Old Maid's Puzzle (4 page)

She nodded. "Yes, all that. And one more thing. Think computers."

I tried to settle my brain down long enough to think. Computers?

Vangie filled in the blank. "We're going to have to get the online store up and running sooner rather than later."

My hairline tightened. I glanced in the hall. No one was there. I closed the office door. QP Online was not for general consumption. Vangie was the only one who knew about my plan for an online store.

My voice squeaked. "We're..." I started again. "We're not ready for that. We don't have the inventory."

Vangie frowned. "You can't let this opportunity get away from us. QP is going to be beamed into thousands of homes. Hits to our website will be crazy as soon as that show is over."

"But we've got so much else to do before Saturday."

Vangie said, "We can do it." She went into her overdrive mode, talking fast, her voice rising, spit flying. "You take over sending the e-mails out to the customers and updating the database. I've been taking pictures of fabric as it comes in. I just need to load the files and take pictures of some of the older stuff. I'll set up a special email address to handle the traffic. I'll concentrate on getting our webpage more user-friendly."

"Vangie, it's not possible." My head swam with the to-dos on my list. Adding her list to mine was nuts.

"That's what I'm telling you. It is. I can get the webpage ready to accept orders. We won't have all the fabric online, but we can get started."

I nodded, but she wasn't done yet. Her hands were clicking around the computer. I felt her excitement and began to believe her. Maybe we could pull this off.

"I've been talking to PayOne about using their system for collecting the money. They're just waiting for our say-so."

This was about four months earlier than I'd planned. But Vangie was right. It was time to strike. "Are you sure you can do all that?"

Vangie nodded. "Positive" She stopped her mouse and looked at me. "Absolutely."

I blew out a big breath. "Okay. I'll correct the database and send out the e-mails about the sale. You just work on the online store."

She hugged me.

"Promise me one thing. Don't tell anyone yet," I said. This was news my sisterin-law would need to be prepared for.

THREE

WE HEADED FOR THE classroom. My heart sank, because the room was in more disarray than it had been a few moments earlier. Piles of fabric scraps were laid out in between empty soda cans and water bottles littering the tabletop.

Gussie Johnston was on her usual scavenger hunt. She and Ina Schaeffer made up the remainder of the Stitch 'n' Bitch group. Ina was muttering. Damn. I'd hoped we'd have had the place cleared out before she got here. I hated it when she was annoyed with me.

Gussie, on the other hand, hummed happily as she rummaged through the wastepaper baskets. I sucked in a breath to avoid barking at her.

She loved discovering what she called her treasures, abandoned scraps of fabric. She had a point-students in the classes tossed away pieces big enough to be put in a quilt. Bottles and cans were just a recyclable bonus. I used to object, but Ina had told me I was ruining Gussie's fun. So I forced a smile when she greeted me, waving a treasured two-liter bottle.

Gussie bought all her clothes at the secondhand store-and only when they were running a sale. Consequently, her outfits tended to span fashion trends. Today she was wearing jeans with beaded pant legs and a seasonal sweatshirt with a leering scarecrow. A sparkly hair clip, the kind usually found on a playground, was holding back her brown-and-gray-streaked hair. Some people marched to a different drummer; Gussie jigged to a whole 'nother band.

I sidled up to Ina, who was trying to take down an unused table. The leg wouldn't budge. I kicked it expertly. "I'll do this. Go sew.

"We have to set up the quilt frame first. I'm sick of coming in and having to move things before I can find a place to do anything," Ina said. Nothing torqued her off more than a messy classroom.

"Hey," I defended. "You know we're getting ready for the sale this weekend. We're kind of busy."

Jenn looked at me for advice. She was still holding the pile of the QP Original sample quilts that were to be featured on Saturday. "Where can I put these?"

I shrugged. "They'll be hung up in the next day or so. Put them in the store, but keep an eye on them. We can't lose any. Or worse, have them stolen."

Jenn strode out of the room. Vangie followed her with a second pile.

I called after them, "And get the quilt frame out of Celeste's car.

Ina winced as I yelled in her ear. Ina was a member of the Stitch n' Bitch group and an employee. It wasn't good when she came to the store to have fun and ended up working. I tried not to let that happen. I needed her around. Ina had been working at the store longer than anyone else, hired by my mother twenty years ago. I valued her not only for her institutional knowledge, but for her verve and energy.

She was looking around the room, mouth pursed, hands on hips. The whole vibe of this group was off today. Gussie and Celeste were not talking to each other. Ina was unusually cranky. "Where are we going to set up the quilting frame?" she said. "And I'm teaching that Advanced Beginning Quilting class in this room beginning at six."

"Of course I know. I'm in your class, remember? You could have picked a better week to start, but I'm coming anyway. I might be late."

"It's only six nights out of your life, Dewey. You can handle it."

It wasn't the remaining five weeks of the class, it was tonight that was causing the time crunch. I couldn't afford to take three hours out of my night and spend it in class. Especially now. But this class was only offered every six months and I needed to continue learning the basics of quilting. I'd finished the beginning section several weeks ago. After I took this class, Ina's description promised, I'd be able to sew any quilt block. I was still waiting to fall in love with quilting like my customers. So far I was only in "like"

Jenn and Vangie came in with the unwieldy box.

I said, "Will there be enough room for the class once the frame is set up?"

"There's plenty of room," Ina said.

She stiffened as voices flared from the middle of the room.

Celeste was standing, pointing her threaded needle at Gussie. "Get out of the garbage, Gussie."

Gussie reached farther under the table for a can that was scooting away from her. "Oh Celeste, leave me alone. I'm not hurting anyone.

Celeste said, "Pawing through another's trash is unseemly."

