Sophie Mertain was sat in her room again, not wanting to talk to or even see anyone, sat on her bed curled up in a ball. She wasn’t moving, her breathing slow and steady, as she gazed at nothing in particular with vacant brown eyes.
Sophie’s neck length chestnut brown hair was dull and untidy, her face blank and emotionless. The cause of this unnatural state for a twelve year old girl was a very simple one. Her German shepherd dog had passed away.
Dusty had been with her since she had been born, Sophie had always played with him and he had been there waiting by the front door for her to get home from school. Dusty ate the vegetables that she didn’t want to eat and Sophie made sure that he was always looking his best with a regular brushing of his coat.
But Dusty was an old dog; he was twenty years old when he had closed his eyes for the last time.
Sophie had come running home from school. It was just another normal day until she got to front door. Dusty was no where in sight. When Sophie had closed the front door she immediately went looking for her friend.
She found him in his bed asleep. She smiled at him, but that smile soon began to fade as she began to notice things. Sophie had knelt down to wake him up, but he never opened his eyes.
She screamed and called her parents, crying down the phone while she tried to tell them what had happened. After that Sophie was never the same. She walked around in a daze most of the days, barley speaking and never making eye contact with anyone.
Her friends and family and friends had tried their hardest to try and bring her out of her depression. But Sophie just shrugged and walked off at their suggestions and words of advice.
Sophie began to think back to her dog Dusty as she sat there. Tears slowly formed and the edges of her eyes. She grabbed he pillow and just cried her heart out, she had dose this many times in the past month since she had lost her good friend.
That was until her Nan had talked to her. It was a Saturday afternoon and Sophie’s Nan had dropped by to see how everyone was.
When she saw that Sophie was still in her destructive downward spiral of depression she made sure that she did something about it. “Sophie, I know that you miss your dog. I know that it hurts, but you need to move on.” Her Nan said calmly to her. Sophie looked at her Nan, “but how do I do that? I don’t know what to do…… I just don’t know what to do anymore.” Sophie sighed, she hoped that here Nan would have the answers she was seeking. “I don’t know what you want me to say, but I do know one thing. You need to have an outlet, something which you can pour all your determination, will and heart into.”
Sophie spent the next few days thinking about her Nan’s words of advice, walking around home and school in deep thought. She doesn’t exactly have many friends at her school, Sophie was considered a loner and different.
This is the way she liked it, why should she conform to the norm and follow the crowd. She was her own person and had her own ideas. That’s when it hit her.
It was a rainy lunchtime at her school when she found that special something she could pour her heart into. Sophie was sat in her tutorial room when her teacher came in with a few plastic boxes.
She got up and helped her teacher out, placing the boxes on the desk. Being a little nosey she had a look in the boxes. Inside them were different fabrics of many different shades of colours. “What are these for Miss Twynest?” Her teacher let out a little laugh.
“It’s my own little personal project. I like to do patchwork. I make quilts, pillows, stuffed animals and loads of other different things. It doesn’t matter what it is, if I can think it I try my hardest to make it.”
Sophie looked from her teacher to the box of fabrics, “can I watch?”
“Of course you can Sophie, hell if you want I can show you how to do it.” Sophie thanked her teacher and sat at the desk as Miss Twynest began to draw a design on a piece of paper.
Over the next week Sophie spent her breaks and lunchtimes in her tutorial room with Miss Twynest. She watched as her teacher designed a quilt on her sketchpad, then her teacher began to pick out her fabrics of different colours and sizes.
Sophie helped out as much as she could, placing the different fabrics in their places as her teacher began to stitch them together with a dark blue thread. Sophie was enjoying every minute of it and began to think of different ideas for her own patchwork project.
After about a week the quilt was halfway completed, Sophie picked this time to show her teacher her own design for a stuffed toy dog that looked exactly like Dusty.
Miss Twynest liked the design and helped Sophie finalize her design so that it was absolutely perfect. “Sophie do you want me to bring in more fabrics or are you going to bring in your own?”
Sophie thought for a moment, that’s when she got another idea.
“It’s ok Miss Twynest I’ll bring in my own fabric I know where I can get a lot of it.” Her teacher smiled and they both got back to work on the quilt.
