Sins and Needles
Page 29
It was a short, slender woman with silver hair and shining blue eyes, carrying a Chinese-red vase filled with red, white and lavender roses. Their fragrance came wafting before her.
“Please come in,” said Lucille. “I think I know who you are.”
“And I know you are my daughter,” said Susan. She came in quickly, put the vase on the table, moved it aside, and bent to kiss the bruised face under its burden of bandages. “These are from my garden.”
“They’re beautiful,” said Lucille, and immediately burst into tears.
“Here now, here now, none of that,” soothed Susan. “You’re still in recovery, and we don’t want to complicate things.” She picked up one of Lucille’s hands and stroked it tenderly.
“Yes, yes, I’m all right. I’ll be fine in a minute.” Lucille sniffed and blinked. “There, see? I’m a good little Minnesotan, all over that now.” The sobs had, indeed, stopped, but the tears still streamed, running out of the corners of her eyes to be soaked up by her bandages.
Susan pulled a Kleenex from the little box of them on the table and gently wiped her daughter’s eyes. “Good thing you’re all over crying. They charge about ten dollars apiece for Kleenex in this place.”
Lucille choked on a laugh. “Isn’t it scary how much things cost in a hospital? Oh, I had so many important things to say to you, and here we are talking about Kleenex!”
“The first thing I want to say is, I never stopped thinking about you. Every single day I thought about you—even when I thought you were a stillborn baby boy.” Her smile was bittersweet.
“And ever since I found out I was adopted, I dreamed of meeting my genetic mama and daddy—I’m so sorry I missed seeing him.”
“So am I. He was a very sweet man.” She studied Lucille’s face. “I think you have his eyes. But just like Jan and Jason, you have your grandfather John’s big bones and fair coloring.”
“Oh, I hope you have lots of pictures!” said Lucille. “And that reminds me, Bobby Lee brought the present I made for you to the hospital. It’s in the closet over there, on the top shelf.” She nodded toward a corner of the room.
As Susan walked over to the closet, she turned back to look again and again at the daughter she never knew she had. In the closet, on the top shelf, was a shallow box about twenty inches long and fourteen inches wide. It was wrapped in pink paper tied with a pink bow. Susan took it down and brought it back to the bed.
“What’s in here?” she asked.
“It’s for you,” said Lucille. “Open it.”
With swift economy, Susan pulled off the ribbon and undid the paper at one end. Out slid a white cardboard box. When Susan lifted the lid, she found a photo album with a cover made of white imitation leather. She lifted it and found an unframed counted cross-stitch piece done all in shades of brown on white aida cloth. About ten by eleven inches, it depicted a newborn’s head and shoulder surrounded by her mother’s face on top and arms coming up behind to cradle the back of her head.
“Oh, my,” murmured Susan.
“I thought maybe you did that before you let me go,” said Lucille. “I was so sorry to find out you never did.”
“I have wished every day since you were born that I had gotten a chance to hold you. This is very beautiful.”
“Do you like it? I sent all the way to England for it. It’s called Tenderness. Vervaco’s the name of the company. I never heard of them before, but I saw a model of it online and just had to get it to do for you. I had thought about a birth sampler, but that seemed kind of silly. I wanted something to give you, to make you think of me when I was just new.” Tears threatened to spill from Lucille’s eyes again.
“Thank you, my dear, it’s exactly right. But what’s in this album?” Susan turned a page and found a photocopy of Lucille’s adoption certificate and beside it, a photograph of a baby in a woman’s arms, a man standing proudly beside them.
And on successive pages, carefully reproduced, were photographs of Lucille through her childhood and teen years, with loving parents, birthday cakes, and rowdy friends. For the next hour, the two women went through the album, talking and laughing. In the later pages, one young man started showing up more frequently until he stood beside her in an ill-fitting tux, she radiant in bridal regalia.
On the last few pages were photographs of a boy and then a girl—the boy looking a great deal like his father, the girl like her mother—as infants, then children, then adults.
“Your grandchildren,” said Lucille proudly. “Glen’s the boy, Wanda’s the girl—she’s nearly finished with her internship as a veterinarian.”
“What does Glen do?” asked Susan. By now she was perched comfortably on the edge of the bed.
“He’s an airplane mechanic for American Airlines at Dallas/Fort Worth International. He works on the jet engines and is taking classes to be certified on the electrical wiring systems. He earns more money than I do, and he’s going to get married next year to a wonderful girl,” Lucille finished proudly. “Wanda wants to work with both large and small animals—she’s crazy about horses. She never outgrew that horse thing some girls get into. But she’s really good with cats. Her doctor says she can just put her hand on a scared cat, and it calms right down.”
Hearing a noise, they both looked around to see a tall, thin man with salt and pepper hair and a bashful air standing in the doorway.
“Bobby Lee,” said Lucille, “come in and meet your mama-in-law, Ms. McConnell.”
“Call me Susan,” said Susan, extending a hand.
The man came to take it in his own large, knobby one. “I’m pleased to meet you,” he said, and then to his wife, “The doctor says he wants to take another X-ray of your head and chest. I think he wants to see how much of your brains have leaked out.”
