by Leah Day
“What?” Patch asked, jerking out of a doze. “Is something wrong?”
“We stitched you back together, Patch,” Mally said. “And now you have a pretty star on your back!”
The cat rose to his feet slowly. He arched his back and a shiver ran down his spine all the way to the red tip of his tail.
“Ahh…” He crouched down again and shifted his shoulders, trying to see over his own back. “Wait, what is that green thing?”
“We had to add a bit of fabric between your shoulders because the seams split in so many directions. It was the only piece we could find that fit.”
The petrified look on Patch’s face said it all.
Mally burst out laughing at his expression. All the tension she’d been carrying since the mountain room dissipated as she sank to her knees, laughing hysterically.
“Is it really that funny? Well, another hundred stitches for you, little Maker. Thank you for not giving up,” he smiled wryly, patting Mally on the back awkwardly as she tried to catch her breath. “I’d be quite ripped up without you.”
“You’d be a leaking pillowcase without her,” Ms. Bunny said, her paws full of spools, needles, and a huge pile of fabric scraps. She dumped it all into the sewing box with a loud clang. “It’s time for us to go home. Your dad is probably worried sick and your mama…” She didn’t have to complete her sentence. Both Ms. Bunny and Mally knew something was very wrong with Mama.
“Yes, let’s go.” Mally scooped up the sewing box and stashed it into her bookbag. Suddenly it felt very late and impossible to tell how many hours they’d spent in Quilst.
Mally looked around at the beautiful forest. Would anyone believe her? Would they come back inside the quilt with her to find Grandma? But then a more pressing problem crossed her mind.
“Do you know which way to go?”
Ms. Bunny had been pulling on the vines to create an opening and stopped to look around. “Honestly, I have no idea, dear. And there doesn’t seem to be a path through these woods either.”
“You could just ask me,” Patch said, casually inspecting his claws.
“And let you steer us straight into another trap! Do you think I was stitched yesterday?” Ms. Bunny snapped.
The cat sighed dramatically. “Logic, rabbit. If I wanted the Ripping Witch to catch you, you’d be inside one of her monsters right now. I saved you from becoming a bloody paint splatter in the forest, and you saved me from falling apart. We’ve evaded two snarls, which is nearly impossible, so I’d say we’re a pretty good team. But as far as I’m concerned, we’re even. That said, I still wouldn’t want you wandering off in the wrong direction.”
Patch stood, stretched, and began to shrink. His paws deflated like air being let out of a balloon.
“What are you doing?” Mally asked.
“Being big is highly overrated,” he said dryly. He’d shrunk to the size of a small tiger and shivered through another full body stretch.
“Can you do that, Ms. Bunny?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never wanted to be any size other than what I am right now,” the doll said practically.
Mally chewed her lip, considering. She didn’t want to start walking and accidentally wander back into Menda’s mountain. She slipped on her backpack and bent down so Ms. Bunny could climb onto her shoulder.
“Fine. You lead the way, and we’ll follow. If you disappear again, we’ll immediately know to go the other way.”
They set off through the trees. Patch padded ahead, his tiger-sized body easily visible against the brown and green leaves. Mally walked warily behind. Vines twisted high into the curving trees, providing a light screen that made her nervous. What could be hiding around the next bend? But they didn’t hear any more snarls as Patch guided them through the woods.
They had been walking for perhaps ten minutes when she saw something familiar in a gap between the trees.
“Wait! Is that a big tree in the middle of that field?” She asked, stopping and craning her neck for a better view.
“Yes, but the entire field is littered with Menda’s traps. It’s best to go around the Great Tree. Everyone avoids it.” Patch said, threading a path parallel with the field.
“The Great Tree? Oh, that’s the perfect name for it! I remember Grandma stitching it. If she’s anywhere in this place, she’s got to be there!”
