A needle and thread, two addends to make a total, you couldn’t use one without the other. Arrow and Juniper, two peas in a pod, without the other, one is of no use. Arrow, with wavy, frizzy, short hair, colored like an autumn day, was an orphan from the age of twelve. Juniper had waist length hair, the color of apples. She was a runaway, a girl who wanted freedom from her oppressive home life. Arrow never pushed for details, but they heard stories.
One grey morning, Arrow awoke in their makeshift cot, expecting to wake up to the sounds of their counterpart humming away in the other room she had made into an art studio. Arrow was met with silence, so they got up in their ratty pajamas and wandered the warehouse.
“June? Are you here?” They called out, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. Silence. Arrow yawned, knowing that Juniper could be outside. As they entered the room that was made up to be a kitchen, a small campfire in the corner, an old coffee table in the middle of the room with an old, rusty, folding chair, and a half decayed office chair. On the table was Juniper’s sewing kit. Arrow noticed a folded slip of paper inside, so they opened it up to find that all of the sewing thread was gone completely. The only items remaining were the thimble, the threading device, and one large sewing needle. The slip of paper read “a needle without thread is a weapon -J”
Arrow immediately knew. Juniper had once told Arrow about her home life. Explaining that she ran away from her home after a sewing incident. Juniper had been sewing her brother’s shirt when her mother had knocked it out of her hand. The thread wrapped around Juniper’s fingers and pulled out of the needle, causing the needle to cut her other hand. Juniper always talked about how she was like the thread without a needle, tangled string. Arrow always listened quietly.
They grabbed the kit and went back to the bedroom area. Arrow donned their warmest jacket, a brown one with fleece lining they found in a trash bag of clothes, and a pair of boots. With a cross body bag slung over their shoulder, they roamed the woods, As they walked, a flash of pink caught their eye. Arrow approached a tree that had Juniper’s pink jacket hanging from a branch, and paused, inspecting the slightly damp jacket. The pocket was stuffed with scraps of paper that had random words or letters on them. Arrow got to work fast on the cold, muddy ground in the woods. It took time but it eventually spelled out “What English word has three consecutive double letters?”
Arrow groaned, and ran a hand over their face, “A riddle. Of course.”
Arrow looked at the riddle for a minute and sighed. “I don’t have time for this, Juniper needs help.”
Arrow reached for their bag and dug their hand in, there was a folded piece of paper inside. A newsletter Juniper kept with various letters in bold, spelling out ‘bookkeeper’
“June does like books…the library maybe?”
Arrow did what any rational person would and set off to the library, which took twenty minutes. They passed by many people who were whispering about the ‘Rose family’s daughter’ and the dark look on the girl’s face. When they arrived at the library, they walked up to the woman at the desk and asked, “Mrs. Nancy? Has a girl with long red hair come through here? Her name is Juniper.”
Mrs. Nancy looked at Arrow with a small smile.
“Oh, Juniper Rose did come through here. I’m happy her family finally has her home. She’s been missing for a while.” Mrs. Nancy said, placing her hand on the teenager’s shoulder, “She told me to tell you that thread without a needle is just tangled string…I don’t know what that means.”
Arrow stopped, stepped back, and walked out, pulling the sewing kit from their bag and opening it, looking at the needle.
“If a needle without thread is a weapon, then that’s exactly what I’ll be.”