Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
“ W hat’s that?” Ava asked her mom as she padded into the kitchen on that bright Saturday morning. The whole room smelled of cinnamon and butter.
Martha smiled from her seat by the window that overlooked the lake. In front of her was a wrapped package beside a plate of her famous apple cinnamon French toast—sandwiches made from French toast with her baked cinnamon apples in the center, the whole thing drizzled with syrup.
“I ordered it for you the other day,” her mom said.
“I thought it would make a nice going-home gift—a good read for the plane. And I made your favorite French toast sandwiches since it’s your last weekend.
I know you’ll be rushing off to church tomorrow with Lucas, so I thought I’d surprise you today. ”
Curious, Ava sat next to her mother and pulled the package toward her.
“I saw it and knew you had to have it.”
Ava opened the package and pulled out a thin book .
“It’s all real accounts of near-death experiences.”
“Oh, wow. Thank you.”
Martha shook her head. “Last night, I had the clearest dream of your dad. It was so real, it felt like my one brush with the afterlife. He and I sat and talked about you for ages. He told me he was sorry he’d monopolized you as a child.
” She smiled at Ava. “He was so tangible I was almost sure it hadn’t been a dream. ”
“I thought of Dad last night too, actually. Mine was sort of half-dream, half-memory. He had his arm around me and Lucas.”
“He’s been with us both lately then,” Martha said with a dreamy gaze.
Ava ran her hand along the book. “Do you think it’s really him? Or do we both just miss him so much that we conjured him?”
“I don’t know,” Martha replied. “I hope it’s really him.”
“I know I shouldn’t, but I still feel cheated by not getting to at least say hi to him. I coded and crossed over—I’m certain of it—and I didn’t get to see him. I know why now, but I just want confirmation that he’s with us somehow.”
“Me too. After the dream, I woke up in the middle of the night with the most delicious feeling of having been with him. I got out of bed and started researching to see if there were any accounts of people seeing their loved ones when it wasn’t a near-death experience.”
“Did you find anything?” Ava asked, flipping through the book and then inspecting the back cover.
“Not really. Only people who claimed to have dreams like I had, but nothing definitive. I did, however, come across that book, so I thought I’d get it for you.”
“Maybe we can sit outside by the lake with our breakfast and read.” Ava waved the paperback in the air .
“That would be wonderful,” Martha said. “Then perhaps this afternoon we could stop by Seam their focus entirely on the emotional and spiritual.”
While Ava had attended church recently, something she hadn’t done since she was a girl, she hadn’t moved entirely out of her material world.
She was still motivated by her new job. After following the command she’d heard in the void, Ava felt that everything happened for a reason, and she was sure life was much bigger than the moments she spent on earth, but she also had a strong need to participate in her surroundings, to show up.
Perhaps that trait was so strong within her that it couldn’t be entirely removed.
“You’ve been quiet since this morning,” Martha said from the driver’s seat on the way to Seam with Bubbles Soap Company and Clover Candles, she’d used pastels to suggest calm and relaxation, and on the SpeedBykes account, she’d chosen orange to convey excitement and enthusiasm.
Her ads were clean, sharp, and bold in their color choices.
“Look, Ava,” Martha called from the counter.
Ava left a spool of burlap and went over to introduce herself to Cammy.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Ava’s mother held up a perfectly sewn bag.
“I had a well-drawn pattern to follow,” Cammy said.
Ava leaned on the counter and inspected the bag. It was great work. “So how much would you charge per bag to sew the entire thing?”
“It didn’t take long on our machines. Probably twenty dollars a bag?”
Ava turned to her mom. “Let’s say materials cost about twenty a bag, and then Cammy can sew them for twenty. You could sell them wholesale for eighty, the boutique owner can sell them for a hundred and twenty, and you both still make forty dollars’ profit.”
“Could I get a hundred and twenty dollars for this bag?” Martha asked.
“I think so,” Ava replied.
Cammy agreed. “It’s a beautiful pattern, and I’ve never seen anyone use this diamond bottom before.” She flipped the bag over to reveal the quilted end. “It’s really genius for wear.”
“With your forty dollars profit on each bag, after you’ve made a few extra, we could set up a marketplace with a couple of small retailers and run a few ads to get the line in front of more people.
You could have your designer line that’s already made, and made-to-order, where you’d charge more.
With you and Cammy sewing, you can get double the bags done.
And we could even call Dorothy at the church to see if she’d be a good fit to fill the gaps. ”
“You’re good at this,” her mom said.
Ava grinned. “I have to work this out with our clients to determine their growth models.”
Her mother put her hands on her cheeks, happily bewildered. “I’d never imagined my little bags could do all this.”
“You’ve created a great product,” Ava said. “And I can help you sell it. We can go as big or small as you’d like.”
Her mother giggled excitedly.
Ava was eager to get her hands on the assignment.
This little grass-roots side project was just what she needed to jumpstart her creativity.
She’d enjoy building her mother’s line from the ground up.
She could do everything remotely from New York, and Cammy and her mother could sew the bags, with Dorothy possibly in their back pocket.
All her mother had to do was deliver them.
Even with her regular work schedule, Ava could manage this with her eyes closed.
She was happy to be able to do something to help her mother.
Maybe a focus on the new bag line would fill her mother’s time.
The shared project would give them a chance to connect after Ava had returned home, and her mom wouldn’t feel so lonely.
Ava was feeling better about the future already.