“Now, don’t go teasing a poor, sick, weak woman,” scolded Lucille, but without any sting to her words. She looked up at Susan, then again at her husband, then down at the album. “I feel as if a blank place in my personal history has been filled right up, and the story is good, even if there are some sad parts to it,” she said. “I feel really bad about Uncle Stewart. I wish—”
“There’s nothing that can be done about your Uncle Stewart,” said Susan firmly. “Save your pity for his daughters.”
“Is there anything we can do for them?”
“I don’t know. Probably not right now. Stewart has sown the wind, and his wife and daughters are caught in the whirlwind. But the storm will pass, and maybe then we can do something.”
Lucille looked up again into the clear blue eyes of her mother. Lost—and found, she thought. “We’ll think of something, I’m sure. All of us, together.”
Flag of the United States of America
Knitting Pattern by Denise E. Williams
Skill level: Enthusiastic Intermediate
A knitting pattern for an “anatomically correct” U.S. flag, with a suggestion of apple-pie top crust!
The Star Field is written as a graphed chart. A knitting chart is really a knitter’s lingua franca—if you can read a chart, you can knit patterns from all over the universe!
This design uses one color, in pattern stitches to withstand pillow fights and dedicated lounging. The ambitious among us could add red, white, and blue to spectacular effect. Or, embellish the final piece with beads, ribbon, sequins…
Dimensions will vary, but the finished piece will be about 14" W × 22" L.
ABBREVIATIONS:
K = knit
P = purl st. = stitch(es)
CO = cast on
P2tog = purl two stitches together
Moss Stitch = 1st row, K1, P1.
2nd row, K the Ps and P the Ks
Repeat these two rows.
Cable 2B = [P1, slip next 2 st. onto cable needle and hold in back of work, K2, K2 st. from cable needle, P1]
MATERIALS:
2 skeins Patons Decor worsted weight, pale taupe heather. Or substitute your favorite worsted-weight wool.
&n
bsp; Size 7 knitting needles, or size to get a comfortable gauge
1 cable needle
14 ring markers
PATTERN
CO 76 using your favorite cast-on method.
Rows 1-7: Moss Stitch.
Row 8: This row sets up the border and the thirteen stripes.
Moss Stitch 5 st., place marker.
P1, K4, P1, place marker. This will be a “red” stripe, in a four-stitch cable.
K4, place marker. This will be a “white” stripe.
P1, K4, P1, place marker
K4, place marker
P1, K4, P1, place marker
K4, place marker
P1, K4, P1, place marker
K4, place marker
P1, K4, P1, place marker
K4, place marker
P1, K4, P1, place marker
K4, place marker
P1, K4, P1, place marker
Moss stitch 5 st.
Your piece should now have a five-stitch wide Moss Stitch border on either end and the thirteen stripes marked off in the body of the piece.
Row 9: Moss Stitch 5 st. K the Ks and P the Ps across. End Moss Stitch 5 st.
Row 10: Repeat row 8, slipping markers instead of placing them.
Row 11: Repeat row 9, slipping markers as you go.
Row 12: Moss Stitch 5 st. *Cable 2B; P2tog twice* repeat between *’s across body, end Cable 2B. Moss Stitch 5 st.
Row 13: Moss Stitch 5 st. *K1, P4, K1; P1 in front and back of next 2 st. *repeat across body. End K1, P4, K1. Moss Stitch 5 st.
Row 14: Moss Stitch 5 st. *P1, K4, P1; K4* repeat across. End P1, K4, P1. Moss Stitch 5 st.
Row 15: Keeping Moss Stitch border as established, K the Ks and P the Ps across stripes.
Now that the Moss Stitch border is established, the remaining instructions will assume five stitches of Moss Stitch on either side of the outermost markers. The instructions continue for the stripes only.
Row 16: *Cable 2B, K4* end Cable 2B.
Row 17: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 18: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 19: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 20: *Cable 2B; P2tog twice* repeat across body, end Cable 2B.
Row 21: *K1, P4, K1; P1 in front and back of next 2 st. *repeat across body. End K1, P4, K1.
Row 22: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 23: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 24: *Cable 2B, K4* end Cable 2B.
Row 25: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 26: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 27: K the Ks and P the Ps across.
Row 28-87: Repeat rows 20-27. The instructions are much
more daunting in print than in yarn on needles in your hands. Basically, you will be twisting the cables every four rows, and drawing in and expanding the white stripes every 8 rows.
THE STAR FIELD
Row 88: Moss Stitch 5 st. P across the next 36 stitches, removing markers and decreasing 1 st. so the Star Field totals 35 stitches. Place marker. Continue stripes as established. End Moss Stitch 5 st.
Your piece should now have the five-stitch wide Moss Stitch border on either end and the star field and remaining six stripes marked off.
Row 89: Keeping stripes and Moss Stitch borders as established, K across the Star Field.
Row 90: Keeping Moss Stitch borders and stripes as established, begin reading Row 1 of the star field chart.
Complete Row 54 of the star field chart. Decrease 1 st. toward the center of the piece to adjust the stitch count so that it will be in step with the Moss Stitch border.
Remove all markers, and Moss Stitch 7 rows. Bind off in Moss Stitch!