Coming Apart (9780545356152) (19 page)

Nikki looked out the window as her mother sped along the county road. The trees were still bare, but the snow that had continued to fall throughout February had melted. She cracked her window open and felt a warm breeze on her face, smelled spring in the air.

“Tell me again what we're doing today,” said Mae from the backseat.

“Flora had an idea,” Nikki told her. “You know the community center? Where you might take ballet lessons this summer?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, they need some extra money.”

“I could use some extra money,” said Mae.

Nikki smiled. “The community center needs a
lot
of extra money, though, or they might not be able to stay open. So Flora had the idea that if everyone helped make a quilt, Min and Gigi could auction if off at Needle and Thread and give the money to the community center to help them out.”

“We're going to make a quilt today?” said Mae. “I don't know how to make a quilt.”

“You don't have to know how. Everyone who stops by the store is just going to decorate squares for the quilt. Then Min and Gigi and Flora will sew the squares together. You might want to start thinking about your own quilt square, Mae. The theme is Camden Falls. You could make a picture of something you like in town — your school or the library. You could draw it on your square, or I could show you how to embroider it, if you want to use thread instead of markers.”

Mae was quiet.

“Mae?” said Nikki.

“
Shh
. I'm thinking.”

 

“I'll pick you up after work today,” said Mrs. Sherman as she dropped Nikki and Mae off in front of Needle and Thread. “Have fun!”

Needle and Thread was already busy.

“Look how many people are here,” said Nikki as she opened the door for Mae.

Seated around a large worktable in the back of the store were Mr. Pennington, Robby Edwards, Olivia, Ruby, two girls from Ruby's class at school, and a woman Nikki didn't recognize.

“Hi!” called Flora, hurrying to greet Nikki. “This is great! We have three finished squares already, and they look wonderful. Do you want to help or make your squares first?”

“I'll help,” Nikki offered.

“I want to make a square,” said Mae, “since I've been thinking about it and I have a really great idea.”

Nikki settled Mae at the worktable, and the morning sped by. She helped Flora, who was handing out squares of muslin and demonstrating various needlework techniques.

“You can draw with fabric paints,” Nikki told each new arrival. “You can use actual quilting techniques — piecing and appliqué — or you can embroider a picture. You can even embellish your picture with ribbons and buttons, almost like scrapbooking. Just remember that each square has to have something to do with Camden Falls. That's our theme.”

Nikki watched the finished squares pile up. Robby had used fabric paints to draw a picture of the Row Houses. “I couldn't get them all on one square, though,” he said. “I had to use three. They go next to each other like this, okay?” He arranged the squares in a row.

Flora's square, with neatly appliquéd figures, showed a scene on Main Street.

Ruby, whose talents lay in areas other than crafts and sewing, handed Flora a square with a painting of a witch on it, complete with a pointed hat and a broom.

“Um, Ruby?” said Flora. “The theme is Camden Falls.”

“Hello, I starred in a play called
The Witches of Camden Falls
,” replied Ruby. “That was about our town's history.”

“Do you think,” said Flora, trying to choose her words carefully, “that you might want to include that somewhere? Here, I can show you how to embroider the title of the play along the bottom. It's easy. Really.”

Mae's square, when she finally finished it, having worked huddled on the floor in a corner of the store so that no one would steal her idea, was a list of book titles, which she had written out in her best handwriting in red, blue, and green fabric markers. She handed the square to Nikki.

“Huh,” said her sister, sneaking a glance at Flora, “
The Wind in the Willows
,
A Bear Called Paddington
,
James and the Giant Peach
,
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
… Mae, this —”

“Isn't it creative?” said Mae proudly. “You said to make something about Camden Falls, and that's a list of my favorite books at the library.”

“Oh,” replied Nikki. “I see. That's great, Mae.” She paused. “You know what might make it even better? If you added something — just some little something — to let people know how much the library means to you.”

“Okay,” Mae said, and returned to her corner.

At one o'clock, Gigi called from the counter, “Lunch break! Our treat! Everyone stop working!”

And as if by magic, a stack of pizzas appeared from College Pizza; soda and water were delivered, cold, from the market; and Olivia's father arrived with a tray of chocolates and pastries from Sincerely Yours.

“Perhaps not the most nutritious lunch,” said Gigi as Min cleared the worktable and set out the food, “but it's fun.”

“And delicious!” said Mae, whose mouth was full of bologna and peanut butter.

When the food had been eaten, Nikki, Flora, Olivia, and Ruby assembled the sewing supplies again, and the afternoon was spent once more helping with the creation of quilt squares. Nikki saw images of the ice cream shop, the movie theatre, the Christmas tree in the town square, the community center, Mayor Howie, and scenes (non-witch) from Camden Falls history, the annual Halloween parade, and, of course, Needle and Thread.

“We have too many squares for one quilt,” Flora announced later in the afternoon. “Either that, or we'll have to make the world's largest quilt.”

“Could you make two quilts?” asked Nikki.

“Hey, that's a good idea,” said Flora. “It would be a lot of work, but then we could auction off both of them and raise even more money. I'll talk to Min and Gigi.”

At the end of the long and satisfying day, Min told the last few customers that thanks to their hard work and the work of everyone who had dropped by the store, they would indeed be able to make two quilts. “We expect to finish them by the beginning of the summer,” she added. “We'll hold the auction here at Needle and Thread. Spread the word. And be generous with your bids.”

“Min!” exclaimed Flora in a hushed voice. “That's not exactly tactful.”

“Oh, for heaven's sake,” said Min. “It's for a good cause.” She raised her voice. “Be
very
generous.”

Nikki smiled and realized that she had not thought of her father in hours.

