After joining
in the post meeting clean up, Edna made her way out to the truck where Joe was
waiting.
“Sorry if you had to wait, I was helping clean up.” Edna said as she climbed in.
“No problem, I’m just glad to see you’re in one piece. Any wounds I should know about?”
”Actually, Sue never even spoke to me. Turns out there was a more important turn of events.”
Joe was turning onto the road that led out to their house, switching on the high beams so he could avoid creating any more roadkill. Only the main roads had lights, so the trip out to the house in the dark took longer than usual.
“Well, Sue actually had a good idea for a change,” and Edna proceeded to fill Joe in on the evening’s events.
She’d just finished when he pulled up to the house. “Wow,” he said, ”that must have been some meeting!”
“It was eventful, as guild meetings go, and Sue didn’t leave in the best of moods.”
“She’ll pull it off, though, won’t she?” said Joe, as he hung his jacket up on one of the hooks near the door.
“Mary seems to think so. And, actually, both Mary and I think it’s a great idea. It would help the downtown district a lot, and I can’t imagine any of the merchants on the road in or out of town minding it either.”
Joe nodded in agreement.
“There is one thing though, Mary and I were talking about the quilters' families and since she’s tentatively reserved the fairgrounds, our thought was that it would be great if the town could could come up with some kind of event that they might enjoy.”
Edna looked at Joe hopefully as the put his head down and shook it in his I know I’m getting into something I don’t want to get into but I know I’m going to end up doing it anyway way.
“Mary said she’d ask Henry to help, maybe you guys could bring it up at your next quilt widowers night at Al’s?”
Joe smiled and put his arm around Edna, “Anything for you sweetie, but don’t expect too much from us old farts, thinking about events at the fairgrounds is not how we usually spend our evenings out.”
The next morning Joe took Edna over to Niman to pick up the shipping supplies. A FedEx truck came to their town frequently, but the nearest place for supplies was Niman. It’d been a while since they’d been to the City as they liked to call the slightly larger hamlet about 35 miles away. They did most of their shopping in their own community, (except fabric shopping, of course!), but if they had to go to Niman they might as well look around.
After picking up the shipping supplies, they headed downtown to have a big breakfast at their favorite restaurant. By the time they’d finished, the shops were all open and they spent an hour or so looking around. Joe spent most of his time at the local hardware store where they had a healthy selection of tools and fishing supplies. Edna headed over to Bernice’s Boutique, where she’d had luck finding some fashionable clothes for her unfashionable figure.
Edna loved Bernice! She was always so cheerful and helpful, and knew just what kind of things she liked. Edna was thrilled to find some cute tops and skirts on the clearance rack, just what she’d need for the guild show. She’d been worried about getting her picture taken for the magazine, but was less so after purchasing her finds.
She then went into the local five and dime, one of the few still in business. It was more like an old style general store, with glass jars full of penny candy, (although they were more like dollar candy now!), and aisles full of things you didn’t really need, but oh, wouldn’t they be handy to have? Edna headed right for the buttons and sewing supplies. They still had the older style mother-of-pearl buttons on cards, and the prices were great. Edna suspected that someone many years ago had bought too many of the things and the only ones they sold were the ones Edna bought on her trips to town. She picked up some great variegated floss, more bobbins, and some good basic sewing thread.
Edna particularly loved the wedding decorations and dime toy aisles. So many cute little things that could be stitched onto her quilts! She picked up a few odds and ends, and after purchasing a pound of black jelly beans, left the store with a large bag of goodies.
By the time they arrived back home it was getting late and they were both hungry. As Edna set about putting some lunch together the phone rang.
“Edna?” said a familiar voice. It was Mary Sims.
“Hi Mary” answered Edna, “How are you?”
“Oh Edna, I’m just fine. I just had the most wonderful idea and I wanted to share it with you to see what you thought.”
“Sure, Mary, what is it?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about Sue’s idea and although I think it would be great for the town, I think we’ll have more resistance than I thought.”
She paused for a moment, “You see, the thing is, I got several calls this morning from guild members who have made it very clear they want nothing to do with anything that involves Sue in a prominent position. Remember what a disaster she made of that fundraiser we did a couple of years ago?”
Edna remembered it well. Sue had decided that the best way to raise funds for the guild was to give out discount coupons for her shop. If you bought something she’d give 10% of the purchase price to the guild. However, before the event began she raised all of her prices 10% so essentially she wasn’t giving the guild anything and the shoppers left in disgust.
That was the beginning of the end of Sue’s preeminence in the local quilting community She still had her groupies, but her reputation was sliding rapidly downhill.