That night when she got home Sophie got together Dusty’s old blanket, the cushion he always slept on and all the clothes that she always wore when she took him out for very long walks. She placed them in a plastic bag and set them by her school bag so she wouldn’t forget them in the morning.
The next day at school Sophie gave her bag of fabric to her teacher so she could keep it safe while she was in class. The first two classes were agonising for Sophie, her leg kept twitching and she kept tapping her fingers on her desk, wanting to get started as soon as possible.
Those two hours were torture, when the bell rang for their thirty minute break Sophie flew out the classroom nearly knocking a few other students over.
When she got to her tutorial room Miss Twynest told her that she should start to cut up the fabrics that she wanted for the legs. Sophie threw her bag into a corner and began to cut up the blanket and an old t-shirt.
She made sure that the pieces she cut out were the right size and shape, placing them on the desk next to her in the shape of a leg. Sophie worked in silence, her mind totally focused on what she was doing. She made each cut in the fabric like it was a surgical procedure, Sophie was extremely careful not to make a mistake. She didn’t want to mess this up, and her heart wouldn’t accept anything less than perfect.
When the bell rang Sophie had cut out the fabric for the two front legs, she place them into an envelope and gave it to Miss Twynest. She then grabbed her bag and ran to her next class.
At lunchtime she quickly ran to the cafeteria and grabbed a takeaway lunch then legged it up to her tutorial room. The moment she got there she immediately delved straight back into her little project. She got the two final legs, the tail and was halfway through cutting out the pieces for the torso when the bell rang. Reluctantly she placed each pile of fabric in separate envelopes with the name of the part on it.
Sophie put the envelopes into her bag and headed back to class. She was going to get the bag of fabric when school was over. Through the rest of her classes all she could think about was Dusty, as each minute passed a new memory of dusty passed through her mind, making her smile.
At home Sophie wasted no time in continuing her project. She never left her room that night except to go downstairs for tea and the occasional bathroom break. She didn’t want to stop. Nothing could have made her stop at that point. The only thing that mattered to her was completing what she had set out to do.
Sophie didn’t notice her parents at her bedroom door looking in. “I’m glad she has found something to do” her mum said.
“I know what you mean love, she is slowly getting back to her old self, you watch.” Her mum and dad smiled and watched Sophie for a minute more before they left their daughter to her work.
Sophie continued until was about half past eleven at night, her hands were numb and she could barely keep her eyes open. She had cut out all the pieces that she needed for each part of the dogs body. Tomorrow she would start stitching them together, this would take her at least a few days but it would be all worth it in the end.
Sophie knew that it would.
The next few days passed by slowly for Sophie. During her breaks and lunches she could always be found in her class’s tutorial room slowly stitching her dog together. Which each stitch she made she poured her memories and love of Dusty into it.
The body parts soon began to take shape, each one made up of different fabrics and colours. The blues, blacks, browns and whites blended well with each other as she stitched them together with some silver coloured thread.
Sophie caught herself with the needle often but she didn’t let it bother her. It took her four days and one sleepless night before she finally had all the pieces ready to be filled with cotton. That way her dog would be nice and soft. But that would have to wait until after the weekend.
Miss Twynest had the cotton and it was now Saturday.
The weekend was very enjoyable for Sophie. She had put the pieces in a very safe place and hung out with her family. They went out for a meal, walked around the shops, went to the cinema and acted like a family again. Sophie’s parents were so happy to see their daughter back to her old self.
On Monday at the end of school Sophie got all the cotton stuffing she needed off Miss Twynest. “I look forward to seeing it when it is completed, oh and just so you know I put a bag of different coloured eyes in there as well as a little bit of pink fabric for a tongue.”
“Thank you for all your help Miss Twynest, I really enjoy doing this. Maybe we can do one together for like a school project?”
“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll have a think about that.” Sophie smiled and said goodbye before running off to her mum’s car.
When Sophie got home she took the bag her teacher had given her upstairs. She was going to put the cotton stuffing in the different parts after tea, with her mums help.
At the dinner table Sophie and her parents had a good chat and exchanged many jokes and comments.
Afterwards Sophie helped with the dishes and then collected the body parts, cotton stuffing and everything else she needed to complete her stuffed animal. She and her mum sat down on the floor in the front room and began. Sophie’s mum pulled chunks of cotton out of the bag and Sophie carefully put the cotton into the legs.