"Waste bothers me more than appearing unseemly," she mimicked Celeste perfectly. "You're the worst offender. I found a perfectly good foxglove plant in your trash yesterday."

Pearl said, "Oh that reminds me, Celeste. I planted those seeds you gave me..." She stopped because Celeste was focused on Gussie. She hadn't heard anything Pearl said.

"Dammit!" Celeste rose from her chair. "Stay away from my garbage"

Gussie was unbowed by her friend's ire. She pointed an empty water bottle at Celeste. "Separate your recyclables and I'll leave your garbage alone. I can't sleep at night knowing our landfills are full of your junk."

Celeste said, "Isn't it enough that I bring you my coffee grounds and vegetable trimmings for your compost pile?"

"You benefit from that compost, too," Gussie said.

Pearl said under her breath, "And you don't have to have the mess in your yard."

What was going on? Usually these two could have been the stars of Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" music video.

Ina intervened. "You two know better than to talk about the environment, ladies. Can we shelve it for now?" Ina said. "Let's get the quilt on the frame. We've got work to do."

She opened the box that contained the rods and rails for the quilt frame. I'd seen them assemble this years ago. It would take all four of them several hours to put the frame together and mount the quilt-the better part of the day.

Still clucking, Celeste joined her, laying out a wooden rail on the floor. Pearl took the quilt top to the ironing board and sprayed it with water. The iron came on with a click.

Gussie reluctantly put down the Diet Coke can she was holding, and swept her finds into her tote bag, which she stashed under the table. She started toward the group, but nearly tripped as a rail came rolling toward her.

"Watch what you're doing, Celeste," she said, steadying herself with a hand on a chair back.

"I want to get this finished."

"We've got all day."

"Perhaps you do, but I have many things to attend to. Tonight's the guild meeting and I've got to get home and feed Larry before that."

Today was all fits and starts that were hard for me to watch. It was like having your favorite grandmothers duking it out over stuffing recipes at Thanksgiving dinner.

I picked my way carefully to the whiteboard. I just needed to move Vangie's jobs to my list, then I could return to the sanctuary of my office before I was caught in the crossfire.

Things were quiet except for the hiss of the steam iron, and the sound of the wooden frame pieces banging together. Gussie took a rail from Celeste who was putting it in upside down.

"Let me do it," Gussie said.

Celeste hissed. "Gussie the hussy."

Pearl started to giggle, and I had to turn my head. Celeste's reaction was so over the top. The idea of a slutty Gussie just made me want to howl with laughter. Ina caught my eye.

Ina said, "Girls..."

Gussie got down on the floor to tighten a screw on the crosspiece. "Celeste thinks I'm trying to steal her boyfriend. She has it all wrong. Larry is just helping me with my finances"

"Drop it, Gussie," Celeste warned, her eyes narrowing, her long fingers trembling slightly.

Gussie either didn't see or chose to ignore Celeste's growing discomfort."I'm not interested in Larry that way."

I'd heard bits and pieces about Larry, Celeste's boyfriend, but I'd never met him. She kept him under wraps. I knew Pearl's and Ina's husbands. Pearl sent Hiro to the shop at least once a week for something she forgot. Ina's husband, Dan, was like a member of the family, hosting the store's annual barbecue each summer.

Not so with Celeste. I knew she and Gussie were widows, and before now, I'd never considered their love lives. I'd just assumed they had none. But here they were fighting over the same man. Vangie loved to tease my dad that eligible men over age seventy were rarer than hen's teeth, but I'd never guessed that Celeste or Gussie were in the husband hunt.

I had to ease the tension. I realized I hadn't shared Lark's phone call. "Guess what?" I said as brightly as a child star on Letterman.

Ina picked up the thread. "What? Good news, I hope." Her voice was faux cheerful, like she used on her grandson when she wanted him to stop touching the threads out front.

"Great news," I said. "The Quilter Paradiso segment on Wonderful World of Quilts is going to air on Friday."

Pearl clapped her hands, nearly tipping the ironing board over. She caught the iron as it headed for the floor.

I continued, "The QP Original quilts were featured, so I bet one of your quilts will be on the air."

Gussie smiled. Celeste's face eased just a little. I guess the appeal of being on TV was universal.

"I don't know if it was Celeste's or Gussie's scrap quilt or one of Ina's, but Kym told me she talked about the QPO quilts in the piece."

"Dewey, I want you to see something" Vangie was in the doorway, beckoning me. She was wiggling her eyebrows, and held a finger to her lips, like she was some sort of spy. I followed her, glad to be out of that room.

I heard Ina and Gussie speculating about whose quilt would be on air. As I closed the door, Pearl was promising that Hiro would tape the show and make them all copies.

In our office, Vangie gestured to her monitor. "What do you think?"

The new Quilter Paradiso website filled her screen. Of course with Vangie in charge, the site had a sixties flair, but she'd managed to capture my style, too. Our logo, quilts hanging on a line strung between two palm trees, had been stylized. The palm fronds were lime green, and the tree trunks hot pink. The quilts were brightly colored, with paisleys and stripes and marimekko-style flowers predominating.

"Already?" I asked in amazement. "I love the look."

She shrugged. "I had this prototype ready to go."

I moved the mouse around the home page. "I like the QP Originals section."

"Click through. A picture of the quilt and then a picture of the corresponding kit comes up." Vangie cracked her knuckles as she stared at her computer screen. She wasn't as secure in her abilities as I thought she should be. "It's not live yet. You can't hurt anything."

"Awesome" I moved around the pages, enjoying the top labels she'd used and the background. Vangie knew that quilters used the Internet, but the levels of expertise varied widely. The site was clearly marked and easy to maneuver.

I said, "I'm glad there's nothing blinking."

"Yeah, well, I didn't want any of our older customers to have a stroke," Vangie said.