Elder Margaret's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Margaret needed to know where the silk thread came from. She'd held it up to the light that morning, examined the weave and the dye, and recognized the quality. Someone local had made this nightgown, someone with skill and resources. The kind of work that didn't come cheap or easy in Animal Forest. She asked around the clearing first, then walked the paths between cabins, showing the nightgown to anyone who would look. Most shook their heads. A few admired the stitching but claimed no knowledge of it. Then Summer paused when Margaret held up the collar, squinting at the silk thread in the afternoon light. She touched it carefully, rubbed it between her fingers, and said there was only one loom in the commune that could produce work this fine. Margaret followed her past the garden plots to a small clearing she'd walked by a dozen times without noticing. The loom sat beneath a canvas shelter, weighted with stones and acorn caps, silk strands still stretched across the frame in pale green rows. The same color as the embroidery on the baby's nightgown. Margaret's chest went tight. Whoever left the baby wasn't a stranger passing through. They lived here, among them, close enough to use this loom. Close enough to know exactly what the oak tree meant. She'd been searching for someone far away, someone desperate, someone she'd never met. But the person who left this child knew the clearing as home, and that changed everything about what came next.