Quilt As You Go

'Harriet, what happened?” Carla asked. She'd apparently come from deeper in the woods while Harriet was moving to her current seat. “We heard someone scream, so Terry ran ahead to see what the problem was.'

'I don't know what hit me. My foot caught on a root, and I bent down to free it and something hit me from behind. Do you see a tree branch where I was?” She leaned in the direction she'd come from. “I think a big branch fell on me.'

'Harriet, that doesn't make sense,” Carla said. “It's not windy or anything, why would a branch that big suddenly fall?'

Terry stepped back to where Harriet had been sprawled on the ground. He reached into the berry vines beside the path and pulled out a club-like branch about the size of a baseball bat. He held it up.

'This isn't big enough to knock you down unless someone was swinging it.'

'There must be another, bigger one,” Harriet insisted.

'If there is, I don't see it.'

The feeling was starting to return to Harriet's arm, and it wasn't a good thing.

'I don't want to seem ungrateful, but who are you, anyway?” she asked the man. She realized an instant later it was obvious who he was. This had to be Carla's new friend.

'I'm Terry,” he said and held his hand out. “Terry Jansen. I'm a friend of Carla's.'

Carla's cheeks turned pink. Harriet tried to extend her hand to shake his but winced in pain when her shoulder moved.

'We've been gone a long time,” Carla stammered, her previous confidence fleeing. “I need to check on Wendy. I'll tell Aiden what happened.” She didn't wait for a reply, just turned and hurried toward the battlefield.

Terry looked exasperated as he said, “Wait,” to her retreating back. He turned back to Harriet. “Let me check your shoulder.'

'So, who are you and why are you in Foggy Point?” she asked. “And why should I let you check my shoulder?'

'My name is Terry Jansen,” he repeated. “I'm in town doing a little genealogy research, and I was a combat medic for two tours in Iraq.'

She gingerly pulled her shoulder out of the sleeve of her hoodie-she was wearing an off-white linen tank top underneath. She tried to turn her head to see the top of her shoulder, but it hurt too much.

'Don't move,” Terry said. He gently probed her shoulder. “You're going to have a nasty bruise when the redness subsides.” He probed some more. “I can't feel any obvious breaks, but you should probably go by the emergency room and get it x-rayed.'

'Get what x-rayed?” Aiden asked as he arrived, breathless from running. “What happened to her?” he asked Terry.

'It looks like someone clubbed her on the shoulder.'

'Hello,” Harriet said. “I'm here. You can ask me what happened. And by the way, what are you doing here and where's Wendy?'

'Wendy and I were on our way over here when we ran into Carla. She said you'd been hurt, so here I am.'

Harriet recounted her story again.

'My arm hurts, but I'm sure it will be fine,” she finished.

'Did you hear anyone or anything?” Aiden asked.

'No,” she said and then paused, wondering if the blue cylinder was worth mentioning.

'What did you see?” Terry asked.

'I didn't see anything. I thought I heard the bushes rustling, but I think the wind was blowing so I can't be sure.'

'Let's get you out of here,” Aiden said. “And I don't want any arguments. We're going to the emergency room, and you need to talk to the police.'

'There's nothing to tell. I don't know if anyone actually hit me, and if they did, I didn't see anything useful.'

'Thanks for helping her, Terry,” Aiden said. “I can get it from here.'

* * * *

Harriet protested all the way to the emergency room. “This is so embarrassing,” she said as they settled in their cubicle to wait for a doctor.

'Yeah, you have been kind of a regular here since you've been back in town,” Aiden said. “But shoulders are nothing to mess around with.'

Aunt Beth arrived as the nurse was leaving-she'd brought Harriet a fresh ice pack and offered to call the police. Harriet had declined. She looked at Beth and shook her head, but said nothing. The nurse was the same one who had tended to Harriet's head wound a few months earlier when Aiden's uncle had tried to discourage her from digging into his business.

'Honey, are you okay?'

'I'm fine, my shoulder hurts, and my collar bone has a crack, but otherwise nothing's wrong that won't heal.'

'She's lucky the blow wasn't a few inches either way from where it was. It could have crushed her jugular vein on one side or torn up her rotator cuff on the other.'

'Thanks for that bit of cheer,” Harriet said and glared at Aiden. “He exaggerates,” she told Aunt Beth.

'Well, never you mind, I'm staying with you until you're better.'

'You don't need to do that,” Harriet protested.

'You're not going to be able to run Mable for a week or two, so since I'm going to be over there anyway, I can cook and take care of Fred. And don't try to tell me you don't have jobs lined up. I saw your receiving shelf.'

Harriet rolled her eyes heavenward. She knew there was no hope. “Fine,” she mumbled.

'I can take it from here,” Beth said to Aiden.

'Okay, I need to go check a couple of my patients if you're sure you can contain our patient here.” He leaned toward Harriet and kissed her gently, being careful not to jostle her shoulder in the process.

'You run along,” she said. “Come on, honey, let's get you dressed. The doctor said he's got someone bringing you an arm wrap of some sort to immobilize your shoulder.'

'What happened to doctor-patient confidentiality?'

'I've known Burt Pattee since he was in high school and used to come to the door selling coupons to raise money for the Foggy Point High School football team. Besides, having your arm in a sling isn't exactly a sensitive communication. In a few minutes, everyone's going to know about it anyway.'

'You're impossible.'

Chapter 11

Mavis pulled into Harriet's driveway just as Aunt Beth was helping Harriet out of her car to go into the house.

'Thanks for getting here so quickly,” Aunt Beth said.

'You called her?” Harriet asked her aunt, the disbelief clear in her tone.

'Of course she called me,” Mavis answered. “Did you imagine I'd be sitting home crying into my tea cup?'

Harriet cringed. That was exactly what she'd been thinking.

'Look, Harriet, Gerald died almost twenty years ago.'

Harriet started to say something, but Mavis raised a hand to silence her.

'To me,” she finished. “That man you found in the woods-he looked like my Gerald but he wasn't my husband. My husband has been dead for a long time. I don't know who you found, but he wasn't my husband.'

Harriet stopped and looked at her friend for a long moment before her aunt broke the tension by taking Harriet's good elbow in her hand and moving her up the stairs. Harriet pulled her arm free.