Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt

by Leah Day

  Ms. Bunny flew through the air and smashed against the closet door, landing in a heap on the carpet. Rose looked down and let out a surprised giggle. A small piece of brown fabric was still gripped in her hand.

  Mally’s vision went red and she lashed out with both fists at her sister. She was a head and a half shorter, but her burst of anger more than made up for her size. Time lost all meaning as Mally punched and kicked.

  Strong hands suddenly gripped her shoulders and Dad was yelling, “Girls! STOP!”

  Mally landed one more smack to Rose’s face before she was lifted straight into the air and set on her feet. Rose had a split lip and a series of long scratches down her thick neck. Mally’s hair felt like it’d been pulled out by the roots.

  “She attacked me! My lip is bleeding!” Rose yelled.

  “YOU KILLED BUNNY!” Mally screamed back. Her body shook violently as she heard Rose’s giggle play over and over through her mind. She thought it was FUNNY. I hate her. I hate her. I HATE her.

  “What happened… girls… Mally? What is going on?” Mama stood in the door in her ratty brown bathrobe, looking lost and only half awake.

  Everyone went still. Mama looked terrible. She’d cut her hair very short in the middle of the summer and Mally still had to look twice to recognize her. Her face was still beautiful with high cheekbones and a widow’s peak crowning her forehead, but it wasn’t the same without her long brown hair. Mama’s eyes were sunk deep in their sockets and her skin was so pale, Mally wondered when she’d last been outside.

  Tears poured down Mally’s face as she picked up the ear. “Rose… ripped… her ear off.” Her words came in gasps as she held up the scrap of fabric.

  “Rose, downstairs, now!” Dad barked.

  “It was an accident! She–”

  “NOW!” Dad and Mama both yelled. It was a surprise, and Mama seemed to wake up slightly as she added, “You sleep on the couch tonight, Rose.”

  “What? Why do I have to sleep on the couch?” Rose whined, but Dad had had enough.

  “OUT!” He pulled Rose up by the arm and marched her out of the room. Mama bent down and picked up Ms. Bunny from the floor. She sighed and sat down on Mally’s bed and held out her hands for the ear. Mally didn’t want to see Ms. Bunny’s head. What if it was all ripped apart? What if she was broken beyond repair?

  Mama took the scrap of cloth and stared at it for a long moment.

  “I’m so sorry. I won’t be able to fix this as well as your Grandma could.” As Mama spoke, tears began running down her face. It didn’t matter how many times Mally saw it, watching her mother cry always made her want to cry too.

  Mama sniffed and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “But I’ll try my best.” She picked up the doll and ear and wandered out of the room. Mally watched her go and wished for the thousandth time that Grandma would just come home. Please, just come back home.

  * * * * *

  The next morning Mally woke up early to find Ms. Bunny nestled in her arms. She looked closely at her head and the place where her ear was attached and found a row of neat brown stitches holding it in place. Pure relief and happiness bloomed in her chest. Bunny was okay!

  She hugged her close and whispered, “I will never let that happen again. I’m so sorry, Ms. Bunny.”

  She looked at her doll again and met her comforting gaze. She imagined Ms. Bunny saying, “It’s okay. I understand. I forgive you.” She threaded her soft ears through her fingers and was relieved to find it felt the same as usual. It still didn’t make up for what Rose had done, but at least the doll wasn’t broken beyond repair.

  Mally rolled onto her back and let her mind drift over the events of the day before. Here in her bed, she couldn’t quite believe what had happened. The world seemed so normal with cars passing on the street outside and the sun shining in the window. How could there be a whole different world inside Grandma’s quilt?

  But it had to be real. Mally had slept with the scraps of blue fabric tucked under her pillow. She pulled them out and showed them to Ms. Bunny.

  “I’m going back into the quilt today. Quilst, I think that’s what Patch called it,” Mally said. “And you’re coming too.” She couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her friend behind when she’d only just been stitched back together.

