The Healing Quilt (28 page)

“Beth?”

“Turn left here. That's her farm sign.”

“How did you know about this?”

“Teza is a member of the group I've been quilting with. We're making the quilt for the mammogram unit. She invited us to come out.”

“Sure is a beautiful place. I always dreamed of having a farmhouse like that one.” He pointed to the gray two-story house with white trim and a white wraparound porch.

“Maybe someday. You park over there.” Beth pointed to the area beyond the fruit stand.

“Hey, maybe she sells the peaches already picked.”

“You need to earn your pie, Reverend. Come on.” Beth waved at Teza as she got out of the car. “We don't have much time, but do you still have peaches to pick?”

“Most certainly do. Come on over and help yourselves to buckets. I'll be right with you.” Teza returned to helping the customer in front of her.

“See, she has baskets of peaches right there where we can pay our money and start eating.” Garth took the metal handle of one of the gallon-size white buckets. “You expect me to fill one of these?”

Beth nodded.

“I might damage my lily white pastoral fingers, have pity. Or even mercy.”

“Fingers that don't mind digging up worms certainly can't be queasy at picking luscious peaches.” She took his arm and pulled him toward the peach trees.

“Hey, don't I get to climb the trees? When I was a kid, that was the best part of picking fruit.”

“No, I try to make it easier for pickers now.” Teza caught up with them. “Most of our trees you can reach from the ground. I have ladders over there for the highest branches, but you're tall enough you'll have no trouble.”

“Teza, this is my husband, Garth, the Hungry. Garth, meet my friend, Teza Dennison.”

Garth put out his hand. “I'm glad to meet you. What a beautiful place you have here.”

“Thank you. Help yourselves.” As another car drove in, she excused herself and headed back to the shop.

“She's nice.” Garth picked a golden peach with a red blush and rubbed off the fuzz on his jeans before taking a bite. “Not quite ripe, but still better than any at the store.”

“That's because they haven't been subjected to a cooler. Takes the flavor away.”

They filled their buckets and walked back to the barn.

“Sorry I had to desert you,” Teza said with a wide smile.

“Well, if the other stuff is as good as your peaches, you'll see us out here often.” Garth nodded toward a basket of plums. “We'll take those, too.”

“Tree ripened has a lot going for it.” Teza picked up two plums and handed one each to Garth and Beth.

“I'll take that basket of really ripe peaches. I promised Garth a peach pie.”

“Good. Here's a copy of my favorite peach pie recipe.” Teza handed Beth a printed index card. “Guaranteed to make a husband sing for joy.” She tucked a one-page calendar in too. “Just so you have an idea when things get ripe here. Looks like almost no late peaches this year, too cold for the bees, but the gravenstien apples come on late this month. Best for pies and applesauce in my estimation.”

“You take care of all of this?”

Teza nodded. “Since my husband died five years ago, but I have good equipment and a neighbor who helps when I need him.”

“And she is a master quilter too.” Beth pointed to a set of pieced place mats. “How do you find time for it all?”

“You can't garden after dark or in the winter, so then I sew.”

Beth glanced at her watch. “Oh, okay, we better hurry, or the dinner will be burned. Thanks, Teza.”

“Thank you and come again.”

That evening after Garth left for his meeting, Beth peeled and sliced the ripe peaches, then added sugar, cinnamon, flour, and some lemon juice. Keeping out enough for one pie, she froze the rest. Alone in the quiet house, her thoughts returned to Garths request that she see the psychiatrist by herself this week. She didn't want to go as a couple, so why should she want to go by herself?

The voices arguing in her head made her hands shake again.
You have to admit the pitts he gave you did help. If you agree to take the prescription, perhaps everything will be all right, and you won't have to keep going to see him. I dont need anything As a good Christian, shouldn't I be able to handk a little sadness by myselfi What good Christian would kill an unborn baby!
‘The last was said with the sneer.

The trick to handling all of this was just to never be alone where the voices could take over.
Keep so busy I can't hear them.
She rolled out the pie dough, arranged it in the pie tin, and added the pie filling she had ready. After fluting the crust with her fingers, she cut slashes in the pie top and sprinkled a bit of sugar over the crust. She glanced at the clock as she put the pie in the oven. Eight-thirty. It should be out and cooling before Garth got home with the ice cream he'd promised to pick up.

After cleaning up the kitchen and leaving a cut-glass bowl of peaches on the kitchen table, she headed back to her sewing room, where the quilt she'd been piecing now waited on the hoop for her to quilt it.

Sometime later, smelling smoke, she returned to the kitchen to see smoke seeping from the oven door. “Must be done, it ran all over the oven.” She turned on the fan over the stove and opened the window and sliding glass door. Opening the oven, she shook her head. Juice all over the oven all right, but the crust not brown enough to be done. She retrieved the salt shaker and tossed some over the oven spill to keep the smoke down. She wanted a baked pie, not a smoked one. Her eyes burned as she flapped a dishcloth to send the smoke outside.

Surely the smoke alarm should have gone off. She returned to the hall to check that, only to find no winking red eye. Dead batteries.

