Smoky Mountain Mystery 01 - Out on a Limb
Page 19
She asked Phoebe, Doc, Jill, Leon, and Henry to serve on the Board of Directors.
Leon promised Ivy that when she was feeling up to it, he’d show her more places with distinctive micro-climates like the one where she’d made her discovery. His grandmaw had shown him several such places on their herb gathering trips.
Because Ivy, Phoebe, Waneeta, and Jill wore Jill’s colorful creations at all the media events, Jill’s business exploded. Her upgrades of traditional Appalachian rags were featured in magazines from Altered Couture to Vogue.
Cloud Forest’s boutique was selling out of her coats as fast as she could make them and custom orders were coming in at a dizzying rate via Etsy.com. The business needed an official name so, Goodwill Jill became Queenagers with a sideline for younger people called Ragamuffin.
The jobs created by the expansion of Jill’s business would give a nice boost to the local economy. And it was great news for the regulars at the café, too, because Jill wouldn’t have time for them anymore. They appreciated her years of effort on their behalf, but the truth was she wasn’t much of a chef. They were hoping she’d hire someone with real talent, but nobody had the courage or bad manners to suggest this to her directly. Instead, they put out a request via the local gossips for a good cook to put in an application.
Professor Whittington was residing in a jail cell in the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. In solitary confinement for his own safety, he believed himself to be more secure in prison than he would’ve been on the outside. He’d have felt a lot less secure if he’d realized how far Lester and Fate’s network extended.
After Ivy signed the deal with the park, there was a gala reception benefiting Appalachian Bear Rescue. Henry and Phoebe had arrived together, which was sure to start a lot of tongues wagging. As they made their way toward the buffet table they passed Waneeta and Professor Van Landingham standing together, deep in conversation. Waneeta had a hand on the Frog Whisperer’s arm and was obviously charming the socks off him.
When Waneeta saw Phoebe and Henry, she winked and gestured at them with a cute little four-fingered wave that Phoebe interpreted for Henry, “It looks like we have a go for husband number four.”
As Phoebe reached for a cookie she heard Waneeta say, “Walter, honey, will you do the chorus frog again? I just love that one.”
Acknowledgments
This book could never have been written without a lot of help. I’m especially grateful for the assistance of Dave DeBruicker. Many thanks also to friends who read and commented on drafts of the manuscript – Mary Benami, Wendy Welch, Martha Eddington, Sandy Johanson, Fran Hoffman, Jill Draper, Yvonne Loveday, Elise Jourdan (Momma), and the amazing Richard McWhorter.
Shout out to Jill Kerttula who has been such a blessing in my life, making custom coats that give me courage to cope with large speaking engagements. www.Jill2day.com
Admiration, respect, and gratitude go out to Kim DeLozier, Rick Varner, and Dan Nolfi, brave wildlife rangers who struggle to protect park visitors and critters from each other 24/7/365 without ever breaking any rules.
Deep gratitude to Dr. R. Wayne Van Devender who is a real Frog Whisperer and one of the most impressive teachers I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. Thanks also to Dr. Sydney Everhart, the real myxomycete expert who unintentionally inspired this book by scampering around in the treetops and startling the heck out of me.
And thanks to several friends who appear as characters in this book but refused to allow me to identify them. You all know who each other are.
About the Author
A former U.S. Senate Counsel to the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Committee on Governmental Affairs, Carolyn Jourdan has degrees from the University of Tennessee in Biomedical Engineering and Law.
Carolyn lives on the family farm in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, with many stray animals.
Her first book, Heart in the Right Place, is a Wall Street Journal national bestseller. It’s the true story of a spoiled, high-powered Senate lawyer (Carolyn) who gives up a glamorous life in Washington and comes back home to the Smoky Mountains to work as an inept receptionist in her father's rural medical office. It’s on many lists of best books of the year, best book club books of the year, and funniest books ever. It was Family Circle magazine’s first ever book of the month and won Elle magazine’s Readers Prize.
Her second book, Medicine Men: Extreme Appalachian Doctoring, is also a national bestseller. It’s a collection of true stories describing the most memorable moments from the lives of a dozen physicians who practiced alone in the rural Southern Appalachian Highlands from the 1930’s to 2005.
For more information, visit Carolyn’s website at http://CarolynJourdan.com
And join her on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/CarolynJourdanAuthor