Nothing is decided beyond that. It's a beginning, not an ending. Marin sat with this. The various things it meant moved across her face in sequence. She wasn't hiding them, which was itself something.
6 weeks ago, she would have hidden everyone. Is that what the dress is for? She said. It's too early to say, Odora said honestly. But I think it's worth having the fabric ready.
Marin looked at the white cotton for a long time. Then she reached out and touched the edge of the closest panel lightly with her fingertips. The way you touch something you're not sure you have permission to touch. How much are you leaving in the hem? She asked.
Odora looked at her. The question landed somewhere clean and clear, the way the best questions do, with the simplicity of something that cuts straight to the thing it's actually asking. Enough for a life to change, Odora said. Marin's hand stayed on the fabric. Her face had the expression of someone who has received an answer that was also something larger than an answer.
She looked at the white cotton, and she looked at the other end of the worktable where Odora's cedar trunk sat beneath the south window, its bare boards visible through the open lid. She hadn't realigned it yet. That was a task for later when she knew what she had to put in it. Marin stood up. She straightened the edge of the cotton panel she'd touched with the precise automatic gesture of a girl who understands that fabric should be left as you found it.
Then she looked at Odora with her father's directness and her own particular steadiness underneath it. I'd like to learn, she said properly. Not just mending. I know, Odora said. I've been waiting for you to ask.
Marin's chin came up slightly. I was going to ask sooner, but she stopped. She almost smiled. It was very close to an actual smile. It took me a while.
Most things worth asking take a while, Odora said. She reached into the pink cushion on the table and held out a needle and a length of thread. Thread that for me, and we'll start with the collar. Marin sat back down. She took the needle and thread with careful hands.