Horseback Librarian

In last month’s installment, we learned that Lanette ventured up the Cumberland River to attend her friend Ada’s wedding. On the way there she had some trouble in the mud and was found by Thad Clay, a new acquaintance of hers. Since he was also going to the wedding, they traveled the rest of the way together. Lanette described the wedding to her cousin. What will she have to tell Maisie now?

Chapter Fifteen

May 29, 1935

Dear Maisie,

I’ve had several attempts at this letter tonight. Each time I go to begin I’m conflicted as to how to tell you about life’s recent events around here lately. I reckon I ought to just start otherwise this letter will never get written and we can’t have that. My record has been too good this year to let it stop now.

Well, for starters, when I went to visit Mrs. Dukater three weeks ago I found that she had fallen off her front porch. She was in bad shape. Unconscious with her head in the grass and her feet hung up on the steps. The sight of her really shook me up. Somehow I managed to get her fully on the ground, but even then it took me several minutes to get her to wake up. I was so afraid I wasn’t going to. And you wouldn’t believe it, but right around that time Mr. Fordwick happened to stop by. Once he saw that I was holding Ruthaleen’s head in my lap, he must have known something was wrong because he wasted no time in getting down from his horse and running over to us.

From there, Mr. Fordwick was obliging in hitching the horses up to Mrs. Dukater’s wagon and we gently placed her in the box. She insisted that she was alright and that she needn’t go anywhere. That she just needed to lie down for a while. Well I didn’t agree to that. I wanted her to see a doctor. So we took her to Miracle where she stayed the night with the Lancings and I until the mail carrier came by the next day. Since the mailman is about the only person around with a car he agreed to take Ruthaleen to the nearest hospital.

I’m really struggling to tell you the rest of this…the mailman came by this week and told us that he had checked in on Ruthaleen at the hospital again. She’d been there for several days, you know. Yet, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. So they did their best to make her comfortable. Well he said that she passed away four days before he visited her. I’m devastated, Maisie.

Not until recently did I realize how attached I’ve become to these people. They’re my life now. I not only give them reading material and a door open to the rest of the world, but I care for them, I visit with them, I help them with whatever I can, and they give back that kindness and friendship to me. It’s knowing that I never get to read to Ruthaleen again. To see her amidst her kitchen of wild herbs. To hear her voice that was as wild and beautiful as the mountains themselves.

The Next Day

I couldn’t write anymore last night as I’m sure you can imagine. I won’t go into too much more detail about that, only that the town of Miracle plans to have a funeral for her this coming weekend.

For my other piece of news…The Pack Horse Library wants me to relocate. At the end of the summer. I didn’t know they did that, Maisie. And to be quite honest…I haven’t thought about leaving nearly as much as I did in the beginning. I’ve come to love it here. I love these people. There have been some hard times here, yes, and experienced things I probably never would have in Lexington or back home. Nevertheless, I want to stay. I’m not ready to move on.

That means no more meals with the Lancings, no helping out at the school, no reading to the Colton children, and no more recording down Mr. Fordwick’s music. Not to mention…Thad Clay. I will miss these people a great deal. Perhaps even more than I do of my college friends, which is saying a lot.

In other words, I don’t know what I’m to do. I wish you were here in person so that we could talk it all out.

My Regards,

Lanette