Sky Meridian's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

The next morning, Sky spread her new fabric across the living room floor. She had the colors now, panels of pink, green, and pale gold ready to cut. But her cozy home had no big table. The floor was the only flat space, and it was too small. She knelt, laid out the first panel, then reached for the second. The edges slid together and bunched. She tried again. She smoothed the cloth with both hands and pinned one corner. When she stretched to reach the far side, her knee dragged a fold. The pale gold twisted around the green. A pin popped loose. Sky pulled the panels apart and found a snag near the hem, a run of pulled threads in the delicate cloth. "No, no, no," she said. She cut away the ruined strip. Now that panel was too short. She had wasted fabric she could not replace before the deadline. Her whole design needed room, and she had none. Sky sat back on her heels and looked around. Couch, chairs, a low shelf. Nothing wide and flat enough. Then a flash of violet crossed the window. A tiny hummingbird hovered outside the glass, its feathers deep purple in the light. It darted, stopped, darted again, drawn to something near the door. She stood and followed it. The hummingbird hung above her small back patio, then zipped away. But Sky stopped looking at the bird. She was looking at the patio itself. A flat stone floor, wide and open, twice the size of her living room. In the corner sat a folded outdoor table she used for planting. Sky dragged the table out and locked its legs. She wiped it clean. It was long enough to lay a full panel flat with room to spare. She carried her fabric outside piece by piece. On the table she could pin, smooth, and cut without a single fold sliding into another. She worked all afternoon. The panels lay straight now. She matched pink to green, green to gold, and pinned the seams true. To keep the loose corners weighed down, she set a heavy ceramic bloom at each edge, a lotus shaped ornament whose petals ran through every color. The blooms held the cloth flat against the breeze. By dusk, Sky had all the panels cut clean and pinned in order. She stepped back and looked at the shape taking form on the table. It was finally becoming the outfit from her sketch. But one problem was gone and another arrived. The pinned panels sat outside, exposed. The evening air carried damp, and clouds gathered low. Delicate fabric could not stay on an open patio overnight. Sky needed a way to protect her half built outfit, or the morning dew would stain and warp every panel she had just saved.