The Rescue Quilt

by Carol Dean Jones

  “May I go say goodbye to Blossom?” Penny asked as they were heading toward the front door.

  Bernice laughed and said, “Of course you may.”

  When Penny came running back toward the front door, she had a broad grin. “She kissed me again.”

  CHAPTER 26

  Bernice was coming back to the living room, having toured the entire house except for the basement. “Blossom won’t be going down there,” Tim had assured her. “In fact, I doubt that any of us will be going down there,” he added. “It’s cold and damp and I don’t trust those steps.”

  “This is a nice little house for the two of you and, with that fenced yard, Blossom will have a great place to play. I checked for holes where she might escape and didn’t find any, but I suggest that you go out with her the first few times and make sure she doesn’t find them herself. She’s pretty small.”

  “Does this mean we can get her?” Tim asked. Penny was still in school and he hadn’t told her about the home visit, knowing she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on her lessons all day.

  “Absolutely. Sheila called me with her reference. She is very impressed with you and all the help you’ve been to the Shuttle Service. And, of course, your mother has been an angel. They’re hoping she continues with the program after her friend Maria returns.”

  “Yes, I’m sort of torn on that. She’s getting up in years and I hate to think of her driving all over the countryside, but some of the time I’m able to be with her and sometimes she takes Penny along. Actually, Mom even has friends that like to ride along. I do know it’s brought her a great deal of joy. She really loves tooling around in her Pup Mobile and when she comes home she always says ‘well, I saved another life today.’”

  They both chuckled, and then Tim said, “So, do you want to come pick up Blossom, or do you want to have her delivered?”

  “I’d love to bring Penny and pick her up. When can we come?”

  “How about tomorrow?”

  “We’ll be there,” he responded, knowing how excited Penny would be when she heard.

  “Here’s a list of some of the things you’ll need including the food she’s been eating. I’ll give you her medical records when you come to pick her up. She’s current on everything and in excellent health. She’s an adorable little dog,” she added wistfully. “I’ll miss her.”

  “You must get very attached.”

  “I do, but it always makes me happy when I see them go to a good home. And I know Blossom is going to be loved.”

  “She absolutely will be,” he responded, realizing that at that moment he was happier than he had ever been in his life.

  When Penny got home from school that afternoon, she found her father with a big grin on his face.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “We can pick up little Blossom tomorrow morning. She’s all yours!”

  Penny jumped up and down with excitement. “Can’t we go right now, please Daddy. Pu-leese.” Tim’s smile grew even wider hearing his daughter calling him ‘daddy’ and seeing her happier than she had been in several months.

  “I wish we could, sweetie, but we’ll go first thing in the morning…well, actually we’ll go second thing in the morning. First of all, we need to go to the pet store and stock up on food and a few other things.”

  “Can’t we go do that now? That way we can get up real early and go get her.”

  Tim laughed and reached over to hug his daughter. For the first time, she relaxed into his hug and gently leaned against his chest. “Thank you, Daddy. I love Blossom so much!”

  “I know,” he responded patiently. “And she loves you. In fact we all love you!”

  Penny leaned back and looked up at her father. There was love in her eyes that she couldn’t express yet, but Tim could see it. “We all love you,” he repeated. “Now put your coat back on – we have some shopping to do.”

  When they entered the store, Penny hurried to the dog section and by the time Tim got there she had an armload of toys. “Hold on,” he said. “Let’s not overwhelm the little girl. How about picking out your five favorite toys. I’ll go get a shopping cart.”

  Eliminating toys took time. “These are all my favorites,” she mumbled at one point, but was finally able to reduce the pile to seven. “See, this one squeaks and this one is soft and furry like her mommy. She’ll love that one. And this one…”

  “Okay, okay,” Tim chuckled. “Put all seven in the cart.”

  “Basket!” Penny cried. “She needs a basket for her toys.”

  “We’ll stop at the craft store for that. They have lots of baskets...”