  She picked up her sewing box from the floor and dumped the contents on her bed. She sorted through the materials, then jumped off the bed to retrieve the supplies she’d stashed in her jeans pocket yesterday.

  Gently, Mally tucked Ms. Bunny into the sewing box and placed the scissor necklace between her skinny arms. She added all five spools of thread, her thimble, pack of sewing needles. Then she tucked in as many fabric scraps around the corners as she could.

  It was a tight fit and she apologized to Ms. Bunny for squishing her in. Slipping the box into her bookbag, Mally assessed her situation. Would she need anything else in the quilt? She thought about the door swinging shut and had an idea. Dad would often prop the door to the hall closet open with a plastic wedge when he was organizing tools for a job.

  She dressed quickly, pulling on her best fitting pair of jeans and favorite long sleeved red shirt. For once she didn’t have to fight Rose for the bathroom. She brushed the tangles out of her hair and washed her face, then raced downstairs to search the closet.

  She found the wedge on a shelf near the door and quickly stuffed it into the front pocket of her bookbag. Her hands shook slightly as she pulled the zipper closed. She couldn’t wait to return to the quilt, to meet up with Patch and bring Grandma home. Mally would find her. She just knew it.

  Heading into the kitchen, she stopped in her tracks as she spotted Dad sitting at the table with his head in his hands. He looked up quickly as she walked in and shifted his hands to grip his coffee cup instead. “Morning.”

  “Good morning,” she said, carefully setting her bag next to the table so the metal box inside didn’t make a sound. “Mama fixed Bunny last night. She did a really good job too. I can barely see the stitches.”

  A strange look passed over Dad’s face. “Better make yourself some breakfast, kid. We’ve gotta get going.”

  Mally couldn’t help but express her newfound hope. “I think everything is going to start getting better, Dad. I can feel it.”

  He stared at her, blankly. Mally smiled and did a silly little dance and sang, “The sun is coming back today, today. The sun is coming out today!”

  He chuckled softly and shook his head. “Gonna need a lot of sunshine to brighten up this place.”

  Mally felt another burst of joy at making Dad laugh, even just a little bit. She made a bowl of cereal and sat down to eat feeling better than she had in weeks.

  Unfortunately, her happy mood faded quickly as Rose wandered into the room. Her long hair was disheveled and it didn’t look like she’d gotten much sleep last night. I will never forgive her, Mally thought. Ms. Bunny may be fixed, but she would never forget what Rose did.

  Rose sat down and Mally shifted in her seat so she was as far away from her as possible without falling off her chair. They finished breakfast in silence and Rose rinsed the bowls in the sink. Her sister’s punishment must have been bad because she didn’t call shotgun or make a single nasty comment the entire ride to school.

  Mally had to jump out of the truck and open the small door to the extended cab to let Rose out at school. Her sister’s skirt was pulled up in the back and her thighs jiggled as she tried to tug it down quickly. Mally relished the sight of Rose’s bright red face as she struggled to fix her clothes and carry her bags at the same time.

  Mally slammed the door shut and just like magic, her happy, hopeful mood was back. She leaned against her bookbag and felt the hard edges of the sewing box press against her back. It felt so good knowing Ms. Bunny was with her and in just a few hours they would be back at Grandma’s house.

 
When they reached her school, Mally leaned over and planted a quick kiss on Dad’s cheek. “I love you, Daddy.”

  He jumped a little, but then a tired smile spread across his face. “Love you too, baby girl. Have a good day.”

  * * * * *

  Thankfully, it was a good day and even more thankfully it passed quickly. For the first time since the start of the school year, Mally got through the day easily without even thinking about crying.

  It all seemed so silly now. How could she have ever thought Grandma was dead? She was so healthy and active. She’d hopped in her car and driven across two states to participate in a quilting shop hop once with only a day’s notice. Someone who did that couldn’t just wander off and get lost in their own neighborhood, could they?

  The only hard part of the day was when Audrey asked about sewing costumes. Mally wanted to tell her friend everything, but she felt torn. What if she brought Grandma back today? She doubted they would have time to sew costumes before the Renaissance festival. She wanted to tell her friend about the quilt too, but how? It sounded crazy even to herself.

