Sky Meridian's Arc

Chapter 4 of 6

Morning light warmed the patio. Sky lifted the silk cover and found her panels dry and safe. Now came the part she had put off. She needed to fix glitter onto each panel so it would shine and hold. But one wrong glue could bleed through the cloth and stain the colors she had fought to save. She carried three small jars of adhesive to the outdoor table. One smelled sharp and thin. One looked cloudy. The last was a pale gel. She had no idea which one was safe. A wrong choice would ruin a whole panel. She could not afford to lose one. Her rainbow tabby cat jumped onto the table and sniffed the jars. Sky nudged the cat gently aside. "Not now, trouble," she said. "I need to test these first." That was the answer. Test first. She grabbed a scrap of leftover pink cloth and cut it into three strips. On each strip she brushed a different glue and pressed glitter into the wet patch. Then she set the strips in the sun and waited. As she waited, a violet hummingbird darted over the table. It hovered above the drying strips, drawn by the glint of glitter in the light. Its wings blurred. Sky held still and watched it study each patch, as if it too were judging her work. Then it flicked away over the fence. Sky checked the strips. The sharp thin glue had soaked straight through the pink. A dark stain spread across the back, and the color dulled. That one would have ruined her panels. The cloudy glue held the glitter but dried stiff and cracked when she bent the strip. The pale gel was different. It dried clear. The pink stayed bright underneath. The glitter clung tight, and the cloth still folded soft in her hand. She bent it twice more. Nothing flaked. Nothing bled. "That's the one," she said. She capped the two bad jars and pushed them far across the table. The cat sniffed the winning gel and Sky moved it clear of the cat's paws. She worked through the afternoon. She brushed thin lines of the clear gel onto the first real panel and scattered glitter across it. The color held. The glitter caught the light and threw tiny sparks. Panel by panel, her design began to shine the way her sketch had promised. By dusk every panel glittered and stayed true. Sky sat back and looked at the row of shining cloth. She had solved the glue. Her colors were safe, and her outfit finally sparkled. Then she lifted one panel to the fading light and saw the trouble. The glitter caught the sun in a hard, uneven shine. In bright light the sparkle looked messy, not smooth. The contest judges would stand her under strong lamps. She had made the glitter hold. Now she had to make it shine evenly, or the whole effect would look cheap.