The Heart's Journey: Stitches in Time Series #2 by Barbara Cameron Page A

throat was so parched. Maybe there was something there she could put on her skin.
    She ran an ice cube over her cheeks and her nose until it melted, and then another and another. They cooled her skin a little but then the heat would return. Frustrated, Naomi looked in the cupboards for vinegar, opening and closing the doors quietly so she wouldn’t wake her grandmother. Home remedies were passed down from generation to generation in her community. Plain people didn’t run to the drugstore every time they got a sunburn or a bug bite or their boppli developed a diaper rash.
    But there was no vinegar in the cupboard. She went back to the refrigerator and stood there, staring into its depths, enjoying the cold air that emanated from it. There was a cucumber. That might work. They had cooling properties. She pulled it out, washed it, then used a knife and cutting board to slice it. Sitting down at the kitchen table, she rubbed the slices all overher nose and face. Her face felt a little cooler but there had to be something that worked even better.
    Another foray into the refrigerator yielded a jar of mayonnaise. She scooped a little out and smeared it across her face and nose. Maybe it wouldn’t do anything to cure the sunburn, but it surely felt nice and cold. She relaxed back into her chair and closed her eyes.
    That reminded her of an article she once read in a women’s magazine. Englischers liked to go for beauty treatments in spas and beauty shops. Often they put cucumber slices on their closed eyelids to reduce puffiness. She opened her eyes and picked up two slices, then closed them again and applied a slice over each eyelid. Well, the article was right. It felt nice and cool.
    “Midnight snack?” her grandmother asked.
    Her eyes snapped open and the cucumber slices went flying. “ Grossmudder ! You scared me.”
    Leah had her hand pressed to her chest. “You think you didn’t give me a fright when I walked in here and saw your face?”
    But Naomi saw her lips twitching. She grinned. “I guess I look a little silly.”
    “ Ya , you look a lot silly,” Leah agreed, chuckling.
    “I couldn’t sleep. The sunburn really hurts.” She touched her cheek tentatively and winced, then went looking for the cucumber slices. After tossing them into the trash, she screwed the lid back on the mayonnaise and put the jar and the uncut portion of the cucumber back into the refrigerator.
    “Whose remedy is mayonnaise? Your mother’s?”
    “No. I just thought if it was cold it might help. After all, some women use cold cream.”
    Leah pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Not the same thing at all, kind. Wash your face and we’ll try what my mother used.”
    Naomi did as her grandmother requested and gently patted her skin with a kitchen towel. Though the material was a soft terry cloth, she still winced from the pain.
    “It got worse pretty quickly,” Leah said, examining it. “When we ate supper you looked a little pink but now you’re red as a rotrieb . I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get sunburned.”
    “I told Nick that.”
    “Oh?”
    “He said I should put sunscreen on. I told him I never burned.”
    “Hmm. So he offered sunscreen and you didn’t take it?” She glanced at her grandmother, then away. “No.”
    “Hmm.”
    “Hmm?”
    Leah shrugged. “Just wondered why you didn’t take it—the sunscreen. We are in Florida.”
    “That’s what Nick said. But it’s the same sun we have in Pennsylvania.” She paused. “Isn’t it?”
    Leah drew a bowl from a cupboard, filled it with water and ice, and then soaked some tea bags in it. “What did Nick say to that?”
    “What does it matter?” Naomi said, and heard the irritation in her voice. “Anyway, he was just being so … pushy about it. I might have listened to him if he hadn’t—” she stopped.
    “If he hadn’t made you think he was John imposing his will.”
    Naomi bit her lip. “ Ya . Men!”
    “Sit down and tilt your head