  She compromised by showing Audrey her sewing box at recess. Carefully tucking Ms. Bunny deep into her backpack, she pulled out the box and showed her friend the fabric scraps, thread and needles.

  “Check out those scissors! Awesome!” Audrey said, carefully lifting the silver chain.

  “Yeah, Grandma gave me those for Christmas last year.” For once talking about Grandma didn’t make Mally feel like crying. “Here, you pick the fabrics and I’ll cut out squares.”

  Audrey selected a strip of pink fabric and a weirdly shaped scrap of teal. Mally hacked at the cloth with the tiny scissors, trying to cut square-ish shapes the best she could. Then she pulled out the spool of white thread, needles, and showed Audrey how to stitch the pieces together.

  Sort of. Badly.

  “Is it supposed to be like this?” Audrey asked, wiggling her fingers between her huge stitches.

  “I don’t think so. Does this look right to you?” Mally showed off her seam which was curled up like a tube. For some reason the thread kept looping over the raw edge of the fabrics instead of forming a straight line. Both girls looked at their seams and laughed. Between the monster stitches in Audrey’s patch and the snarled edges of Mally’s they were a sight to see.

  Even though it looked terrible, they kept stitching. Mally cut out more squares and soon the ground around them was littered with leftover bits of thread and cloth. Audrey connected two squares together, then two more.

  “Can I do this?” She asked, holding the two pieces side by side so they formed a checkerboard with two squares in pink and two squares in teal.

  “Yeah, Grandma did that all the time. Just stitch along the edge the same way,” Mally said. “That’s a quilt block, but I can’t remember what it’s called.”

  “What it’s called? It has a name?”

  “Yeah, they usually do. Grandma was always piecing new quilt blocks and would tell me their names sometimes. I remember Turkey Tracks and Churn Dash… and that’s about it.” Mally sped up her stitching to catch up with Audrey. Her last seam was a mess of knots and loops, but by the end of recess they had both stitched four little squares together.

  Mally pressed the quilt block flat on her thigh. The seams didn’t match up in the middle like Grandma’s, but when she spread it out, the patchwork took on a whole different look. “Wow! It looks good from this side.”

  “Just don’t look at the back,” Audrey laughed. “I think we need better instructions. That was a lot harder than it looks.” She handed her quilt block and needle back to Mally.

  “We just need more practice,” Mally said, thinking about Patch’s thousand stitches. “I’ll see if I can bring a book from Grandma’s house. Do your Grandmas sew or quilt?”

  “Maybe.” Audrey crinkled up her nose as she thought about it. “We have one quilt in the closet with red baskets on it or something like that, but my mom never lets me touch it. Both my Grandmas live far away, though, so I don’t see them very much.”

  * * * * *

  The final bell rang and Mally gathered her supplies and stuffed everything into her bookbag. Her heart pounded at the thought that very soon she would be back in Grandma’s sewing room, back inside the quilt. Audrey noticed she was walking quicker than usual.

  “What’s up? I’m not in a hurry to get on my bus.”

  “I know, I’m just excited about getting back to Grandma’s house. I’ll find us some more fabric to play with tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I think we’re going to need a lot to get any good,” Audrey said, laughing. She waved good-bye and Mally broke into a run, loving the feel of her bookbag banging against her back.

  She made it to the high school in just a few minutes and wove quickly through the halls.

  “Watch it!” a cluster of girls snapped as Mally shoved past them through the front doors.

  “Sorry!” Mally yelled back as she broke into a run. She was nearly at the parking lot, excitement building the closer she came to Grandma’s house.

  “Mally, wait up!” She heard a familiar voice behind her, but she didn’t slow down. Unfortunately her sister’s legs were much longer than hers, and Rose caught up easily.

  “Hey, I waited for you today,” Rose said.

  Mally said nothing. She wanted to shove her sister away, push her down so she would shut up and leave her alone. Of all the days she could pick to pretend to be nice, why did it have to be today? She walked faster, ignoring her sister.

