The Strange Quilter Read Online Free PDF

someone to steal. It could be seen through the storefront window at night, if left on the counter. Nell walked from behind the counter over to the friendship group table. She grabbed a corn chip, poked it into the bean dip, and crunched down on it. “I'm glad you all participated in the block sharing. It's interesting that they're all Rolling Star block patterns, and that they all have a single color theme.”
    “What's this all about?” Sharon asked.
    “Yeah,” I added.
    Nell took another chip from the bowl and dipped it into the bean dip once again. Corn chips were addictive once you started eating them. “Actually, we have a surprise speaker coming tonight,” Nell said, after finishing her chip.
    Maxine looked happy, smiled widely, and said, “Really? Someone famous?”
    Nell looked as if she was ready to speak right away, but instead, quietly contemplated an answer that was truthful, yet not too revealing – at least, that was my take on her attitude. She finally said, “Our guest has appeared at various times on the cover of those newsprint gossip magazines, the ones with the outlandish headlines at the checkout counter of the grocery store.”
    I was hooked by Nell's introduction, but felt I shouldn't be. Nell may have suffered an early onset of dementia and needs to see a professional. Every member of the friendship group sat bewildered, wondering about what Nell had just said. Was she losing her mind? Was she pulling a prank? Or, was she as sane as could be – in which case, we'd better prepare ourselves for what was coming next. The ghost of Elizabeth Taylor?
    Nell gestured for us to look at the back door that led to the shop's storage room. She said, in all seriousness, “Please give a warm welcome to Vanod, who will be visiting our friendship group this afternoon.” The back door opened, and a tall slim figure, wearing a black leather trench coat, walked into the room. This person was wearing a mask, a very convincing mask, of a stereotypical alien: gray skin, completely hairless, huge eyes, big brain, tiny chin and mouth, and a mere slit of a nose. The realism was further enhanced by its long thin neck, which had me stumped. It was a very convincing makeup job. The alien impersonator casually strolled towards our table, its hands hidden in the trench coat's pockets. Our special alien guest sat at the end of the table, near where Nell stood.
    Nell walked over to the other end of the table and sat down. Maxine suddenly let out a laugh, then another, until it turned into an avalanche of laughter. The others followed suit, as did I. I could not stop laughing. For whatever reason Nell was pulling this stunt, it was hilarious. The amount of facial detail on the alien mask made it even funnier. Even its eyelids blinked open and shut, just like real living flesh.
    Nell wasn't laughing. She looked somewhat surprised at us for doing so. I thought she would have been pleased that her joke was such an uproarious success! After I thought about it for a minute, I realized her deadpan face was part of the act. She was going to milk this for all it was worth. Maybe she was having this filmed for some television show, like Funniest Home Videos.
    Sharon got right into the spirit of it and asked, “So Vanod, where's your spaceship?” This brought another round of laughter. Nell sat quietly, her hands folded together on the table in a nearly prayerful manner, observing our reactions to her invited guest.
    Vanod said, “I don't have a spaceship. That's not how we get around.” Its voice was a pleasant baritone, well modulated. It was an extremely soothing voice, at least to my ears. My nervousness melted away.
    “Tell the group how you travel,” Nell said.
    Vanod's large black eyes made it unclear exactly where or who it was looking at. Vanod said, “Where I come from, when we want to travel to another world, we enter into a travel request queue. Then we are processed in a buffer, turned into abstract data,