The day before Christmas break Sharon finished her last exam, then headed to the Registrar's office to withdraw from school for the Spring semester.    Back at the rooming house, it didn't take her any longer to move all her things out than it had taken to move them in. In fact, it was a mite easier, since she was lugging stuff down the three flights of stairs this time. The first trip down, she carried the box of letters and placed them on the floor of the front seat of the car. Abiram, temporarily crated, was all she carried on her last trip down the stairway. Once outside, she sat the crate down gently on the sidewalk, walked around the house, and placed the key under the rock where she had originally found it. The landlady would be by tomorrow to get it.   That done, she retrieved Abiram, turning him loose in the car, and set out on the long drive to Tulsa.

It was time she found her father.

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She and Louie kept in touch.   When he and Hazel drove down to Parisburg, VA to get married the next summer, he sent her pictures, some of he and Hazel with her belly proudly starting to swell, taken by the magistrate, and a few others of the New River as it turned and headed for the Narrows, gathering speed for the wild run through the gorge.   

Hazel lost that first baby, but three more followed, Katherine Sally, Louie Jr., and Henrietta. Louie sent pictures, and Sharon sent birth presents for each one, and later, as they grew, birthday cards and token gifts.   When Henrietta turned twelve, Sharon sent the box of letters to Louie with a note saying she wanted Henrietta to have them. She couldn't say why she did that. it just seemed the right thing to do.