  “And she needs a basket to sleep in…” Penny ran up the aisle. “I saw some over here.” She stopped at the deep shelves on the wall and stared at all the beds. “I don’t know which one she’d like,” she said, looking perplexed. “These all look too big.”

  “How about these over here,” Tim suggested leading her to a section of much smaller beds. He picked up a brown one and pointed to the front. “It’s very low here and she’ll be able to get in and out easily.”

  “And it’s very soft,” Penny said, but sounded hesitant.

  “Don’t you like it?” Tim asked.

  “Well…”

  She turned back to the shelf and dug throw the array of small beds until she saw what she was looking for. “There it is, back there,” she said excitedly. “Can you reach it?” She wasn’t exactly jumping up and down, but Tim saw that she was bouncing with excitement. “That’s it,” she repeated.

  “The pink one?” he asked, stretching across the shelf for the pink furry bed in the very back.

  “Yes. Yes. That’s it.” She was now hopping around with excitement. “It’s perfect.”

  Mom was right. This dog is exactly what my girl needed to pull her out of her shell, Timothy thought.

  “What else do we need?” Penny asked as she carefully placed the bed into the shopping cart.

  Tim pulled out the list Bernice had given him and headed for the food aisle. “Here it is,” he said, starting to pick up a bag.

  “That says it’s for adult dogs, Daddy. Shouldn’t she have this one?” She held up a smaller bag, which was labeled “Puppy.”

  “You’re absolutely right. Stick that one in the cart.”

  Penny carefully lifted the pink fluffy bed out in order to put the food in. “I didn’t want to crush it,” she explained when she noticed her father was watching her.

  From there, they picked up two very small dishes for Blossom’s food and water, chose a bag of small training treats, and looked at collars and leashes. “What size should we get?” Penny asked looking confused by all the sizes.

  “I have an idea,” Tim responded. “Let’s stop here tomorrow after we pick her up and try them on her.”

  “We can bring her into the store?”

  “It says on the door dogs are welcome as long as they’re on leashes. We can carry her in. They’ll understand.”

  “Look,” Penny said as they were approaching the checkout counter. “It’s a machine for making a name tag. Can I make one that says “Blossom?”

  “Sure, and let’s put our new phone number on it just in case she gets out.”

  On their way to the car, both loaded down with bags, Tim said, “I noticed a sign that said they offer training classes. Would you like to do that with her when she’s bigger?”

  “Oh yes, I’d love that.”

  They stopped for pizza on their way home, and talked with excitement about picking up little Blossom the next morning.

  * * *

  “I don’t know how good I’ll be tonight with that iron. I’m so excited I can’t stop giggling.” On the way to the quilt club, Sophie told Sarah that Tim and Penny would be picking up their dog the next morning. “Penny called me to tell me about all the things they got at the pet store and she wanted me to ask you something.”

  “What’s that?” Sarah asked.

  “She’s wondering
if you’ll help her made a quilt for Blossom. She wants to make it in pink to match the bed they bought today.”

  Sarah laughed. “Of course I will. Here, take my phone and call her. I want to speak to her.” As Sophie dialed, Sarah pulled over to the curb and parked in front of the quilt shop.

  “Hi Penny,” Sarah heard Sophie say. “Yes, I just told her and she wants to talk to you.” Sophie handed the phone to Sarah.

  “Penny, I wanted to let you know that I’d be very happy to help you make a quilt for Blossom. I’m at the fabric store now. Would you like for me to pick up some fabric?” Sophie listened to Sarah’s end of the conversation and could tell that Penny was telling her exactly what she had in mind. “Okay, I’ll look for pink fabric with puppy dogs and something with flowers. Oh, and you also like green? Okay. I’ll see what they have.”

  When Sarah finished, Sophie took the phone and told Penny how happy she was about the dog. “I can hardly wait to see her.”

  They had arrived a few minutes early, and there were still customers in the shop. They decided to wait until Ruth hung the “closed” sign before going in.

