Survivors (Harmony Book 3) by Margaret Ball

Author:Margaret Ball [Ball, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Galway Publishing
Published: 2017-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Now that she didn’t have a job to go to or any food to bring home, Jillian tried to make herself useful around the Donteven. Until her knee got better she couldn’t do much; Merdis suggested she help old Mariya to make blankets.

The clear cold days provided enough light for Mariya Yair to sit by a window and sew until her hands got too cold to move. She took worn-out pre-smartcloth clothes that the residents had discarded or that the Abadi boys brought home from their foraging expeditions, cut out the good pieces of fabric, and patched the scraps together to make blankets and bulky jackets. Jillian actually got to sew three scraps together before Mariya demoted her to bringing hot cups of tea and tying the patched blankets to their backing with separate knots scattered all over the surface. Well, all right, so she hadn’t exactly got those three scraps flat; they’d come out more of a pyramid shape. Jillian still thought she could learn, but Mariya said she wasn’t having any more precious fabric messed about like that.

Even the blanket-tying was a verdict on Jillian’s incompetence. Before her hands got so bad this winter Mariya had quilted her patchwork creations in beautiful flowing patterns, but she laughed out loud when she saw the big irregular stitches that were Jillian’s attempt to emulate her. “Know what we call stitches like those, girl? Toenail catchers! Never mind, tying is quicker than quilting and we all need more blankets as fast as you and I can make them!”

Once she could stand easily, Jillian was more than happy to help Merdis Abadi with the cooking. She didn’t have to worry about Trisha; the necessary oil stove made the Abadi kitchen the warmest room in the building, and the few women without jobs turned it into an unofficial clubhouse where Trisha was happy to spend hours.

As she had donated their huge supply of cooking oil to the communal larder, Jillian didn’t feel quite like a freeloader – yet – but it still made her feel better to do a stint of chopping and peeling for Merdis. Being around other people was good for Trisha, too. She donated some of her less disgusting herbal teas to the kitchen. After they got home from work, the twins from the third floor, Sheri and Stayci, kept a kettle on the boil and whisked round with hot mugs of “tea” for everyone who had a hand free to take one. The twins teased Trisha, claiming that after the baby was born she would become a boyfriend-snatching menace.

“It’s that look in her eye,” Stayci would say. “You can tell this girl is a wild one!”

“No, it’s the heart-shaped face,” said Sheri. “Men always fall for these kitten-faced girls! We’re just lucky that Nathan is so short-sighted, he can’t see past the big belly to the pretty face. But when she’s got her figure back, I’m never letting Nathan loose on the second floor again!”

The twins shared –

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.