It Will Be Home

Writers: Ainsley1, Jane, Vix
Date Posted: 8th May 2007

Characters: Barli, Vaheri, Denna
Description: The women of the Sungazer prepare rooms for their new captain and his family.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 4, day 5 of Turn 4

"A wife," Denna said as she opened the door cautiously and peered into the room. "And two children." She stepped into the standard sized room and looked around, admiring the gleaming woodwork of beds and bunks and cabinets and shelves. Each piece must have been sanded back and polished again until it shone like new. Even the darker wood of the floor and the pretty speckled wood that formed the wall panels. She placed the armload of bedding she had been carrying on the slats of the wide lofted bed and sighed. "I wish I could convince somebody to do this to my rooms."

Barli chuckled at Denna's comment and cast an appreciative eye around the room, carefully depositing her own load. "And I'm sure they will the very moment you're called to be Captain."

"What do you think she'll be like? This wife from the Weyr?"

"I just can't imagine," Denna said, pulling the well-stuffed mattress down from where it was leaning against the wall and straightened it on the large base of the main bed. "Young, pretty? Lineal was always very good looking - just like Uncle Jesten was when he was younger. I'm sure he will have found himself the most beautiful girl in the Weyr to marry."

Moving to help Denna get the larger mattress settled before continuing on to one of the smaller bunks at the foot of the double bed, Barli nodded, "I'm sure she'll be that, but Lineal always had such a kindly nature," here the woman smiled as she remembered her older brother.
"She'll have something more to her as well. Course she's bound to bring some different ideas, coming from the Weyr and all," Barli speculated with glee, always interested in new perspectives.

"New doesn't always mean better." Vaheri pushed off from the threshold where she had been leaning, listening to the younger women. She reached and tweaked the corner of the larger mattress, just a bit.
"She'll be welcome here and she'll bring something new to the family, but life will go on as usual."

"For us. But for _her?_ Imagine how different this must be." Denna chuckled as she flicked the under-blanket out over the mattress and scrambled around tucking it in. "I can't even imagine since I know less than nothing about what it's really like at a Weyr."

Vaheri tucked the section closest to her. "It may be different, but Lineal chose her and in all probability chose well. If so, she'll adjust."

"No doubt," Barli agreed stretching a blanket over the smaller bed, a smile tugging at her lips as she considered the soon to be occupant.
"Jezz is so excited about having young cousins aboard that she can barely contain herself. She's offered the quilt off her own bed for one of them."

"The pretty 'Glows-in-a-Basket' one you did, Barli? Are you going to take her up on it? The little girl's supposed to be Jezz's age."

"That's the one, her very favorite, which goes to show just how very excited she is. I hadn't really given much thought one way or the other about taking her up on her offer. The colors are particularly nice in that one, especially for a girl. Might be a nice gesture."

"I haven't even looked at what they've put out for in here, anyway,"
Denna admitted, finishing with the sheets to turn her attention to the bulky pile of quilts. Two would be hung on the party walls, helping to muffle the sounds of each family from those in the next stateroom, but at least three were for the beds. With quilting being the skill all riverboat women cultivated for furnishing and for sale, there would be some status attached to which quilts had been passed on to Lineal and his family.

She flicked back the outer layer of the bundle and sighed. "That's appropriate. 'Paddlewheels' for the big bed. And made by our grandmother, I think. It's one of the heirloom ones, isn't it?" She glanced at the other two women for confirmation.

"It is," agreed Vaheri. "And the 'Storm on the Water' one that we all made together can go on that wall."
She gestured and shook her head. "I think all of us were going cross-eyed by the time that one was completed, but it made up very nicely."

"Och! I remember that one and I'd just as soon not tackle that pattern again too soon, but it is impressive." Barli turned from finishing up the second bunk to see the quilts. "Don't suppose there's a 'Wings-Aloft'? That would be appropriate and is such a lovely pattern."

"We did make one in bunk size, didn't we?" She thought of all the staterooms along the deck where the crew was housed. "I don't think any body's using it. Perhaps it's upstairs on one of the passenger bunks?
We could put something else on there and bring it down for the boy's bunk. Nalin? Is that his name?"

Vaheri nodded to Denna's questions. "It is, but that quilt was set aside for repairs. It has a small tear in it and we have yet to find a good match for the torn material. Would that Flit-Dance one we thought to sell at Emerald Falls and then didn't do instead?"

"Oh, the colours in that are lovely. It'll do nicely." Denna stepped back from the bed towards the entrance door and surveyed the room. "It all looks ... new. Do you think they'll like it?"

Looking around a smile lit Barli's face, "I'm sure they will."

"Of course they will," shrugged Vaheri. "It's home."

Last updated on the May 10th 2007

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It Will Be Home