Big didn’t do this tree justice. It was massive with a thick trunk and dozens of limbs stretching high into the sky. Grandma had debated for two days whether to trim it down in size to make it more proportional with the rest of the quilt, but Mally had begged her to leave it just as it was.
As she watched Grandma stitch the tree to the quilt, she’d let her imagination run wild. A little knot Grandma stitched on the side with brown threads would be a secret button you needed to push, and that shadow cast by that black stitching was hiding the doorway. Inside the trunk, Mally imagined the Best Treehouse in The World. She’d drawn pictures of a beautiful circular house inside the tree with multiple floors accessed by a giant spiral staircase.
Of all the places she’d been in Quilst, this one seemed the most like home and she felt magnetically drawn to it. Mally stopped on the edge of the woods, gazing up at the magnificent branches and bright green leaves shimmering in the distance. The base was at least fifty feet wide, with massive roots crowning the top of a wide hill.
“Can we go and see it?”
“No. We need to go home,” Ms. Bunny said firmly. “Whatever happens here can wait until your family knows you’re safe.”
“But that’s the tree in the middle of the quilt. If Grandma is anywhere in Quilst, that’s where she’ll be. Can’t we go check? We’re so close.”
Mally stepped further into the field, craning her neck to see it better. Without warning her feet slipped out from under her. A black hole opened wide in the ground as if to swallow her whole. Her stomach lurched and she screamed as her body pitched into darkness.
The next instant seemed to stretch into several long minutes. Ms. Bunny tumbled from her shoulder, spinning end over end in a blur of brown and pink fabrics. Mally flailed her arms, and just managed to grab one of the dolls legs with the tips of her fingers.
There came a jerk from above and Mally was suddenly dangling in the air. Ms. Bunny’s leg slipped from her grip. Terror clawed up her throat as the doll disappeared into the void.
“MS. BUNNY!” Mally shrieked.
“I’m okay! I’m okay!” Ms. Bunny called. The doll had wrapped her paws around Mally’s belt loops and clung on tight.
“Traps. What part of ‘that field is full of traps’ did you not understand?” Patch growled from above. He was gripping her backpack and shirt with his long silver claws. With a yank, he pulled them out of the hole and onto solid ground. He must have expanded in size rapidly to catch her because his paws were once again larger than truck tires and he was able to lift her easily with one arm.
Mally collapsed into a heap at his feet and immediately scooped Ms. Bunny up in a tight hug.
“I nearly lost you,” she whispered, the dark scene playing through her head again and again. She couldn’t believe how close they’d come to disaster. Mally suddenly found she was crying, either in relief or terror at what nearly happened, she couldn’t be sure.
“Never,” Ms. Bunny said, patting her on the back softly. “I’m the friend you can never lose.”
Mally set the little doll down and, meeting Patch’s green eyes, she made a decision. She stood and wrapped her arms around his huge neck. The cat made an uncomfortable noise in his throat and patted her back awkwardly with a heavy paw.
“I have no idea why you’re helping us, but you just saved me again. You saved Ms. Bunny too. Thank you,” Mally said, crying into his bright orange shoulder.
For once, Patch didn’t have a sarcastic comeback. A deep rumble rose from hi
s chest as he began to purr. Eventually, she wiped her eyes and bent down to look at the hole in the landscape.
“What happens if you fall through? Where do you go?”
“No idea. I haven’t been eager to fall through miles of darkness to find out,” Patch said, sounding back to his old self.
The stitching had been cut all along the top edge where one piece of green fabric overlapped another. She folded the cloth back in place and could barely see the thin gap between. It was nearly invisible, even standing right next to it. But when she flipped the fabric over, a four foot gash opened in the landscape.
“Menda did this?” she asked, suddenly furious. “She’s ruining Grandma’s quilt! I can’t even walk across a field to check out the Great Tree. Someone needs to do something about her.”
“Mally, we have to go home,” Ms. Bunny said. “This isn’t your problem or your fight. Imagine how worried your mama and Rose are right now.”