The March day that Mr. Pennington had chosen for Jacques's farewell was sunny and much warmer than usual for early spring.

“Jacques would have liked today,” Flora remarked to Min over breakfast. “This was his favorite kind of weather. He probably would have spent the morning lying on the bench in Mr. Pennington's backyard.”

“When he was a puppy, he would have spent it flying around the yard, chasing butterflies and leaves,” Min said.

“I wish I had known Jacques when he was a puppy. I only knew him when he was an old dog.”

“We'll all have a chance to talk about Jacques today and to share our memories of him. That's what Mr. Pennington wants.”

“Do you think it will make him sad?” wondered Flora.

“Probably. But in a good way. It's always nice to remember the ones we've loved.”

Flora slid her eyes toward Ruby, who suddenly needed to pay a lot of attention to the milk she was pouring on her cereal.

“Yes,” agreed Flora. “It's nice to remember the ones we've loved. And the things we loved about them. And the things that were important to them.”

Ruby's face grew pink, but still she said nothing.

“Yup, it sure makes us feel comforted to have memories and, oh,
mementos
of people we loved, people we miss now. Being able to hold on to things —”

Ruby shoved her chair back from the table, stood up so fast that she nearly tipped her chair over, and marched out of the kitchen.

“You didn't finish your breakfast!” Flora called after her.

“Is there anything going on that I need to know about?” asked Min.

Flora pondered this. Technically, yes, there was. But it wasn't Flora's place to tell Min. Not yet, anyway. Not if she could convince Ruby to change her mind.

“No,” said Flora, but she couldn't meet her grandmother's eyes because she knew Min didn't believe her.

 

At eleven o'clock that morning, the Row House neighbors, as well as Nikki and Mr. Willet and several other people who had known and loved Jacques, gathered in Mr. Pennington's backyard. Standing in the warm sunshine on any other unexpectedly lovely day, Flora would have felt contentment and a sense of promise wash over her. But on this morning, as she looked at Mr. Pennington, who was holding a tin box and whose lips were trembling, she felt close to tears herself. She reached for Min's hand, and Min squeezed it.

“Thank you,” Mr. Pennington began. “Thank you all for coming.”

“You're welcome,” said Robby loudly.

Mr. Pennington smiled at him. “Jacques had a lot of friends,” he went on, “and if he could see all of you gathered together in his yard it would make him very happy. Jacques loved company. In fact, he loved a lot of things. He was an enthusiastic dog.

“I was thinking that today we might take turns remembering Jacques. When we're finished, we're going to spread his ashes in our backyards — all of the yards — since Jacques considered them his own. And considered all of you his family.”

“Excuse me!” Alyssa Morris, Lacey's little sister, raised her hand. “Is this like
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney
?”

Flora, who had been about to burst embarrassingly into tears, now tried to stifle a laugh. But Mr. Pennington, who had once been a schoolteacher, answered Alyssa's question patiently. “Ah. You're thinking about the book about the boy whose cat dies. Well, I suppose this is like that, except that we don't have to limit ourselves to ten things about Jacques. We can each say as much as we like, all right?”

Alyssa nodded seriously. Then she asked, “Can I start?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay. Well,” (Alyssa clasped her hands together) “I used to be afraid of dogs when I was little, but Jacques helped me get over that. He was nice and friendly and he never bit.”

Olivia's brother Henry raised his hand, and Mr. Pennington called on him. “Jacques liked to play fetch with me,” said Henry. “I'll miss that.”

Mr. Willet spoke up (without raising his hand). “When Mary Lou was first showing signs of Alzheimer's, she liked to sit with Jacques and talk to him. She could sit with him for half an hour or more. I think Jacques brought her a feeling of peace.”

“Jacques was a good companion,” said Min. “And a good friend to you, Rudy.”

“He really was a friend,” agreed Dr. Malone. “I think he understood how people were feeling. He was very sweet with Margaret and Lydia when their mother died.”

Over and over, the people gathered in Mr. Pennington's yard recalled that Jacques had been sweet, friendly, loyal, and good company. Then Mr. Fong said, “Remember the day he stole our chicken? He let himself in our back door somehow and stole a chicken off of our kitchen table.”

“Once I made a gingerbread man,” remarked Lacey, “and he ate an arm off of it.”

Mr. Pennington smiled. “He did manage to get into trouble, too, but most of the naughty things he did made me laugh.”

“I once saw him skid around a corner and fall in his water bowl,” said Olivia.

“Well,” said Mr. Pennington at last, “I think it's time to return Jacques to the earth. Alyssa, let's start in your yard and work our way back to the Fongs'.”

Flora, Olivia, and Nikki linked arms and followed the neighbors through the backyards to the Morrises' house.

“I've been thinking,” said Nikki as they walked along. “Mr. Pennington should adopt another dog.”

“He says he's too old,” Flora replied. “He doesn't want to adopt a dog that would outlive him. It wouldn't be fair to the dog.”

“But he could adopt an older dog. That would be perfect. It's harder for older dogs to find homes because most people want to adopt puppies.”

“Hey, that
is
a good idea,” said Olivia. “He could adopt a dog that's five or six.”

“Is it too soon to talk to him about it?” wondered Nikki.

“Maybe a little,” said Flora. “Let's wait a few weeks. I can ask Min what she thinks.”

They reached the Morrises' yard, and Mr. Pennington opened the tin box. He reached inside, withdrew a handful of gray and white ashes, stooped, and spread the ashes around the base of a rosebush. At the Hamiltons' house, the Malones', Flora's, and Olivia's, he spread a bit of his old companion. He skipped his own house, stopped at Robby's, went on to the Fongs', and then returned to his yard.