“If it's not one thing, it's another.” And here she'd hoped to have a couple of hours to work on her quilt.

By dark all the fruit and vegetables were picked, everyone had taken some home, and the two refrigerators in the store were full too.

“You take those home, and I'll take the last up to the house. Vin-nie said she'd watch the store tomorrow.” Teza arched her back before rubbing her shoulder.

“That still bothering you?”

“Umm, somewhat.”

“Did you mention that to the doctor?”

“Kit, I haven't been to the doctor, and why would I complain about something so simple as a pulled muscle?”

“Well, you've been tired lately too.”

“How do you know that?”

Tezas question betrayed her. “Just a suspicion. You've had dark circles under your eyes for another thing. And you've lost weight.”

“Oh, pshaw. I always have dark circles, part of my makeup. Your mother always had dark circles too, and you would if you didn't cover them with that stick stuff you use. Some things are just genetic. Now, get on home with those apricots if you want to pit them tonight. They're pretty ripe.”

Kit set the last bucket of apricots in the rear of her minivan and slammed the hatch. “I'll pick you up at seven.”

She got in the car and lowered her window. “How about if I call the prayer chain?”

“Not until we know anything for certain.” Teza waved her off.

Kit drove out the driveway, her emotions bouncing between resignation and rage.

Teza is right. There is no sense worrying until we know more. God, you can't do this!Please, please, you took my mother and my daughter. My husband is alive, but only you and he know where.
Of course those at his office did too, but she refused to lower herself to ask them, to admit she didn't know.
Now, please leave me Aunt Teza.
The mind war raged, leaving her drained to the point of utter exhaustion. When she got home, she rearranged the refrigerator and shoved the fruit inside. Maybe Thomas would like to come help her pit and chop them after she got back from Seattle.

One by one she called the quilting group to tell them assembling the quilt would have to wait until Thursday. Gently she cut off their questions, only saying Teza needed more tests. But when she crawled into bed, sleep skipped out the window. Surely this is something Mark would want to know about. She got up again, went in her sewing room to boot up the computer, then went down to the kitchen to make a cup of chamomile tea. Chamomile was known to aid in sleep.

She typed in his address,
Aunt Teza
on the subject line, and began:

Dear Mark
,

Due to your wishes, I have not tried to contact you and been content with waiting for you to call. But I believe you would want to know about this, since Teza is one of your favorite people. We went to Seattle last Friday for her mammogram. Long story, but the one here is prehistoric. They called today and said they want to see her for further tests tomorrow. Now, you know as well as I do that they only do that if they see something bad. She has had a soreness in her shoulder for the last week or so, and I think she's been more tired than usual. She bkmes all the fruit picking, jam making and such, but I dont feelgood about this.

Other than that, I miss you like another piece of me is gone. I do hope you arephnning to come home while Ryan is here. I know Jennifer won't be abk to come then, but at least she is happy with her job and her apartment.

Missy and I have a new friend. His name is Thomas and he is seven. He is hoping Ryan willphy ball with him. He doesnt know yet that I'm a pretty fair pitcher, but I might get out the pitch back and warm up. Come home andpUy with us.

I love you always
,

Kit

She reread the message, made a couple of changes, and sent it off.

Her new messages included one from Jennifer extolling the joys of her new job and bewailing the housing costs. She'd been to see the Rangers play but wished she could have seen the Mariners instead. She'd missed out on their last series in Arlington.

Kit answered the message but didn't include her concern about Teza. Time enough to tell after they had more information.

She sent that message and shut down the computer without checking E-Bay or some of the other sites she enjoyed. While her tea had grown cold, she finished it anyway and trundled back to bed. The bed seemed to be an acre on nights like this more than others. She cuddled Mark's pillow, hoping for a faint whiff of him, but fabric softener was all she smelled. Fabric softener and sadness.

God, 1 am allabne. In not fair. This isrit the way it should be. When things get hard, husbands and wives are to hold each other up. Thau what we vowed, “in sickness and in health”
—
we didnt say whose.
She flipped over on her back.
And here I am talking to you when I promised myself never to do that again.
Tears leaked down her temples and into her ears.
Why can't I just hate him for leaving mei Yeah, I know, I promised to love and cherish, but how do I do that when I have no idea where he is or who he is with? That old “no news is good news” is a real weak saying, really weak.
She rolled over and reached into the drawer on the nightstand for a tissue. After wiping her eyes, she blew her nose. When sleep finally came, the alarm didn't allow it to hang around long enough to do a whole lot of good.

On the drive to Seattle, Teza directed the conversation to her new quilt pattern, gardening, the cancer quilt, her flowers, anything but the coming tests.

At one point Kit turned to her. “Did you by any chance put in an overnight bag?”

“No.”

“But what if they decide to keep you there longer?”

“I think they would have mentioned that possibility, don't you?”

“I don't know. It just entered my mind.”

The predicted rain drizzled on them all the way north. The entire Northwest seemed to be weeping. Teza took out her crocheting. She always had a stocking hat in progress, sometimes for infants at the hospital, other times for older children. This one was soft pink baby yarn.