Mally shrugged. The idea of leaving the quilt with that monster on the loose was untenable. Even if Grandma wasn’t here, the world she created deserved to be saved.
“Think of your Dad then.”
That did it. Mally’s heart constricted at the thought of Daddy with his head in his hands that morning. He was already so tired and sad. She hadn’t meant to make things worse. She just wanted to find Grandma and bring her home.
She teared up again as she thought about this amazing world that was being slowly, methodically ruined. What had Patch called Menda? The Ripping Witch? That was the perfect name for that evil cow. She wanted to attack Menda and slice her into a million pieces. She wanted to rip off her scissors, tear apart her velvet fabrics, and not stop until every stitch of that awful woman was destroyed.
She looked out over the open field at the Great Tree stitched so perfectly in the middle. If only they could reach it, she would bet all the stitching skills she’d learned so far that Grandma was inside.
Mally shrieked as her legs suddenly left the ground. But it was only Patch, scooping her up and neatly catching her on his back. She wrapped her legs around his ribs and leaned forward to rest her face against the dark green star stitched between his shoulders.
Ms. Bunny climbed up and nestled herself in Mally’s arms. Patch set off, weaving through the trees, carrying them on his back.
Mally was exhausted, but kept her eyes open, looking back at the Great Tree until it was blocked from view.
* * * * *
Mally jerked awake and opened her eyes. She sat up and brushed her tangled hair away from her face. She was still on Patch’s back with Ms. Bunny, but now they were racing over rolling hills covered in bright green yarn grass. Her heart sank. They were nearly at the door and she would have to go home completely empty handed.
She didn’t even know if Grandma was here. If Menda was looking for her so hard, why hadn’t she found her by now? What if she had just wandered away from the house, or gotten lost or kidnapped? She might have taken off on a six month quilting retreat and simply forgotten to tell them.
Crazier things have happened, Mally thought as she gazed over the lush landscape.
She turned and caught sight of the black door frame in the distance. Patch was headed straight for it, his huge body easily bounding up one hill, then down another. Mally gave Ms. Bunny a squeeze and the little doll met her eyes with a sad smile.
“I know you don’t want to leave, dear, but it’s the right thing to do. With Menda and those snarls hunting for us, this place is not safe and I know you must have been missed at home.”
Guilt twisted Mally’s heart. She hadn’t meant to scare anyone and she certainly didn’t want to make her parents worry. It was supposed to be such a simple thing – come inside the quilt and find Grandma. Why couldn’t it have been that easy?
Patch slowed and they walked up the last hill in silence. Finally he stopped and Mally slid off his back, then reached up for Ms. Bunny.
As the doll slid into her arms, Mally scanned the horizon one last time. Rolling hills of soft yarn and beautiful fabrics filled her vision. She could just make out a blotch of dark green that must have been the woods they’d landed in. Purple and blue mountains filled the sky with sharp angles and bad memories.
But even after all that had happened in the mountain room, Mally wanted to stay.
When will I be able to come back? She had no idea what would happen when she returned home, but she could bet on being in lots of trouble for a long time at the very least.
Mally sighed and set Ms. Bunny on the ground and turned to Patch, stroking her hand along his massive patchwork forearm.
“Thank you so much, Patch. I don’t know what would have happened without your help.”
“You might want to put your good-byes on hold. What did you use to prop the door when you entered this time?” Patch was looking at the door closely, his eyes squinting against the sunlight.
“A door wedge I’d brought from home.” Mally turned. She’d avoided looking at the door too closely, but now she noticed the opening looked different from how she’d left it. Instead of propped open against the little gray wedge, it rested flat against the door frame.
“Great Maker help us,” Ms. Bunny said, leaping onto the purple platform in a single bound. She pressed her paws to the door frame. “It’s sealed shut!”
“Really?” Mally wanted so desperately to stay in Quilst. It would be a cruel trick if the door was still open and just looked closed from a distance. She ran to the door and found the opening shut tight with no sign of the wedge anywhere on the ground. “What happened? Where did the wedge go?”
