Needle and Thread
Authors: Ann M. Martin
This book is for Emma Kosi
Chapter 1 Autumn in Camden Falls
Chapter 2 A Peek in the Windows
Chapter 9 The Witches of Camden Falls
Chapter 15 Happy Birthday, Olivia!
Chapter 17 The Fire at the Factory
Chapter 20 The First Thanksgiving
On a September day, the last day of summer vacation for the children of Camden Falls, Massachusetts, a chilly breeze blew through town.
“Good gravy, it's cool this morning!” Min Read exclaimed to her granddaughters as they stepped outside. “I think I need to grab a sweater. Are you two going to be warm enough?”
“Yup,” Flora and Ruby answered.
And Ruby added, “We don't need sweaters.”
As Min hurried back inside, the girls danced through the carpet of acorns on the sidewalk in front of the Row Houses, where they lived with their grandmother.
“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” Flora asked her sister.
“About starting school?”
Flora nodded.
“A little,” admitted Ruby. She would be starting fourth grade and Flora would be starting sixth. “But I'm not going to think about that. I'm trying to memorize all the songs from
Annie
. That's my goal.”
“Your goal for what?” asked Flora.
“Just my goal. In case I'm ever asked to audition for a production of the show. It could happen, you know.” Then, seeing the expression on Flora's face, she added hurriedly, “Well, it
could
.”
“I didn't say it couldn't.”
“You were thinking it.”
“How do you know what I was thinking?”
“Girls?” said their grandmother as she emerged from their house wearing a sweater she had knitted herself. “Do I hear squabbling?”
“No,” said Flora as she set off down the sidewalk.
“Yes,” said Ruby. “But not bad squabbling.” She kicked an acorn ahead of her as she ran after her grandmother and sister. For an old lady, Min was pretty quick. And busy, which was why, when Flora and Ruby were much smaller, they had begun to call her Min. It was short for Mindy, which was her name, and for “In a minute,” which she used to say all the time.
Ruby skipped along. “
Send a flood, send the flu, anything that you can dooooo
,” she sang, and she let her voice rise, “
to little giiiiirls!
”
Ahead of her, Min turned around. “What on earth is she singing?” she asked Flora.
“It's okay. It's a song from
Annie
.”
“Lord love a duck,” murmured Min.
Flora retreated into silence. She was cataloging the signs of fall that they passed on their way to Needle and Thread, the sewing store that Min owned with her friend Mrs. Walter. Above, the dry leaves in the oak trees rattled in the breeze. In the yard of a house on the other side of Aiken Avenue, one entire garden was now overrun with lavender autumn crocuses, their long leaves spilling over the rocky border and onto the lawn. On some of the fir trees, Flora could see tiny pinecones. She thought of collecting a basketful of them and painting them gold and silver to use in Christmas decorations.
And with that one simple thought, which last year would have brought her such pleasure, a curtain fell across Flora's brain. She drew in several deep breaths as she trotted along with Min.
Min glanced at her. “Everything all right, honey?”
“Yup,” said Flora. She loved Min, but she found herself unable to share her new worries with her. She willed herself to chase away the thoughts in her head and tried concentrating on the sounds behind her.
“⦠betcha they're smart. Bet they collect things like ashtrays and aaaaart!”
Flora thought about the photo in her pocket, the one that had so frightened her the night before. She put her hand on it to make sure it was there. She planned to show it to her friend Olivia later that morning.
“Hurry up, girls!” Min called as she turned onto Main Street. “We're late this morning, and it's all my fault.”
Moments later, Min Read and her granddaughters reached Needle and Thread. Flora flung open the door, the bell jangling above her. Mrs. Walter, Olivia's grandmother (called Gigi by her grandchildren and by Flora and Ruby), had already put the coffee on and was arranging new sewing and quilting magazines in the rack near the cash register.
“I'm sorry we're late,” said Min breathlessly. “I had to go back for a sweater.”
“No worries,” replied Mrs. Walter. “I've only been here a few minutes myself.”
During the next hour, Flora and Ruby helped Min and Gigi get ready for the day, and then Flora plopped herself down on one of the couches at the front of Needle and Thread, the couches where customers sat when they dropped by for a chat-and-stitch. She gazed out the wide window and watched Main Street come to life.
Flora and Ruby had lived in Camden Falls for just over two months, so watching Main Street come to life was still interesting, at least to Flora. She wondered if it would always be interesting. Or would she one day be so used to this town that she wouldn't notice the details anymore? She thought about her old home, the town in which she and Ruby had grown up. She didn't remember many of the details. Was that because she had been so used to everything?
Flora stared moodily out the window at Stuff 'n' Nonsense across the street. Maybe she should have paid more attention to her old town, to her street, her house, her room, her parents. But how could she have known it would all be taken away from her? She was thankful, of course, that after her parents' accident Min had been able to care for her and Ruby. And Flora liked Camden Falls. She did. She was making friends. There was Nikki, who'd recently started visiting Needle and Thread. And, of course, Olivia, who lived next door in the Row Houses. Although Olivia was a year younger than Flora, she had skipped second grade and would be in Mrs. Mandel's sixth-grade class with Flora and Nikki when school started the next day.
Flora liked Needle and Thread, too. She liked her other neighbors in the Row Houses. She liked lots of things here. But here wasn't home for Flora. Not yet.
Now autumn was arriving. Ordinarily, this was Flora's favorite time of the year. Ruby's, too. Autumn meant pumpkins and new shoes and a fresh school year. And it meant that the holidays were on the way. Halloween first, then Thanksgiving and Christmas. This was what made the curtain fall across Flora's brain: the holidays. How could she face them without her parents? How could Ruby and Min face them?
“Flora?” Flora felt her grandmother's hands on her shoulders and turned to see Min standing behind the couch. “It's your last day of vacation. Do you really want to sit here all morning? Soon enough you'll be complaining that you don't have any time for sewing or knitting or making cards.”
Flora heaved a great sigh. “I know,” she replied. She stood up wearily and looked around Needle and Thread. “Where's Ruby?”
“Running errands for Gigi and me.”
Flora thought about strolling up and down Main Street until she found her sister. One of the best things about living in Camden Falls was being allowed freedom and independence. Her old home had been two miles from town â a town that was much bigger than Camden Falls. Flora and Ruby had never ever been allowed to roam it by themselves. But this new town was different. Main Street really was the main street, even though it was only a few blocks long. A person could walk from one end of downtown Camden Falls to the other in fifteen minutes. The Row Houses were a seven-minute walk, exactly, from Needle and Thread.
While Flora stood by the couch, deciding whether to find Ruby or to work on the patchwork quilt she had begun the week before, the bell over the door to the store jangled, and in walked Robby Edwards and his mother.
“Flora!” exclaimed Robby. “Good morning! We start school tomorrow. Are you excited? Are you scared?”
Flora smiled. “Hi, Robby,” she said. Robby was seventeen years old and one of the most cheerful people Flora had ever met.
“I'm going to be in the high school,” Robby went on.
Flora knew that Robby, who had Down syndrome, attended a special education class at Camden Falls Central High School.