Mary continued, “Well, anyway, I was talking to a few other members and they thought that if someone else was in charge that things would go smoother, and Sue’s influence over events would be less toxic.”
Edna spoke up. “That might be true Mary, but if the show’s downtown and we’re going to use Sue’s shop, won’t it be impossible to keep her out of things?”
“Not if we don’t use her shop.”
Edna was stunned, “But Mary, I know how Sue can be, but that isn’t fair is it? How can we not have the only quilt shop in town represented at the show, particularly since it’s right downtown?”
“I’m not saying she can’t participate, but I don’t think the guild wants to be 100% associated with the Piece of Work. If we used her classroom we’d be beholden to her in ways we might not want to be.”
Edna thought for a moment, “So, what you’re thinking is that the show will be downtown with all the merchants participating equally?”
Mary exhaled, “Exactly!”
“But how are you going to get Sue to accept this? You know she’s going to raise holy hell.”
“Of course she will, but she’ll get over it. The fact is that the show downtown benefits her whether it’s in her shop or not, she’ll still do better than usual business.”
“That’s
true,” said Edna, “but who are you going to get to organize it? No one’s going to want to be Sue’s new
punching bag.”
“Of course, we’ll have a committee and hand out tasks to different members. Whoever’s organizing will be the chairperson of the committee, they’ll hand out the assignments and make sure everything is on schedule.”
Edna wasn’t convinced, “It sounds good, but won’t Sue do what she always does? Rig the election so she wins?”
“Not in this case. I’ve discovered a loophole in our by-laws that will allow me to appoint the chairperson. Turns out the president has that authority but no one’s ever used it.” Mary seemed pleased with herself.
“So, as guild president I appoint you as the chairperson of the new Downtown Quilt Extravaganza.”
Edna gasped, “No, Mary, are you kidding? I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.”
“Oh yes you can, and you will. The fact is this show won’t happen unless I can put someone in the chairperson’s position that everyone knows isn’t in Sue’s back pocket. Besides, Edna, you know everyone in town and everybody likes you.”
Edna sighed in resignation, she didn’t want this job but she knew Mary was right, she was probably the only person in town that everyone knew for a fact was no great friend of Sue’s.
“Sue isn’t going to like this, Mary. She’ll feel like she’s being ganged up on and as paranoid as she is, this time she wouldn’t be far off the mark.”
Mary laughed, “You’re right about that, but I have one trick up my sleeve, I’m going to put Belinda on the committee.”
“Now that’s brilliant, Mary you’re beginning to scare me. Since when have you become so politically savvy?”
“I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea, it was Amy.”
“Amy?” said Edna, “I guess if there’s anyone in a position to know what might put Sue into a better frame of mind it’d be her.”
“At first I was resistant, but then I thought, why not? Belinda’s fairly well liked, she has great connections, can be very charming, and although she’s Sue’s friend, she looks out for herself pretty well.”
Edna chimed in, “and if Belinda’s on the committee, Sue will think she has a voice, even if she really doesn’t.”
“Exactly. I’ve worked on committees with Belinda before and she’s actually very clever and reasonable. She can promote Sue’s ideas, but if they fall flat she can just blame it on the other committee members.”
“Or me!” exclaimed Edna, who was actually becoming intrigued by the idea. She actually liked Belinda when they’d worked together on other projects. Although she was Sue’s friend, she was perfectly capable of acting in her own best interest.
“So, Edna, does that mean you’ll do it?” Mary asked hopefully.
“I guess I don’t really have a choice. I can count on your support, can’t I?”
“Of course, can you come over for coffee tomorrow morning and we can talk this out? Is 9:00 too early? Amy doesn’t have to go to work until 10 and she has some ideas she’d like to run past you.”
“I’ll see you then, and thanks Mary, although I may end up regretting this.”
Edna hung up the phone, went back into the kitchen and started preparing lunch. Joe sat quietly at the table, but Edna could feel his eyes boring into her back. She turned to face him.
“What have you gotten yourself into, girl? It’s not like Mary to call for a chat, something’s going on. What is it?”
Edna sat down at the table and explained Mary’s offer to make her the chairperson of the show committee. Joe shook his head, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m not, but Mary’s convinced me it’s for the good of the guild and the town. How could I say no? Besides, with Belinda on the committee Sue will be soothed somewhat.”
“Maybe so, but it will make for very strange bedfellows, you and Belinda, with Sue in the background. All I can say is good luck!”
Edna smiled at him and laughed, “I’m going to need it!”
Next: Amy’s Ideas
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