The Dresses Three

Chapter 3: Finding the Wheel

The woman came as if striding from a great sea of sunshine. Mercy saw her long white hair shimmer as she moved, floating in the breeze. She had pale skin and clear blue eyes and glided along with a smoothness of step any dancer would envy. What caught Mercy's attention the most, however, was the dress of golden cloth accented with white gauze and lace that she wore.

"That dress!" Mercy exclaimed.

"Yes, this dress is one of sunlight, or nearly so. You will be making one while you are here."

"You know how?" the younger woman asked, her voice a mix of awe and envy.

"Indeed, I do, and I will teach you. I have fibers that have been drying for some time that need to be spun. We will spin them with sunlight."

Mercy was puzzled. "I don't see how we will get enough sunlight inside the cabin in order to make that happen," she said, thinking about the wheel and loom she saw the previous night.

The woman laughed, "Oh, you won't be working inside. Here, let me show you. By the way, you can call me Johanna."

"I'm Mercy and the two men in the cabin with me are Lance and Matt."

Johanna led Mercy to a tiny shed behind the small house. When she opened the door, there were hanks of pre-spun roving made of golden fiber hanging from the rafters. They moved as Johanna's hair had in the breeze, soft and silky. Mercy was impressed with the quality; they would lead to some of the finest fabric she had ever made. But the quantity was a worry.

"There's not enough here," she stated.

"There is, if you spin with sunshine." The woman grabbed a handful of fiber and sat down... on nothing. Mercy gaped; the woman appeared as if she were sitting on something, but it was invisible to her. "Now, watch."

Mercy saw Johanna go through the motions of spinning the fibers into thread. As she worked, she, and the outline of a spinning wheel, began to glow until they, too, shined and gleamed in the sun. The golden thread accumulated on the bobbin in a much higher quantity than what could have come from the fibers the woman held.

Mercy was mesmerized. "So, I can make more by working in the sunshine?" Mercy asked, wanting to make sure she understood. "On an invisible, glowing spinning wheel?"

Johanna grinned. "I know that you are skeptical, but you are watching with your own two eyes. Now, combine this with your quick-work magic? I think it will only take you a week or so to create the cloth needed to sew a simple tunic dress."

Mercy couldn't deny what the woman said was likely true. "Wait. How do you know what my magic is? I haven't spoken of it since leaving home."

Johanna smiled. "As I said, I have been preparing for you all season. I know many things about you, Mercy Lane, as well as about your betrothed, both Lance as the official and Jasmine the unofficial. I am here to help you find true love."

Staring seemed to be the only response that Mercy could muster. "Who—Who sent you?"

"No one sent me, child. I am here of my own accord. Though, I will admit that I have reasons of my own for being here. But, to say that I am a sucker for a True Love Story will suffice for now!" She smiled and Mercy chuckled.

"Okay, I guess the first thing to do is for me to find a spinning wheel. How does one go about locating an invisible one?"

Johanna stopped spinning and stood. The light faded until the only thing left was the handful of fiber and the bobbin of thread, seemingly hanging in mid-air. She plucked it from the wheel and dropped the golden spool into a deep pocket. "Yes, that will be the hardest part. And the best I can do is to say that to find it, you must simply trust that it is there."