Chapter 10
10
The beauty of caring for seniors
is realizing that they are heroes
in their own right.
Karen Clark
I ’m growing on her!
Boy howdy, if that thought didn’t put a skip in Teddy’s step as he climbed from Baylin’s truck to deliver her quilt to the guild ladies in town.
She’d hesitated after breakfast Wednesday morning, resisting when he’d offered to drive her quilt into town so she could begin working on the gazillion cookies she planned on baking and decorating over the next two days.
Teddy had persisted.
He’d also convinced her to decorate one out of every three cookies, packaging two unfrosted cookies behind a fancy iced one because, truly, didn’t everyone like plain shortbreads best?
If Baylin didn’t make a few allowances, she’d never get to everything she intended to get done. She’d never have a free minute, never find time to relax, take an evening off, perhaps even pause for a full day…maybe for a baseball game or a road trip or something.
Baylin might not like him, not in the way he’d fallen for her, but she would learn to stop and smell the roses a little before he headed out. On that score, Teddy wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She worked too hard, did too much. If she didn’t slow down a little, life was going to pass her by. Then somewhere down the road, she’d regret not being present on her own journey, not enjoying it more along the way. But by then it would be too late. Teddy couldn’t imagine anything worse than that amazing woman settling for mere contentment. She deserved a life that balanced the farm she loved and the chores she excelled at doing, with time to rest and relax and laugh, a life bursting with joy and happiness…one without regrets.
“Who are you?” a crotchety older woman snapped at Teddy the moment he walked into the church’s fellowship hall. “And why do you have Baylin’s quilt?” she barked.
“Mrs. Jones?” Teddy asked, afraid the lady would answer yes .
“Thank the good Lord, no,” she answered with a tone of haughty disdain. “Do I look like a do-gooder up in everyone’s business?”
Teddy had no answer.
“That’s exactly what you look like, Dottie,” another elderly woman offered, entering the room from the kitchen along the back wall. “And you sound like it, too,” she added. “I’m Mrs. Jones,” she continued, smiling kindly in Teddy’s direction. “Call me Miss Sadie. You ignore Dot— Judge Roberts.”
“The appliqué genius,” Teddy interjected, remembering what Baylin had told him about the talented quilters in the Green Hills area.
“Let’s keep that to ourselves,” Miss Sadie whispered. “She woke up on the wrong side of the bed…back in 1952, and she hasn’t snapped out of it yet. ” She flashed a sly wink at Teddy. “Now, let’s see this quilt. Baylin’s worked on it for months.”
“That’s how she works on everything she does,” Teddy agreed, unfolding the quilt, careful that it didn’t touch the floor.
“Quite true, young man.” Miss Sadie brought her palms together, like prayer hands at her heart, as she leaned forward to examine Baylin’s work. “Ooh,” she gasped. “It’s incredible,” she praised. “Dottie, come look,” she called out without taking her eyes from the quilt. “She managed at least a dozen stitches per inch…amazing.”
“And it’s her first quilt to enter in a contest,” Teddy added, just to make sure these ladies realized how amazing it — she — was.
“Yes,” Miss Sadie said. She glanced up at Teddy with a gleam in her eye. “And it’s very kind of you to bring her quilt in for judging. It’s not like Baylin to delegate; I can only imagine how many irons she must be juggling in the fire today.”
The way Miss Sadie oohed and ahhed over Baylin’s quilt endeared the sweeter of the two ladies to Teddy. When she blended her idioms in Baylin’s defense, Teddy fought the urge to give her a big ol’ bear hug.
For propriety’s sake, he settled with giving her a big ol’ smile instead, and he offered to help the women hang the quilts they were organizing when he arrived.
A few other volunteers cycled through, but for the most part, Teddy assisted Miss Sadie and Judge Roberts. The ladies kept him very busy, and the time passed in the blink of an eye…
They directed Teddy to position heavy metal bases for the pipe-and-drape system they’d rented from a company in Dallas to serve as frames for hanging the quilts. Teddy couldn’t believe the delivery crew had dropped off the parts without lending a hand to set up.
Then Miss Sadie requested all hands on deck, and everyone worked together to assemble the uprights and drapery bars. Luckily, they had enough ladders on hand to work in pairs hanging the black event drapes. When they’d finished that step, Miss Sadie, Judge Roberts, and the other guild committee members brought out the quilts for display.
Stepping off the ladder after hanging the final quilt three hours later, Teddy took a moment to marvel at the art exhibit they’d created.
Baylin hadn’t exaggerated when she said the local quilters were talented artists. The variety of quilt styles, the intricate patterns, the pairings of fabric colors and prints, and the workmanship displayed astounded Teddy.
Baylin’s was by far the prettiest, but there were some remarkable quilts to behold everywhere he looked.
“Are all quilt shows so magnificent?” he wondered aloud.
“Oh yes,” Miss Sadie answered; at the exact same moment Judge Roberts mumbled, “Not by a long shot.”
Teddy chuckled at the two friends, as different in personality as night and day, but both adorable and passionate about showing off the masterpieces displayed throughout the church’s large fellowship hall, vast sanctuary, and wide corridors.
“What happens when you outgrow the church?”
A shadow of sadness fell over both ladies’ faces, putting Teddy on high alert.
“It used to be much bigger,” Judge Roberts said with a deep frown.
“And it will be again,” Miss Sadie added, patting her friend’s shoulder in encouragement.
They explained that in the past the town had hosted festivals and events like the quilt show at the city park, but a terrible explosion the year before had destroyed the recreation center. The devastation left the community without a building large enough to house the number of quilts they had accepted in the contest before the tragedy.
