Chapter 49 Fare Well
Fare Well
Kate Shaw
Birdie’s Books of Truth will not go to the Rare Book School.
Or to the J. P. Morgan library in Manhattan, where they would feel out of sorts.
They will not be auctioned to the highest bidder at Sotheby’s to burnish a rich man’s ego.
All options are discarded but the logical one: the Books of Truth will stay close to their roots.
I follow Lydia’s advice and accept the glorious offer for the Books of Truth from Appalachian State, where they will be studied under the tutelage of Dr. Cratis Williams. Dr. Williams’s reputation grows as the Father of Appalachian Studies, and he is held in high esteem on an expanding stage.
Born in Kentucky of Scots-Irish heritage, Williams understands folk speech and is dedicated to discovering and preserving the mysteries of this rich culture.
He will pull from Birdie’s books every truth and lesson.
The sale of seventy-eight books generated a fortune.
It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow only dreamers imagine, and I’ve become a dreamer.
To understand how this fortune will work for Baines Creek, Lydia and I visit an investor recommended by Professor Covey.
Mr. Lourdes of Peyton and Lourdes exudes confidence in his three-piece suit, buffed nails, and groomed beard.
He explains that the income will be wisely invested in blue-chip stock that has a large market cap, a sterling reputation, excellent financials, and many years of success in the business world.
They will not gamble with Birdie’s gift.
The outcome could benefit the children of Baines Creek forever.
In the future, it will pay for any educational endeavor they can imagine.
It will help students fit in. There will be little standing between the students and success except their own aspirations and hesitations.
This news will be delivered at church on Friday.
It’s my hope that possibility becomes a good thing for tomorrow and not a threat to their past. Baines Creek will fare well because of Birdie Rocas.
My name is openly tied to these discoveries as if I were the mastermind who brought these treasures to light.
In the academic world I’ve become interesting, and I am amused by the attention, as if my ten years in a one-room schoolhouse had an overarching motive.
But the truth is that all I did was wander and be found.
Birdie would say the accolades were unbecoming to a woman honest about her limitations.
She humbles me still, but now I find it reassuring, not degrading.
I became a pawn in her plan, but a willing one.
Granny C told Lydia and me that the eleven clans meet in the meadow at Birdie’s place every summer solstice.
They met quietly this year to celebrate Birdie’s life and to determine what was best for their manuscript and Florie’s journal.
They don’t want them to remain hidden and be returned to the underground chamber.
They will loan them to the Rare Book School in Charlottesville.
There scholars can study them and visitors can bear witness to something extraordinary created centuries ago by women.
Without trying, Birdie Rocas has become an international curiosity.
An icon with a feral eye who smoked a corncob pipe and had a crow ride on her head. A truth seeker. A Keeper. My friend.