Read Online The Quilt by T. Davis Bunn - Free Book Online Page A

in the chair by the bed, watching it all with eyesthat didn’t seem to be seeing very much, so quiet and still that after a moment nobody really thought much about him being there.
    The side-clamps were tightened and the frame was raised upright, barely fitting in under the ceiling, and another little gasp escaped from the people by the door. The sound woke Mary.
    She turned her head slowly toward the noise, and it took a moment for her to realize how many people were there. Then she caught sight of the quilt out of the corner of her eye, and swivelled her head back upright.
    Mary reached a fragile hand out toward Everett, said in an ancient voice, “Hand me my glasses, son.”
    â€œIt’s done, Momma,” Jody said, so excited she could barely stand it.
    At those words the crowd outside pushed the ones in front forward, and more than a dozen people spilled into the room. They moved over toward the bed’s headboard so as to be seeing the quilt as Mary did. And the sight was really something, what with the quilt almost big enough to cover the entire back wall. Lou Ann helped Jody slide another pillow under Mary’s head so she could see it better. Grins kept popping up all over the room. They’d look from the quilt back to Mary and back to the quilt again, and then show another little grin to their neighbor.
    Mary looked at it for a long, long time. She looked at it for so long that people started getting little lumps in their throats, watching her look at the quilt, thinking about how everybody said it would never get done, remembering how they themselves had labored over this or that, recalling the work, recalling the prayers. Truly, it was a glorious quilt.
    Finally, Mary turned to look over the friends and family gathered there in her room. She held them there for a moment, returning their smiles and shining eyes with a gaze that seemed to reach deep inside.
    With visible effort Mary raised her head up and said withsurprising strength, “Now all of you go out there and finish what you’ve started.”

    Despite the fact that she was close to being scared out of her wits, Jody went up to the altar alone the morning of Mary’s funeral. Lou Ann helped her work out what she was going to say, but there was no way Lou Ann could leave Everett alone just then, especially not at the funeral. Jonas had just plain turned and walked away. When Jody pressed him all he said was, the last time you got me to stand up in front of other people was at our wedding. I don’t aim on making a fool of myself twice in one life. Lynn said she’d go up there with her, but she kind of felt in her heart like it was something Jody needed to do alone. Jody was held back from pressing her best friend by the fact that she felt in her heart that Lynn was right.
    The church was filled to capacity that morning, was how Reverend Louis put it. The back and side doors were all open to the early summer sun, but any breeze that might have been there to cool off the flock was blocked by the crowd pushing for room to see. Those who got there early enough had a place in the pews and busied themselves fanning up meager puffs of air with hats and programs and prayer book bindings.
    The others crowded in a semicircle around the outer walls, content to lean and shift their weight and perch their children up on the windowsills. The only people who weren’t crowded were those in the front two rows and the choir. The choir suffered as all choirs do in stuffy summer churches, be-robed and chafing and hoping their sweat didn’t drip on the hymnals. Those in the front two rows would have simply given the world to be anywhere but where they were.
    Reverend Louis led the congregation through a hymn and a prayer and a short talk about a woman everybody knew, and all the while gave the little white terry-cloth towel he carried in his pocket a real good work out. He thought of somethinghe’d have to share with his wife