Needle and Thread (19 page)

Two hours later, the service over, Ruby was at home waiting with Flora and Min for their Thanksgiving guests to arrive. She had changed out of her skirt and blouse and was wearing a jumper that Min had made for her.

“You girls are a picture,” said Min, standing back to survey her granddaughters.

“Thank you,” said Ruby.

Flora studied the tables, which were now ready for the feast. They were laid with Min's best china, her silver, and her crystal. A place card stood at each dinner plate. Fresh flowers had been arranged in vases. Dishes of olives and nuts had been set out.

“Min,” said Flora, “everything looks wonderful, but I've never seen so many forks and spoons and knives. There are two of each at every place. How will we know which ones to use when?”

“Don't worry about that,” said Min. “It's partly for show. Do you know whose china and silver this is?”

Ruby and Flora shook their heads.

“It was my great-grandmother's originally, and it's been passed down to each generation. Someday it will be yours.”

“Your great-grandmother's!” exclaimed Flora. “That would be my great-great-great-grandmother's.”

The doorbell rang then, and Ruby cried, “The first guests! Let me answer it!”

She opened the door to Mr. and Mrs. Fong, each holding a covered dish.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” said Ruby.

“Happy Thanksgiving,” they replied.

In no time, the rest of the guests had arrived, and Min's house was filled with talking and laughter and good smells and neighbors in their best clothes. Robby, wearing a suit and tie, had already agreed to be in charge of the kids and had draped his jacket over the chair at the head of the table in the living room.

Min had made spiced cider, and Mr. Fong was in charge of serving it. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards helped Min in the kitchen. Olivia's mother passed around hors d'oeuvres she had made. The Willets sat on the couch by the fire, Mr. Pennington across from them. Jack and Henry ran around and around the house until their father gave them a pad of paper and a pencil and asked them to find out what everyone wanted to drink with dinner. Ruby, Flora, and Olivia sat by themselves with plates of hors d'oeuvres, ankles crossed delicately, and pretended they were at a ball at the governor's mansion. And Daisy Dear lay down under the dining room table, knowing that food would soon be served, while King Comma hid on the bottom shelf of a bookcase, eyes round and hackles raised.

When dinner was finally ready and everyone was seated, Min stood at the head of the table in the dining room and said, “Ruby and Flora and I want to thank you for joining us on our first Thanksgiving together in Camden Falls. We're happy that you're able to celebrate it with us, and we're grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful friends. And such wonderful food,” she added, surveying the table, which was laden with steaming dishes.

Ruby, looking at her sister, at Robby, at Olivia and her brothers, and then at the adults seated in the dining room — at all the smiling faces turned to Min — forgot for a moment that this was a different Thanksgiving from any she had known and thought only that this was a happy moment that she would hold in her heart.

If you were to walk down Main Street at the end of Thanksgiving Day in the year that Flora and Ruby Northrop moved to Camden Falls, you would find it nearly deserted. Lights are on in most of the shopwindows, though, so the street looks cheerful. The only person in sight is Sonny Sutphin in his wheelchair, making his way home. He didn't have anyone to share Thanksgiving with, and he wanted to get out for a breath of air and the familiar sights of Main Street before he retired for the evening. It's been a long, lonely day. Sonny pauses to look in each window as he passes, grateful that the next day is not a holiday and town will be busy again.

Now, if you were to walk out of town and along the country roads to Nikki Sherman's house, you would find, on this Thanksgiving evening, a happier family than usual. Mr. Sherman has been on his best behavior all day and has had nothing, not even a beer, to drink. Furthermore, the night before, when Tobias opened the front door and found on the stoop a large basket containing a smoked turkey and cans of vegetables and a bag of rolls and everything one might need for a Thanksgiving dinner, Mr. Sherman allowed it to be brought inside and appreciated. There was no note with the basket, which Nikki suspects is from Mrs. DuVane, and this is the kind of charitable act which is apt to anger her father. But he said nothing about the old bat or the basket — not the night before, and not today — and the Shermans have enjoyed an actual Thanksgiving dinner at their kitchen table, and even better, a day with no fighting. Nikki doesn't expect this to last, but she is thankful, extremely thankful, for one day of peace and quiet, not to mention her very full belly.

Now walk back to town. The country roads are quiet. There is almost no traffic this evening, but a stiff wind is blowing, and every now and then a coyote can be heard howling in the distant hills. Walk along Main Street again. Sonny Sutphin is gone, and the only living thing in sight is a skinny scared kitten who has discovered that Sharon leaves dishes of food and water outside the door to the Cheshire Cat.

Turn left at Dutch Haus, then right on Aiken Avenue, and there are the Row Houses. Tonight two of them are dark. The Morrises and the Malones will not be returning from their Thanksgiving holidays until Sunday. But lights are on in the other six homes.

If you peek into the Fongs' house, you'll find Barbara and Marcus standing in the middle of the room on the second floor that they have decided will be their baby's nursery.

“It's not too early to start thinking about decorating it, is it?” asks Barbara.

Marcus grins. “I don't think so.”

“We could paint murals on the walls.”

“I like that idea. What about jungle animals?”

“Or sea creatures?”

“What should our color scheme be?”

“Yellow and green,” says Barbara. “And blue.”

“Pastel colors.”

