Curtis rubbed the corner of his eye. “Speck of dust,” he said.
Everyone listened intently as Edna continued to talk about her daughter while she sewed. The more she shared, the looser her shoulders became. Tension fell away from her face.
“If we all make blocks to represent the reasons we’re here, it will give Daisy some company,” Ginny said.
Edna fell quiet for some time. She swallowed and her eyes grew glassy. “I think she’d like that very much,” she whispered. “I would like it, too.”
Curtis stuck out his tongue as he tried and failed to thread a needle.
“Pass that to me. I’ll do it.” Edna took it from him and deftly pushed a strand of cotton through the tiny eye. “You have the dexterity of a buffalo.”
Curtis laughed. “You’re not wrong there.”
They smiled at each other and a layer of tension seemed to lift.
Ginny stroked a piece of azure-blue silk. What could possibly represent the breakdown of a twenty-five-year-long marriage? She now understood Edna’s desire to use muted colors.
Eventually, she cut out a red satin heart and then sliced it in two, using thick black stitches to sew the pieces onto the silk. Its meaning might be literal but it was how she felt. Adrian had sent her a wink, thinking it was to a stranger.
Eric took out his tin and used it to mark a semicircle on yellow fabric. After cutting it out, he attached it to a blue and green background, so it looked like the sun setting behind a hill. He painted a stick man and a dog on the top of it.
Edna embroidered a daisy, using white satin for the petals and a cluster of small buttons for the center.
Heather cut out the wordMUMin pink fabric and sewed it onto a piece of denim.
Curtis’s effort had an air of punk rock. He cut out white rectangles and black letters that spelled STOP.
“It looks a bit like a blackmail letter,” Ginny said.
“Yeah, or a command.” He stared at it blankly.
“What does it mean?”
“Nada,” he said gruffly. “Zero. It’s just a word.”
Ginny could tell he wasn’t telling the truth.
Nico joined in and made a block, too. He created the silhouette of a woman’s side profile and used brown thread for her hair. He embroidered the nameMariaunder it.
Looking at it, Ginny felt envious that Adrian would never do anything so creative or romantic for her. His demonstrativeness was more practical, making sure her car was valeted and clean and that the MOT was up-to-date. Was it wrong to ache for more passion between them?
No one other than Edna spoke about their heartbreak as they worked, yet there was a new sense of purpose among them all, as if sewing was enough for now.
The beige dog they’d met outside the chapel on the hill appeared and settled down at Eric’s feet. Eric tossed a whittled stick and the dog brought it back in his mouth.
Nico fetched coffee and small beige biscuits that were the same shade as the dog.
“What’s the dog’s name?” Eric asked Nico.
Nico shrugged. “He does not belong to anybody.”
Eric picked up a biscuit. “What are these called?”
“Biscotto for one, Biscotti for more than one.”
Eric rubbed the dog under its chin. “Hey, boy, do you like the name Biscotti?”
The dog wagged its tail.
