The Quilt Before The Storm

moment.

“Sounds like you did the right thing,” she said. She listened again for an extended period then recounted her visit to the vet clinic and Aiden’s failure to reappear to say goodbye. She listened again. “I’m sure he’s fine and will be home soon. He’s probably just making sure the dogs are taken care of…Okay…You, too.”

She hung up.

“Okay,” Lauren demanded. “What was that all about?”

“Lauren…” Mavis scolded.

“I take it Michelle is causing problems,” Aunt Beth guessed.

“She doesn’t know anything for sure, but that’s what she thinks. She says Aiden hasn’t been acting like himself. And he’s not arguing with Michelle like he usually does. She thinks he’s bought into whatever his sister is selling.”

“What do you think?” Mavis asked.

“I have to agree with Carla. Aiden is definitely not himself. He won’t talk to me. He just told me earlier he’s not who I think he is.”

“Lordy,” Mavis said. “What is that girl filling his head with?”

“Are you sure we know everything about him?” Lauren asked. “He was gone from here for a lot of years, first to vet school and then his jaunt to Africa.”

“We know everything we need to know. He’s Avanell’s son,” Beth said.

“She gave birth to Michelle, too,” Lauren reminded her.

Harriet ignored the comment.

“Carla also said she was getting worried people might try to go back to Marjory’s store to ‘raid the piggy bank,’ so to speak. She caught Duane eyeing the register, and she was afraid Marjory’s sister and her family might break in. It turns out Marjory just hides the money in a bag in the kitchen when the store is closed. Carla wanted to tell someone that when she went to check on Wendy, she moved the bag to her diaper bag and took it to Aiden’s with her.”

“I hope she didn’t tell Michelle about it,” Lauren said.

“As a matter of fact, she made a point of telling me she didn’t. It’s hidden in her room. She wanted us to know so nobody would think she was stealing.”

“It is surely an ill wind that has blown into this town,” Mavis said.

As if on cue, the kitchen lights flashed off and then on twice before steadying again.

“Anyone want a cup of tea?” Harriet offered.

“I say get it while we can,” Lauren said.

“I agree,” Mavis said.

“Me, too,” Beth agreed.

“What are we agreeing to?” Jorge said as he came into the kitchen from the studio. “I hope you don’t mind I came in,” he said. “I knocked on the door, but probably you couldn’t hear me over the storm. You need to lock your door, you know? You can’t be too careful.” He set bags of food on the counter.

“Would you like a cup of tea before you go?” Lauren asked.

Beth glared at her before turning to Jorge.

“Let me take your coat,” she said, and took Jorge’s wet jacket. She hung it on the back of a chair.

Harriet filled her teakettle and set it on the stove then filled her electric kettle and plugged it in as well.

“Grab those two thermal carafes from under the counter there,” Mavis directed her. “We might as well heat the kettles again and fill those up, just in case.”

Harriet did as instructed, and she and Mavis filled mugs with tea bags and water then filled the carafes before joining the rest of the group, who had moved to the big table in the formal dining room. A five-branch brass candelabrum sat ready in the middle of the table, flanked by two oil lamps.

“I feel sorry for that truck-driving couple,” Jorge said and took a sip of his tea. “They came in and had me make them some breakfast burritos and some chicken burritos for tomorrow in case they can’t get around. They were trying to decide if they were going to try to stay in the truck or move into the restroom. I told them they should go to the church, but I guess they wanted to have their privacy.”

“They aren’t going to find it at the park,” Lauren said. “I think some of that homeless bunch is planning on camping in the bathrooms.” She tucked Carter into her sweatshirt and partially zipped it.

The group turned and looked up as one as a loud thump sounded somewhere above them.

“That can’t be good,” Harriet said. “It sounded like something hit the roof upstairs.” She got up.

“Don’t go outside,” Aunt Beth cautioned. “If a tree limb broke off and fell onto the roof, it might roll off just as you go outside.”

“Come on, let’s go look out the upstairs windows,” Lauren suggested.

She and Harriet got up and left the room. They returned a few minutes later.

“It was a broken branch,” Harriet reported. “The pine tree outside my bedroom window dropped a limb on the roof. It’s now in the flowerbed.”

Aunt Beth looked out the dining room window. The sky was a roiling black, the ground littered with debris.

“I’m afraid there’s going to be a lot of cleanup when this is all over. The number of the yard cleanup guy I used is on a magnet on the side of the fridge. He does a good job, and he’s reasonable,” she told her niece.

“I might have a big picture window that could blow in, but at least there aren’t any trees at the-”

A huge boom cut off the end of Lauren’s sentence. Blue, yellow and white light lit the dining room in rapid succession before the room went dark.

“Here we go,” Mavis said.

Harriet got up and went to the window.

“The whole hill is dark,” she reported.

Aunt Beth lit the candles and the oil lamps.

“Do you have wood?” Jorge asked.

“Yes,” Harriet said. “There are fireplaces in the living room and the bedroom directly above it, and I have wood all set up in both.”

“I’ll go light them,” he said.

Lauren pulled a hand crank radio from her purse and turned it on. She listened for a few moments then turned it off.

“Hope you’ve got room for one more,” she said to Harriet. “And I hope Jorge didn’t have anywhere he needed to be, either. The radio said a tree fell on the power line at the bottom of this hill. It broke the lines and tore up the power pole. They’re closing the street for a quarter-mile on each side. The radio signal was cutting in and out, too, so they may not be good for much longer.”

“That blue flash was more than a power line going down,” Mavis said sagely. “Mark my words-that was a transformer.”

“It doesn’t really matter which it is,” Beth said. “No power is no power, whatever the cause. I say we get our hand stitching and move to the living room in front of the fireplace. I think we have enough light to do our work.”

“I’ve got an LED light on one of those elastic headbands,” Harriet said. “I hang it around my neck, and it’s just the right level to shine on my stitching.”

“Aren’t you the clever one,” Aunt Beth said.

“I have something similar,” Mavis said. “Only mine was meant to hang around my neck.”

“My radio has an LED flashlight on one end,” Lauren said.

Jorge came downstairs in time to hear the discussion.

“Don’t worry, Senora Beth,” he said. “I forgot to bring my stitching, so my hands are free to hold your light for you.” He smiled at her.

Harriet raised her left eyebrow and looked at Lauren, who gave a barely perceptible shrug.

“Anyone need a refill on hot water before we move to the other room?” Harriet asked.

Everyone agreed to nurse the tea they already had in their cup, so they all migrated to the living room and found seats.

Lauren was cutting out small green leaves, her arms stretched around Carter, who was still tucked in her