  “How do they like their new home?” Sarah asked.

  “Tim’s a guy. He doesn’t much care where he hangs his hat as long as it has a television and a refrigerator. As for Penny, this little cottage is a mansion. She just keeps marveling at all its conveniences, like hot water and electricity around the clock. Even dependable plumbing. She told me that in the winter she and her mother would make their way through four feet of snow to get to the outdoor facilities.”

  “The outhouse?” Sarah asked, looking surprised.

  “Yes, the outhouse. Can you imagine?”

  “What did they do when her mother was too sick to go out?”

  “They had plumbing by that time. I understand Penny’s grandfather did the work.”

  “I didn’t know she had a grandfather,” Sarah responded.

  “He died a few years ago. We’re her only family. That’s why I’m so glad Tim found out about her when he did.”

  About that time, Kimberly broke the spell by tapping on the window and saying, “You two are going to freeze out here. Hop out of that car and get inside. We’re finishing a quilt tonight!”

  Sarah and Sophie’s moods were immediately brightened when Sarah spread out the center of the quilt all sewn together and ready for borders. The group became animated as they congratulated themselves on a job well done. “Who did that one with two bull dogs?” someone asked.

  “That’s mine,” Allison responded. “And look at this one…”

  After a few minutes, Ruth clapped her hands to get their attention. “Okay ladies, let’s get down to business. We need to decide about borders. Let’s go into the shop and see what looks good.

  They tried out several patterns but decided they took away from the dog house blocks. Ruth suggested several tone-on-tone pieces, but the group didn’t seem pleased with any of the options.

  Finally Sarah spoke up. “I was wondering about using the same fabric we used for the sashing – the paw prints.”

  “Don’t we need something to separate the border from the blocks…”

  “How about these dog bones?” Sophie said, holding up a bolt of tone on tone tan with a dog-bone pattern.

  “Hmm,” Sarah responded, “I like it. We could just use a two-inch piece of the dog bones for an inner border and then a four inch piece of the paw prints for an outer border. What do the rest of you think?”

  Everyone agreed and Delores offered to sew the borders on once they were cut.

  “While Delores is adding the borders, I’d like to bring up something that’s bothering me.”

  “What is it, Allison?” Ruth asked as the others sat down to listen. Delores stopped working as well.

  “This might be silly, but I keep looking at the large areas of sashing. With the blocks being different sizes, we’ve created some areas that look sort of blank.”

  “Do you have an idea for what we could do?” Sarah asked.

  “Actually, I do. I saw some cat fabric in the shop and I wondering what it would look like if we appliqued a cat here and there.”

  “Ooh,” several quilters responded.

  “I like it,” Sarah exclaimed. “I have to admit that was bothering me too, but I couldn’t think of anything to do about it.”

  “Is anyone in the group particularly good at applique?” Allison asked. “I’m not good with a needle and thread.”

  “We could always do machine applique…”

  The group discussed it while Ruth went into the shop to find the cat fabric. She returned with two bolts, one with cats of various colors on a white background and another with the same cats on black.

  “Here’s what we have on hand,” Ruth announced. “I would recommend that we use the ones on the black background because they will blend into our sashing, which also has a black background. What do you think?”

  “I agree,” Sarah said, and the rest of the group nodded their agreement.

  “I’m not sure how this is going to look,” Delores observed in a worried tone.

  “How about this,” Kimberly began. “Christina and I are taking the quilt home in order to quilt it. We’ll give the applique a try and see how it looks, okay?”

  “In fact,” Christina added, “I’ll bring it into the shop with a few cats appliqued on and you gals can stop in during the day on Wednesday and take a look. Let Ruth know whether or not you like it.”

  “Majority rules,” Ruth added.

  The group agreed to the plan, and, while Delores worked on the borders, the rest of the group went through the book of quilting patterns that Kimberly had brought in. They came up with a simple meandering pattern that they felt wouldn’t take away from the animals.

