If the pieces are your stories, Laura told Sadie as she gathered her scraps, then the connections are the quilted patterns holding them together.

It's Marriage
Marriages hold and bind us in legal ties—of convenience, of property, of minds, of what matters most. This most formal of connections can never be truly dissevered.

It's Family
Family bonds— of love, of hatred, of anger, of hope, or of despair, stem from before our births and linger far beyond our deaths.

It's Hatred
The shades of hatred cover a complex range: from what we do not comprehend to what we fear as other, from the abyss of despair to the pinnacle of greed.

It's Friends
A shared interest. A smile. An understanding. A word. Someone to share both sorrow and joy. To be there.

It's Business
Here connections are based on trust, trust is based on understanding, and understanding is based on our motives. There must be trade, and with trade comes profits.

It's Complicated
Not everything is simple.

It’s a secret tearing at the soul
There are things we do not speak about that strike at the very root of our existence.

It’s a secret growing in the soul
There are things we do not speak about that create the core of our being.

It's outside the wall
It is what we hold outside of ourselves that may prove to be the strongest connection of all.