That evening, Christy ran a brush through her sun-streaked hair and slipped into bed. She retrieved her diary and her fountain pen from her nightstand. Slowly she thumbed through the pages of the little leather-bound book.
She smiled wistfully when she looked at the very first entry:
. . . I have begun my great adventure this day, and although things have not gone exactly as I had hoped, I am still committed to my dream of teaching at the mission. . . .
Farther down the page she read:
The truth is, I have not been this afraid before, or felt this alone and homesick. Leaving everyone I love was harder than I thought it would be. But I must be strong. I am at the start of a great adventure. And great adventures are sometimes scary.
She’d been right about one thing, that frosty day in January when she’d started her diary. Coming here had certainly turned out to be an adventure. Teaching at this desperately poor mission had been a challenge and a joy beyond anything she’d imagined. It had helped her discover strengths in herself she hadn’t known were there.
She’d discovered love, too. Love for the beauty of these rugged, ageless mountains. Love for her friends and her students. And even the love of two very special men—Neil MacNeill and David Grantland.
But tonight, as she glanced over the pages filled with her careful writing, she felt strangely troubled. Christy looked across the room to her big trunk. Tucked inside of it was a little wooden jewelry box her mother had given her. And inside the box was a handful of stones. Golden, glittering, precious stones.
After some discussion, Ruby Mae, Bessie, and Clara had decided that their gold should stay at the mission house for safekeeping. Christy had offered to lock the stones up in her trunk until the gold could be deposited at the bank in El Pano.
Since the mountain road leading there had been blocked by a recent rockslide, it could be awhile before anyone could get to the bank.
In the meantime, her wooden trunk was the closest thing the mission had to a safe. After all, everyone here was poor, and that included the staff at the mission. And this wasn’t like Asheville, Christy’s former home. In Cutter Gap, nobody locked their doors. Some people didn’t even have a door.
Christy opened her diary to a fresh page.
I can’t help but feel uneasy tonight. In a place as needy as Cutter Gap, the discovery of gold should be a wonderful blessing. But as Miss Alice pointed out, greed and envy can make people do strange things. I keep wondering how this will affect the children. I still remember how they looked at me that first day of school. Me, in my fancy patent leather shoes, when almost all the children were barefoot! “Silly, silly shoes,” David called them. He was right, of course.
A soft knock at the door startled Christy from her writing.
“Come in,” she called.
Ruby Mae, who lived at the mission, poked her head in the door. She was wearing her blue cotton nightgown. Her wild red hair was tied back with a ribbon Christy had given her. “Can I come in, Miz Christy?”
“It’s late. You should be asleep, Ruby Mae. Tomorrow’s a school day.”
Ruby Mae leapt onto Christy’s bed. “Can’t sleep. I’m too excited about gettin’ rich. I tried countin’ sheep, but they kept turning into gold nuggets.” She gazed at Christy’s trunk longingly. “Can I see ’em one more time?”
“Ruby Mae . . .”
“Just a peek, I promise. I know it’s crazy, but I keep fearin’ they’ll up and disappear. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Miz Christy, I trust you and all. But it’s like the only way I can believe in ’em is to look right at ’em with my own two eyes, you know?”
Christy set aside her diary. “All right. Just this once. But I’m not going to have a daily show for you and your friends. Understood?”
“Oh, no’m. Bessie and Clara won’t let me tell anyone no how. My lips is glued tighter than a bear paw to a honey hive.”
Christy retrieved the key to the trunk from her nightstand drawer. She opened the trunk, pulled out the small cedar jewelry box, and sat down on the bed next to Ruby Mae.
When Christy opened the box, Ruby Mae gasped. “Oh, my! They’re even more beautiful than I remembered!”
“You just saw these gold nuggets a couple hours ago, Ruby Mae.”
Ruby Mae picked up one of the stones. “It’s like these tiny little rocks have magic power. More than one of Granny O’Teale’s herb potions, even. More than all the doc’s medicines. This rock can make me into anything I want to be.”
Christy started to argue that money couldn’t buy happiness. That what mattered was that Ruby Mae be happy on the inside. That material things didn’t matter.
But when she looked into Ruby Mae’s shining brown eyes, she couldn’t say a thing. Christy had grown up in a lovely home, with pretty dresses and fine food and loving parents and all the shoes she’d ever needed.
Not long ago, Ruby Mae had actually visited Christy’s old home. Bessie had needed an operation at a hospital in Asheville, and Ruby Mae, Christy, David, and Doctor MacNeill had traveled there together. Christy could still remember the look on Ruby Mae’s face when she’d first stepped into Christy’s old bedroom. Seeing it through Ruby Mae’s eyes, Christy had felt ashamed at the way she’d always taken her own good fortune for granted.
“Magic rocks,” Ruby Mae repeated in a whisper. “That’s what they is.”
Christy touched the red ribbon in Ruby Mae’s hair. “You know, that ribbon looks pretty in your hair,” she said softly.
“Finest present I ever got,” Ruby Mae declared, still staring at the gold. “Practically the onliest one,” she added with a smile.
Gently Christy put the gold nugget back in the box with the others.
“Miz Christy?” Ruby Mae asked thoughtfully. “You figure a gal from these here parts could ever make somethin’ of herself? Maybe be a doctor or a teacher or have a passel of kids in a big city mansion?”
“I think a girl from these parts can do just about anything she sets her mind to, if she works hard at her schooling,” Christy said, “and gets enough sleep.” She placed the box back inside the trunk. “You head on to bed now.”
“One more thing,” Ruby Mae said when she got to the door.
“Yes, Ruby Mae?”
“I was wonderin’ if you’d mind hidin’ that key o’ yours someplace more secret-like. I know I can trust everyone, but just in case . . .”
Christy stared at the brass key. She’d never bothered to lock her trunk before today. She eased the key into the lock and turned it until it clicked. Then she slipped the key under her mattress.
“How’s that?” Christy asked.
“Much better. Now I can get me some sleep.”
Christy sighed. “I hope I can say the same for myself.”