“I was thinking that I could make pillows and bumper covers and all sorts of wonderful fabric things for the room.”

Next door, Robby and his parents are seated at their kitchen table. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are drinking coffee from their
HIS
and
HERS
mugs, and Robby is making turkey sandwiches for their supper with some of the leftovers Min gave her guests as they were leaving.

“I'm always so stuffed after Thanksgiving dinner that I think I'll never be able to eat again,” says Mr. Edwards. “And then by suppertime I'm ready for a turkey sandwich.”

“I'm making my secret sauce,” says Robby, his back to his parents. “Don't look over here while I'm cooking.” He's busy with mayonnaise and mustard.

When the sandwiches are ready, he serves them to his parents, and his mother says, “Robby, your dad and I have been talking. We've spoken with Mrs. Fulton, too, and we've decided that if you want to get a job after graduation, that will be fine.”

“Really?!” exclaims Robby.

“Really. Mrs. Fulton will help us look into things.”

“Sweet!” says Robby.

On the other side of Robby's house, Mr. Pennington is standing in his kitchen, looking over the container of leftovers from Min's. He selects a piece of turkey, places it on a plate, and cuts off several pieces, which he puts in Jacques's dish. Then he adds broccoli and scalloped potatoes to his own plate.

“Here, boy!” calls Mr. Pennington.

He sits down in the kitchen with his snack, Jacques at his feet with his own snack, and is just about to take a bite when the phone rings.

“Hello?” says Mr. Pennington.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Dad!” says the voice at the end of the phone.

At the Walters' house, everyone has gathered in the living room, where Mrs. Walter has made a fire. Henry and Jack are playing with their Game Boys, thrilled that they have three entire free days left before school starts again. Olivia is on the couch, wedged in between her parents, with Sandy in her lap. She's thinking not of the “unfortunatelys,” not of the secret she's keeping for Mr. Pennington, not of saying good-bye to Mrs. Mandel, but of the holidays and what the next few weeks will bring.

“I can't believe you're going to go to work tomorrow, Mom,” she says. “When was the last time you went to work?”

“Just before you were born. I was a gift wrapper at LaVake's over in Kingston.”

“Did you like it?”

“I loved it. It was very creative. And I learned a lot about retail when I was there.”

Mrs. Walter has gotten a temporary job helping Mrs. Grindle at Stuff 'n' Nonsense during the busy Christmas season.

“Now when Flora and Ruby go to Needle and Thread after school, I can come visit you,” says Olivia. “It'll be fun, even if Mrs. Grindle is a little …” (she glances at her mother) “a little stern.”

“Maybe I can lighten the mood in there,” says Mrs. Walter.

Three doors away, Mr. and Mrs. Willet are having a pleasantly quiet evening. For the first time in many months, Mrs. Willet has neither argued nor protested when her husband said it was time to get ready for bed. Mr. Willet doesn't know why this is so, but he isn't going to spend time wondering about it. Mrs. Willet allowed him to help her into her nightgown and to brush her teeth, and now they're sitting in front of the television, watching the original
Miracle on 34th Street
.

“My, that Natalie Wood is a wonderful little actress,” says Mrs. Willet. “She'll go on to do big things.”

Mr. Willet is surprised that his wife has recognized Natalie Wood and even more surprised that she has remembered her name. But he feels only a crushing sadness because he realizes that Mrs. Willet thinks this old movie is current.

“Dear, how old are you?” Mr. Willet asks his wife suddenly.

She looks confused for a moment, then guesses, “Thirty-four?”

The Willets' Row House is the second from the left. Now walk back to the house that's the fourth from the left, sandwiched between the Malones' and the Walters'. Here are Flora and Ruby and Min, still cleaning up long after their guests have gone. Ruby's thoughts are on Christmas, but Flora's are on her family. As she puts away yet another plate that she now knows once belonged to her great-great-great-grandmother, she says, “Min? Have you really lived in this Row House your entire life?”

“Well, not my entire life. When I got married, my parents were still living here, and your grandfather and I wanted a place of our own. So we rented an apartment in Stanfield. But when Mother and Father moved to Florida, we moved back here. And I've been here ever since.”

“How long did your parents live in Florida?”

“Let me see,” says Min. She sets aside her sponge and sits at the kitchen table to think. “My father only lived there for about three years. He died unexpectedly in nineteen sixty-four. But my mother lived there for more than twenty years.”

Flora and Ruby and Min return to their cleaning and tidying, Flora's mind on her family and her ancestors. It isn't until she is lying in bed later that night, about to drift off to sleep, that something occurs to her. Min said her father died in nineteen sixty-four. Flora is almost positive that's what she said. She's also almost positive that Mary Woolsey said, during Flora's last visit, that she received her final gift of money from her anonymous benefactor in nineteen sixty-six. If that's so, then it couldn't have come from Flora's great-grandfather. Maybe, thinks Flora, it came from her great-grandmother. But that doesn't seem right. Mary barely mentioned Min's mother.

So … if Mary's benefactor wasn't Flora's great-grandfather, who was?

Flora turns this question over and over in her mind until she finally slides into sleep, and another Camden Falls evening comes to an end.

Q: In
Needle and Thread
, we see Flora, Ruby, Olivia, and Nikki becoming best friends. Who were your best friends when you were their age?