  “Why are you in such a hurry?” Rose said, laughing now.

  She’s still laughing about it. She tore off Bunny’s ear like it was all just a big fat joke. Mally sped up, running even faster now down the road. She saw the lights starting to change up ahead and had an idea. She slowed down as if she would stop at the intersection and heard Rose’s pace match hers.

  Then at the last second, she charged across the street. The cars had just started to move as she flashed past. Horns blared behind her, but she made it across and kept running, turning the corner onto Spruce Street.

  Distantly she could hear Rose yelling from behind, “Mally! Mally, oh my God, that was so stupid! What are you doing?”

  Mally could hear panic in her voice, but she didn’t look back as she put her head down and ran as fast as she could up the sidewalk. She got lucky with the lights on Elm and was able to cross to Maple Street without having to stop. She glanced back and couldn’t see Rose behind her. Good.

  Sweat poured down her back as she hopped, skipped, and jumped her way up the cracked sidewalk on Maple Street. She nearly tripped in front of the spooky gray house but managed to catch herself just in time. She was just turning the corner onto Oak when she heard Mrs. Whittaker calling, “Mally Spencer! Mally Spencer! What are you doing?”

  “Sorry, Mrs. Whittaker, I really have to pee!” Mally yelled, not slowing down.

  “Oh, go on then, little girl!”

  Mally was so shocked she almost stopped running. Mrs. Whittaker had never let her walk past without at least a ten minute chat. She’ll probably catch Rose, though, and she won’t have such a good excuse. She grinned in triumph as she turned onto Grandma’s driveway and gravel crunched under her sneakers.

  Mally reached the side door in record time and could feel sweat running down her back. She pulled out her key and with shaking hands opened the door. The alarm blared, but she didn’t bother entering the code. She unlocked the second door to the kitchen and rushed through the house and up the stairs.

  She slowed only as she neared Grandma’s sewing room. Mally felt a mixture of excitement and fear as she turned the door knob. What if I imagined everything? she thought. What if there isn’t even a quilt on the table?

  She slipped inside the sewing room and shut the door tightly. The room looked just as it had the day before and right in t
he middle was the cutting table with the landscape quilt spread out on top. She crossed the room slowly, ignoring the sound of the alarm which had just doubled in volume.

  The lush green landscape stretched out before her and Mally stroked her fingers over the even rows of green stitches. She barely noticed the line of cut stitches around the sun or the new spider webs stitched along the base of each mountain triangle. Her eyes were focused on the door block pieced to the left edge of the quilt.

  Please, please let this work, Mally thought as she reached out to touch the tiny silver button.

  Nothing happened.

  Mally gasped. Had it all been a dream? She wanted it to be real so badly. And Patch, that snarky, patchwork cat – he had said he would take her to Grandma. Had she just imagined it all?

  But then she gave the button just the slightest twist as if she were opening the door. A smile spread across her face as a sudden wind blew through the room, pulling her against the cutting table.

  “I’m coming, Grandma. I’m coming to find you,” she said as the door clicked open. She leaned into the rush of air and left the real world behind once again.

  Chapter 3 - Stuck in the Spider’s Web

  Rolling hills of green yarn grass stretched out for miles. Mally grinned from ear to ear. I’m here! she thought. It was all real! I’m going to find Grandma today!

  Her heart swelled with hope, and she longed to take off her shoes again and run through the field. But first she had to take care of the door. Mally leaned down and pulled the plastic wedge out of her backpack. Jamming it under the door, she checked and double checked that it couldn’t swing closed.

  Satisfied, Mally took off running across the quilt. She raced up one hill, then another, barely feeling winded as she sprinted over the grassy slopes. She stopped at the top of a particularly tall hill and looked out over the landscape. She loved the variety of colors in the green fabrics and yarns. The hill she was standing on was bright lime green and decorated with a fine green yarn that rose to her knees. The next hill was pieced from much darker fabric with thick rows of chunky yarn stitched to the surface.