  “Let’s talk about how we’ll present the quilt,” Sarah said. “I’ve been wondering about inviting a couple of representatives from the rescue organization to come to a meeting. We could serve refreshments and present the quilt.”

  “Do you think we could invite the newspaper? It would be great publicity for them and for the raffle,” Delores suggested, stopping her machine temporarily to join the discussion.

  “…and for the shop!” Ruth responded. “I’ll make all the arrangements once Kimberly and Christina finish the quilting.”

  “We’ll still need to add the binding.”

  “If someone will stitch the binding on by machine, I’d be happy to hem it,” Sophie offered.

  “Oh wonderful, Sophie,” Sarah responded knowing how much Sophie wanted to be involved in the project. “Sophie does excellent handwork,” she added.

  As they were getting into the Pup Mobile to leave, Sarah noticed a satisfied grin spread across Sophie’s face. “That tee-shirt of yours is right,” Sophie said. “Life is good.”

  Chapter 27

  “Bartlett. I didn’t expect to hear from you today. What’s up?”

  “Actually Charles, I was just curious about something and thought I’d call and ask. You’ve never mentioned Earl’s other son and I was wondering why he isn’t being considered in the mix.”

  “What other son?”

  “The one that was born out there.”

  “Out here?” Charles was totally confused. “He didn’t have another son.”

  “Oh, I just assumed it was a boy. A girl, huh?”

  “Bartlett, what are you talking about?”

  “You don’t know?” Bartlett responded incredulously.

  “I truly don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s going on?”

  “Okay. Remember when you asked me to check out old man Hawkins’ life before he left West Virginia?”

  “I do. Go on.”

  “Well, there wasn’t much on old Earl Hawkins. Most of his generation is gone. I spoke with the son of one of his friends, a Harvey Miller. He said that to his knowledge no one had heard from Earl after he left town with his pregnant wife some twenty-five years ago.”

 
; “Pregnant wife?”

  “Yep. He’d married some young chick -- Rita something. I haven’t been able to pin down her maiden name yet. They took off for Middletown where she had family. Miller said they’d bought a cabin out there.”

  “To tell you the truth, Bart, I don’t know anything about another child. There’s got to be some mistake.”

  A pregnant wife? Charles sat and tried to absorb this new information. A pregnant wife? This means there may be another heir out there.

  Charles left Sarah a note and took off for City Hall to search the birth records for the years 1990 and 1991. “I’m looking for a child born to an Earl Hawkins,” he told the clerk. “The mother’s name was Rita, but I don’t have her maiden name. They were married so I assume the mother’s listed as Rita Hawkins.”

  “Will do,” the clerk responded cheerfully. “It’s been a slow day and I welcome any excuse to play with that new computer. I can track this down for you in no time,” he bragged.

  A few minutes later he returned with a broad smile. “Found it,” he announced slapping the printout down on the counter. “Patrick Henry Nichols born on September 29, 1991 to Earl Hawkins and Geraldine Nichols.” The clerk grinned with pride for having accomplished the search so quickly.

  “Wrong Hawkins,” Charles replied feeling annoyed as his temporary euphoria drained away. “Could you check again? The mother’s name is Rita, not Geraldine.”

  “Sorry,” the clerk mumbled. “We’ve got a passel of Hawkins in these parts – three or four pages in the phonebook. I’ll check again.” A few minutes later, he returned, this time appearing more reticent. “This must be it,” he said apologetically handing the printout to Charles. I searched on the mother’s name.”

  “This time you got it right,” Charles responded, looking at the document and smiling. “Christopher Hawkins, born August 1, 1990, to Earl and Rita Hawkins.”

  * * *

  “I think I’ve identified our imposter, Matt, and perhaps even a killer.” He slaps the birth certificate down on the lieutenant’s desk and stands back looking smug. “Take a look.”

  Matt picks up the document. “This is a birth certificate,” he exclaims frowning and looking perplexed.