Rickard took the car and had a try at finding the state highways.
But mostly he wrote and in about a year he sold this book of his. Probably you have read it:
Made him a hunk of money. But his New York publishers still are going slowly mad trying to understand why he steadfastly refuses to stir out of the valley. He has refused lecture tours, has declined dinners in his honour and turned down all the other glitter that goes with writing a bestseller.
The book didn't change Rickard at all. By the time he sold it he was well liked in the valley and seemed to like everyone?except possibly Heath. He stayed rather cold to Heath. He used to do a lot of walking, to get exercise, he said, although I think that he thought up most of his book out on those walks. And he'd stop by and chew the fat when he was out on those walks and that way everyone got to know him. He used to talk a lot about when he could get out of the valley and all of us were beginning to feel sorry that a time would come when he would leave, for the Rickards had turned out to be good neighbours.
There must be something about the valley that brings out the best there is in everyone. As I have said before, we have yet to get a bad neighbour and that is something most neighbourhoods can't say.
One day I had stopped on my way from town to talk a while with Heath and as we stood talking, up the road came Rickard. You could see he wasn't going anywhere, but was just out for a walk.
He stopped and talked with us for a few minutes, then suddenly he said, 'You know, we've made up our minds that we would like to stay here.'
'Now, that is fine,' said Heath.
'Grace and I were talking about it the other night,' said Rickard. 'About the time when we could get out of here. Then suddenly we stopped our talking and looked at one another and we knew right then and there we didn't want to leave. It's been so peaceful and the kids like the school here so much better than in the city and the people are so fine we couldn't bear to leave.'
'I'm glad to hear you say that,' Heath told him. 'But it seems to me you've been sticking pretty close. You ought to take the wife and kids in town to see a show.' And that was it. It was as simple as all that.
Life goes on in the valley as it always has, except it's even better now. All of us are healthy. We don't even seem to get colds any more. When we need rain we get it and when there's need of sun the sun is sure to shine. We aren't getting rich, for you can't get rich with all this Washington interference, but we're making a right good living. Rickard is working on his second book and once in a while I go out at night and try to locate the star Heath showed me that evening long ago.
But we still get some publicity now and then. The other night I was listening to my favourite newscaster and he had an item he had a lot of fun with.
'Is there really such a place as Coon Valley?' he asked and you could hear the chuckle just behind the words. 'If there is, the government would like to know about it. The maps insist there is and there are statistics on the books that say it's a place where there is no sickness, where the climate is ideal, where there's never a crop failure?a land of milk and honey. Investigators have gone out to seek the truth of this and they can't find the place, although people in nearby communities insist there's such a valley. Telephone calls have been made to people listed as residents of the valley, but the calls can't be completed. Letters have been written to them, but the letters are returned to the sender for one or another of the many reasons the post office has for non-delivery. Investigators have waited in nearby trading centres, but Coon Valley people never came to town while the investigators were there. If there is such a place and if the things the statistics say of it are true, the government would be very interested, for there must be data in the valley that could be studied and applied to other sectors. We have no way of knowing whether this broadcast can reach the valley?if it is any more efficient than investigators or telephone or the postal service. But if it does?and if there is such a place as Coon Valley-and if one of its residents should be listening, won't he please speak up!'
He chuckled then, chuckled very briefly, and went on to tell the latest rumour about Khrushchev.
I shut off the radio and sat in my chair and thought about the times when for several days no one could find his way out of the valley and of the other times when the telephones went dead for no apparent reason. And I remembered how we'd talked about it among ourselves and wondered if we should speak to Heath about it, but had in each case decided not to, since we felt that Heath knew what he was doing and that we could trust his judgment.
It's inconvenient at times, of course, but there are a lot of compensations. There hasn't been a magazine salesman in the valley for more than a dozen years?nor an insurance salesman, either.
