encouragement as the students strained to master their new skill. Harriet looked over at Carla, who was biting her lower lip as she concentrated on her work. She had completed half of the first feather they had drawn on their fabric. Her stitches were small and very even, and her needle moved up and down in the rhythmic motion Patience had demonstrated.
Harriet looked at her own work. Her stitches were uneven, and she'd only completed the first two curves of her feather. She readjusted her hand position, trying to imitate Carla's movement. Her needle jumped out of the fabric, and as she grabbed for it, her thimble fell off onto the floor. As she reached for it, a hand touched her shoulder.
'Here,” Patience said, and dropped the escaped thimble into her palm. “All right everyone. The last technique we need to learn is the quilter's knot. Gather around the front table please.'
The class assembled, and she showed them how to make the invisible knot used to start a new thread when hand quilting. She created a small knot by threading a needle, holding the tail end of thread parallel to the needle and coiling the body thread three times around it. Then she pinched the coils of thread against the needle with one hand and pulled the needle through the coils with the other hand. The result was a small neat knot at the very end
