Read Online Ada Unraveled by Barbara Sullivan - Free Book Online

slightly, then resumed.
    “I’m a massage therapist, have been for a
couple of years. I think that’s why I’m here, as a matter of
fact.”
    Strange comment. I almost asked where here,
thinking she was making an existential remark. Thinking…she had
children, weren’t they her reason for being here? As Gerry had
said? And then I thought maybe she meant here here, at this
Quilted Secrets bee.
    I was definitely ready for a rest. We’d been
sewing for almost three hours and I was cramping up all
over—including my brain. Maybe a nap.
    Then Ruth said, “Nonsense. You’re here to
have babies and take care of your old parents. Oh, and to keep that
man of yours happy. Someone in the Stowall family has to have
babies. You and your sister are elected. I’ll get fresh tea and the
fruit. We have red grapes Rachel, the kind that lowers your
triglycerides. God knows, we’ll need sustenance to make it through
this.” Make it through what? Life? Didn’t high triglycerides
shorten your life?
    And then I caught the central part of her
comments…that someone in the Stowall family has to have babies. And
then I lost it again. Flit, gone.
    Okay, I was definitely in need of a nap.
    A still-teary Abigail trailed after Ruth
toward the kitchen. Finally I took Hannah’s advice and closed my
eyes and slipped down into the pure enjoyment of tactile sensation.
A little portion of paradise. I slept.
    Hannah moved on to Gerry. I sighed and
stayed in my relaxed position for a few more moments, wishing I
could call her soothing hands back.
    “You need to get up and move around now,
Rachel, get the blood flowing. And switch to herbal tea,” Hannah
said. “Eventually all the caffeine is counterproductive.”
    She was right. So I rose and moved about the
room for a few minutes, staring out at the constant rain, not
really seeing anything in the dark. I was floating on a magic
carpet of inner peace unleashed by Hannah’s healing hands. The
question was out of my mouth before I could stop it. It was the
question I’d been wrestling with since Hannah had called a week
ago.
    “Well, if you’re here for your massages,
Hannah, why am I here?” A few minutes passed. It was as if I hadn’t
even spoken. Hannah seemed entranced with her work.
    Victoria finally answered me in a tremulous
voice, “Because you are a retired research librarian and some of us
think we have secrets we need you to explore.”
    The words were said with finality but left
so many unanswered questions in its wake. She seemed upset and even
angry. A second butterfly took flight in my belly. There was
something going on here I had yet to identify.
    And why, for heaven’s sake, was I reacting
with anxiety? Perhaps it was the excessive caffeine.
    “Rest your eyes, Victoria,” Hannah said, and
began massaging her shoulders.
    I waited, letting the silence play out into
minutes as I watched them.
    Finally, Elixchel stopped sewing and looked
at me, feigning innocence I thought. “We needed a replacement.
There has to be eight of us to complete a quilt in one night. It’s
always been that way. You don’t have to have a quilt ready until
next spring.”
    Then what did Victoria just mean? Mind-reading Ruth didn’t respond. Ruth was rocking gently as she
sewed. I thought about how far behind quilting I was falling,
playing this silly game. They would tell me when they were
ready.
    Hannah completed her work on Victoria and
moved to Abigail.
    The view of the little group of women from
my new seat by the fire, where I had settled with my tea, was
enlightening. A different view than I had when I was sitting
amongst them.
    Victoria’s long, steel-gray hair, which had
been tightly braided and formed into a knot at the nape of her
neck, was beginning to fray in earnest now. The old woman looked
exhausted. I began to wonder if she would make it through the
night.
    Hannah moved to Andrea who’d stopped sewing
minutes before, and was resting with her eyes closed and a smile on
her