When the legs were full she then stitched them to the body and then began to stuff the tail. It took them nearly an hour and a half before all that was left to do was to add the details to the head.
Sophie first stitched the ears on, being extra careful that were in the right place, next she added a black nose and stitched on a mouth. She wasn’t going to add a tongue, so the only thing left to do was to choose a pair of eyes.
Sophie emptied the bag of its contents onto the floor and she began to sort through and pair up all the eyes.
She and her mum stared at the eyes as they tried to choose a pair. Sophie didn’t know which pair to choose, they all looked nice but none really caught her attention. That was until her mum reached out a picked a pair up. “I think these are the ones Soph. What do you think?” Sophie looked at them. The eyes were brown and were of medium size, but there was something about them. The seemed to have a little spark in them, she nodded her head and looked at her mum. “They are perfect, thanks mum.”
Sophie stitched the eyes on then stitched the head to the rest of the body. When the final stitch was done Sophie gave off a sigh and wiped her brow. It was complete. In front of her stood a patchwork stuffed Dog that was about twenty centimetres high and just over thirty centimetres from nose to the tip of the tail.
“It’s really good Soph, it looks absolutely wonderful.” Sophie smiled,
“Thanks mum.”
“Why don’t you put it in your room so that it stays safe?” Sophie nodded her head. She gave her mum a hug and went up to her room, she place the stuffed dog on her bedside table and went for a shower.
After getting dried and dressed for bed she got sum supper and watched TV with her family for an hour before heading to bed.
Sophie laid her head on her pillow and relaxed in her warm bed. As her eyes slowly began to fall the last thing she saw before sleep took her was the stuffed dog on her bedside table, smiling at her.
As she slept she had the most unusual of dreams. Sophie was surrounded by a deep violet light and a voice spoke to her. “Thank you for not forgetting me, I will never forget you. I know you miss me but all f your hard work has not been in vain. Sophie may you sleep well with the knowledge that I will never forget you and that a small part of me will stay alive.” Sophie looked around for the source of the voice, when she couldn’t find one she yelled out a reply.
“Who are you?”
She could hear a cheerful laugh all around her. “You will soon find out Sophie, and just so you know, I still like it when you scratch me behind my left ear.” Then her dream turned black and Sophie slept peacefully.
Sophie bolted up in her bed. It was approaching dawn; she looked around as she remembered her dream. She looked at the bedside table, only to discover that the Stuffed dog she had made was gone.
“Sophie, I’m over here on your desk.” Sophie nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that voice. Slowly she turned hear head to look at the desk.
A hand flew to her mouth to stop her screaming out, there was her patchwork dog, sitting on her desk, looking at her and wagging its tail. Slowly she climbed out of bed and walked over to her desk. “How?” Was all she managed to say, the patchwork dog looked up at her and smiled and wagged its tail more.
“While you were making me you poured all of your love and memories of Dusty into me that a spark of him was born inside of me. It was a small spark but your emotions were that strong and pure it was enough to bring me to life. I may not be Dusty but I hold a small part of him inside of me.”
Sophie sat at down in her desk chair and stared at the dog. That’s when she remembered a part of her dream. Slowly she reached out and began to scratch the dog behind his left ear. The reaction was immediate, the dog’s tail wagged faster and one of his back legs began to twitch. It was true, it was all true.
“So do you have a name?” The dog looked at her with a thoughtful gaze.
“Yeah I do, it’s Patch.” Sophie began to laugh and Patch just looked at her with an evil glare. “I’m sorry it’s just that Patch is not exactly original considering you’re a patchwork dog.”
“I know but I like it” Patch snapped back. Sophie apologised and continued to scratch Patch behind his left ear. “Sophie can you open the curtains for me?” She nodded her head but wondered why he had asked. She opened the curtains and gasped.
Sophie sat down in the chair and Patch jumped into her lap as they both gazed out the bedroom window. Outside the sun was slowly beginning to rise. The sky was ablaze with reds and oranges. It looked like the sky itself was on fire.
They both knew that a change had happened but neither one spoke.
This was the start of a brand new day.
A brand new friendship.
And a brand new adventure, they just hoped it would go smoothly for Sophie Mertain and her patchwork dog.
What could possibly go wrong?????
The End
