The Strange Quilter Read Online Free PDF Page A

reality bubble. Sure, Ken looked for that sort of thing. He wanted his reality challenged. He would, I imagine, like nothing better than to be abducted by aliens and whisked away in a flying saucer. I like my reality solid and unchanging. I like my days predictable. One of my life's most solid foundations was the friendship group. We met every week, worked on projects, discussed friends and relatives, and, if we had time, solved all the world's political problems.
    I stood now before Nell's Threads, looking through the storefront window. Why was this shop so intimidating to me now? A place that once was so warm and friendly, a little island of sanity in a world that seemed so crazy. This was silly thinking on my part. I opened the front door, the tinkle of the bell above the door announced my entry, and entered what I had long thought of as my second home. No one paid much attention. I walked over to the friendship group. Nell was standing near the table with a plastic bowl in her hand. She placed the bowl on the table. Nell smiled a 'thank you' at me and took the corn chips I'd brought and filled the bowl with them.
    I sat down with the other ladies at the table. I greeted them all, happy to see everyone looking energetic and healthy. Maxine looked at me with her contagious smile and asked, “Did you bring your quilt block?” I finally noticed that everyone had their quilt blocks laid out before them on the table. These were newly rediscovered or newly discovered quilt blocks, either made by the bringer or not. I took the Rolling Star quilt block from my shoulder bag and set it on the table in front of me.
    The dizzy spell grabbed hold of me once again. I placed both my hands on the table in an attempt to stop the world from spinning. The dizziness eased, and I saw that everyone had brought the same design, the same Rolling Star pattern. The only variation was the color; each block was based on multiple shades of a single color. Mine was blue. Maxine's was red, Anne's was yellow, Sharon's was gray. We four were the only ones in attendance today, besides Nell, and we had all brought the same block pattern, each one with a monotone color theme. The world spun about me faster and faster.
    Nell broke the spell of my whirling world when she announced, “I'm closing shop. Excuse me...” She flipped the 'Open/Closed' sign on the storefront window to the 'Closed' side and locked the front entrance after the final customer had left. She walked behind the counter and worked on entering information into a small laptop next to the register. She worked at that job for nearly ten minutes.
    The friendship group had already begun discussing the unlikely coincidence of all our blocks having the same design. And on further discussion, we found out that each of us had accidentally stumbled across our blocks in the most unlikely of ways.
    Maxine said, “I found mine on my front porch. I figured one of you did it.”
    Sharon said, “This one was buried under a pile of old fabric that I was thinking of donating to the thrift store.”
    Anne said, “I couldn't find anything to bring. I found this block in the parking lot as I walked over here. Odd, isn't it?
    I said, “I nearly tripped over this block while walking with Ken this morning. It was rolled into a ball on the sidewalk.” I looked at my friends for a long minute, studying their expressions. They seemed as puzzled as I. We were all experiencing this strange reality shift together. I have now gained a new respect for my husband's oddball interest in flying saucers and the supernatural. He must know something I don't. The one comforting thought, in entering this unfamiliar world, was that the friendship group was going through this weirdness together. We weren't all going nuts at the same time.
    I hoped.
    Nell was finishing up at the laptop. She shut it down and closed the lid. She then placed it on a shelf beneath the sales counter. No sense leaving it out as a temptation for