“What did you do?” Ms. Bunny rounded on Patch. “Did you remove it once we got into this world? Did you intentionally trap us here?”
“Why would I have risked splitting my stitches to get you back here so quickly if I knew the door was shut?” Patch asked with a shrug.
“Who else would have closed it?!” Ms. Bunny demanded.
“Wait,” Mally said, derailing their fight. She pulled open her bookbag and began rummaging in the sewing box. Ms. Bunny looked on the verge of exploding when the little girl finally sat back, shaking her head.
“What is it?”
“Plastic.” She said, holding up the tiny blade they’d been using to cut fabric and thread.
“Do you care to elaborate or would you prefer to see the rabbit stitch herself into a knot?” Patch was almost enjoying himself.
“I’ve just realized what this was. I should have recognized it. It was my pencil sharpener, but all the plastic around it has disappeared.” She handed it to Ms. Bunny who stared at the little piece of metal on her paw. “I checked my bag and all my plastic pencils are gone too.”
Ms. Bunny suddenly pulled at her dress, her face stricken. “My buttons! How did I miss that?!”
Mally was equally surprised. Ms. Bunny had three heart shaped plastic buttons stitched to the front of her dress. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed they’d disappeared, but then again, they had been very busy since Ms. Bunny came to Quilst. Three small “X’s” in white thread now decorated the front of Ms. Bunny’s dress.
“So this plastic, what is it, exactly?” Patch asked.
“You don’t know what plastic is?”
“Unless it’s been stitched into this quilt, I haven’t experienced it.”
“Maybe that’s it,” Mally said. “If a material isn’t used in the quilt, it doesn’t belong. What do you think, Ms. Bunny?”
“I think it’s too convenient! That door–” she jabbed a tiny paw angrily in its direction “–was supposed to be open so you could go home. Now what are we going to do?”
“Calm down, Ms. Bunny,” Mally said. “There’s another door. The door on the other side is wide open. Grandma must have realized her mistake stitching the closed door, so she stitched the open door on the other edge of the q
uilt.” She smacked her forehead with her hand with sudden realization.
“That’s why that block was in such bad shape. Grandma must have been in a huge hurry to attach it so she grabbed whatever fabrics were closest and slapped it together.”
“Let’s hope it’s stitched well enough to get you home,” Patch said. “I’m not sure I’d trust a portal that’s been thrown together in such a hurry.”
“But don’t you see?” A wide smile was spreading over Mally’s face. “This proves Grandma was here! She got stuck in the quilt too and had to stitch her way back out again. If we can just find her, we can go back home and everything will be right again.”
“With the exception of the psycho, scissor-wielding witch in the mountain, yes,” Patch intoned.
“With Grandma’s help, I’m sure we can figure out how to deal with Menda.” Mally was brimming with optimism. “I bet she’s back at the Great Tree. I knew we should check it out. She’s probably been staying there the whole time.”
“Surrounded by a field of traps? She may still be gone, just in a way other than you expect.” Patch said gently.
“She’s here! We will find her!” Mally was almost shouting now. “What do you say, Ms. Bunny?”
The rabbit had been looking hopelessly at the door. She turned, and for a second her face was set in the simple expression she’d worn for years in the real world. Her soft pink smile had always been perfect. On any given day she could be kind, understanding, adventurous, or sympathetic. She was always exactly what Mally needed at any given time.
Then the light caught a glint in the doll’s eyes and her mouth twisted in worry. The spell was broken. Ms. Bunny was no longer Mally’s toy to drag anywhere she liked. She was alive and able to make her own choices and argue her opinion. Even now, Mally didn’t know if she would agree to head back to the Great Tree.
“My goal is to get you home safely. If the only way out is back across this infernal quilt, so be it.” She sighed and smoothed her ears down her back. She looked up at the huge cat. “Will you take us back?”