Miss Sadie and Judge Roberts stood close together, even wrapping an arm around one another for support. They both wiped tears from their eyes by the end of their story.
“I’m sorry for bringing up bad memories,” Teddy said.
“Tough times produce tough people,” Judge Roberts said, dismissing his apology. “Takes more than a gang of thugs to destroy this town.”
“Hardships and challenges are part of every story, an important part of our history,” Miss Sadie said, pinning Teddy with an uncanny look of omniscient power. “There’s not a single one of us who’s not been affected and strengthened by the struggles we’ve been through.”
Teddy nodded in agreement, finished folding the ladder, and helped hide the tools and supplies they’d been using in the church kitchen, where they’d be out of sight during the show. He said his goodbyes and made his way out of town on County Road 214, heading toward O’Casey Farm.
As he drove, Miss Sadie’s nugget of wisdom rattled around in his thoughts. Had she seen into Teddy’s history, or was she hinting at someone else’s story?
Baylin’s perhaps?
Judge Roberts had dropped cryptic messages under her breath on multiple occasions throughout the afternoon, always when Miss Sadie couldn’t hear…things like, Quilts won’t be the only competition at this Valentine’s Day festival, and … town’s in for an entertaining weekend, I reckon.
She’d scared him a bit with her response when Miss Sadie had asked if Baylin knew who Teddy was…who he really was. It hadn’t occurred to him that Baylin didn’t know. Even if she didn’t follow baseball, she had Internet service at the farm and had surely searched his name for a minimal background check.
But when he said as much to Miss Sadie, Judge Roberts cackled — cackled — at Teddy before declaring, This oughta be good, and continued laughing as she walked away looking the happiest she’d been all day.
Teddy left out that part of the story when he returned to the farmhouse, eager to tell Baylin about his time in town. He found her in the kitchen, right where he’d left her hours earlier. She kept right on working while he recapped his day.
“They’re always a hoot,” she laughed, shaking her head at the women’s antics. “There’s a tribe of ladies in Green Hills that run the place. As you can imagine, those two lead the pack.”
“I don’t doubt that for a second! They’re pretty great,” he said.
“The best,” Baylin agreed. “They’ve taught me so much.”
“About quilting?”
“About life.”
When she didn’t expound, Teddy thought it best to switch gears. Miss Sadie’s declaration hit a little too close to home, and Teddy didn’t want his conversation with Baylin to take a turn toward anything sad or dark.
“What’s the plan for the seven thousand cookies you baked while I was gone?” he teased.
“Only six hundred eighty-four. The last thirty-six are in the ovens.”
“Sixty dozen… That’s a lot of cookies!”
“Only ten dozen more than I made last year, and I sold out on the first day of the festival. This year, I’m making more and adding frosting?—”
“To a third of them,” Teddy interrupted, reminding Baylin of his idea she’d agreed to earlier.
“ To a third of them, ” Baylin acquiesced. “That way I can charge more without disappointing anyone.”
“I can’t imagine you ever disappointing anyone.”
“You might be surprised,” Baylin replied with a sardonic smirk while mixing icing colors in glass bowls. “But not with cookies. Those seem to please pretty much everyone. Plus,” she added, “my friend, Anita, just bought a food truck and is fixing it up as a dessert shack. She rented booth space to give people a taste of what she’ll be selling when the truck is up and running.”
“Anita? Would I have met her today at the church?”
“I doubt it.”
Baylin spoke with abandon, albeit about someone besides herself. Teddy listened with rapt attention. Happy as a lark, he’d continue doing so as long as she kept talking, sharing her world, and letting him carry a tiny fraction of the load.
“Between cooking for the Sharps, helping her mom clean houses, and baking at Triple T’s on the weekends, she can’t find enough time to work on her truck, much less quilt or volunteer.”
“You went to school together?”
“I’m a few years older than Anita, but it’s a small town,” Baylin said with a shrug. “We’ve known each other our entire lives, have always gone to church together, and attended several volleyball camps together when we were kids.”
“Will her dessert shack be any good?”
“It’ll be amazing. Anita’s a magician in the kitchen.”
“You don’t worry about the competition?”
“Not at all,” Baylin said without hesitation. “I don’t mind baking and cooking if there’s a demand for it and if I can make a little money from selling what I make. But I don’t feel called to be in the kitchen; that’s not my passion.”
She said it was such finality that Teddy again maneuvered the conversation to shallower waters.
“And what’s a triple T ?”
“A three-toed turtle.”
“Is that a real thing?” he asked, managing a straight face.
She stopped stirring food coloring into mixing bowls at the speed of a Formula One race car to look at him as though he’d grown a second head.
“ Is that a real thing? ” she repeated, eyes wide with mocking drama. “Of course three-toed turtles are real. They appear a bit boring or drab on the outside, but they’re quite resilient, living to a ripe, old age of seventy —or older — and ridding eastern Oklahoma of hundreds of thousands of insects throughout their lifespan.”
Smart and snooty Baylin might’ve been the most fun version of her Teddy’d seen so far.
Her smile and silliness did strange things to his equilibrium. And he liked it.
“I’m now educated,” he said, lifting his hands in defeat. “Thank you,” he said, bringing his palms together in a gesture of gratitude. “I feel better knowing all there is to know about a triple T .”
She rolled sassy brown eyes at him and returned to coloring icing.
“Any chance I’ll get to meet a three-toed turtle while I’m here?”
“Not likely this time of year,” she answered. “But if you come back later in the spring, I guarantee you’ll see plenty. And in the meantime, we can have dinner at The Triple T diner in town…best burger and milkshake in a three-hour radius.”
“Now that sounds like a date.”