Shelterwood

Two days after Olive arrives at Mrs. Grube’s door, the two begin their journey at dawn. Olive is pleased to be leaving with her recovered but still-healing pony tied to the back of the Grube’s wagon. However, she also worries about Tula, Nessa, and the others; Olive has arranged a plan for the other children to follow the wagon discreetly, but she and Mrs. Grube are leaving home much earlier in the day than she had expected. Over the course of the morning wagon ride, Olive does her best to slow their progress. After a leisurely lunch at their pre-planned picnic spot, Olive hears Tula’s whistle from the surrounding forest and knows that the other children have caught up to them.

Valerie and Curtis meet Roy and Edwin at a trailhead. As the four hike to the location where the body was reported, the two seasoned officers coach the younger rangers on how to watch for evidence along the trail. They are heading toward a creek, and recent rains have left the area muddy and wet. Valerie notices an object in a drainage area and fights through thick mud to retrieve it. She finds a lanyard attached to a key ring that holds several keys. The lanyard is tied to a high-top tennis shoe and is from the local high school. It is printed with the words, “Antlers Senior ‘91” (145). These details match Braden’s information, but the body that they later find is not Braden’s, nor does it match the timeline for the missing driver whom Curtis has been looking for. The body is large, wearing hunting boots, and has a prison tattoo on one hand. Edwin and Roy are both shaken by the smell and the sight of the dead body. Soon, the chief ranger and a few sheriffs arrive on the scene.

Tula, Nessa, Pinti, and Koi position themselves to be wandering the road that Olive and Mrs. Grube travel shortly after their picnic lunch. As Olive hoped she would, Mrs. Grube takes pity on the children, who claim to be trying to get to Talihina. Also as planned, Tula and the others hop off the wagon once the town is in sight, as Olive doesn’t want to risk Mrs. Grube or some other well-meaning adult’s insistence that the children be placed under someone’s care. 

The town of Talihina is bustling when Olive and Mrs. Grube arrive. Many people are camping in wagons around town, awaiting Kate Barnard’s speech. Mrs. Grube packs up some food and asks Olive to look for Tula and the others while she tries to find Kate Barnard and the other women’s club members. (Of course, Mrs. Grube doesn’t know that the other children are Olive’s travel companions.) 

Olive is distracted by the sound of a band and wanders toward the music instead of walking directly to the place where Tula and the others await her. Olive spots two boys hiding behind a building and eating stolen turnips. She is alarmed to see that the sack is her own; Nessa had been holding it. She confronts the boys, who are named Dewey and Amos. 

Olive learns that Dewey and Amos met Tula and Nessa the night before and claimed that the two girls were in their camping spot. Tula and Amos, both of whom are Choctaw, had a lively conversation and became fast friends, so the boys offered to find food for all of them. Dewey is quick to realize that Olive is connected with Tula and Nessa. He tells her that Tula had already agreed to share some of the food that Olive was sure to bring, and he even asks her to hand over her bundle now. Olive does not like that Dewey was eating stolen turnips. She doesn’t trust him or his trickster ways. He threatens to reveal her to Mrs. Grube if she doesn’t give him her food bundle. Amos, who is gentler and more diplomatic, tries to calm Dewey down. 

Meanwhile, the preacher comes out the back door of the church. (Dewey stole the turnips from the church garden.) The boys dart away, and Dewey tells Olive that if she does not take the blame for the turnips, he will tell Mrs. Grube that Olive knows Tula and plans to head into the mountains.

After completing some paperwork related to the discovery of the unidentified body, Valerie visits Mrs. Wambles’s house, hoping that Sydney will know what Braden’s keys looked like and what shoes he might have been wearing. She plans to ask questions that will not let Sydney know that certain items have been found; she doesn’t want to worry the girl. 

Mrs. Wambles speaks to Valerie on the front porch, repeating gossip that she heard in town about the body and a recent rockslide in the park. Her gossip is full of misinformation. She makes Valerie uncomfortable with her talk of “bones” and “wandering spirits” in the mountains. At first, Mrs. Wambles resists Valerie’s request to speak to Sydney. She argues that it will only upset Sydney to talk about her missing brother, then claims that an unusual occurrence like a visit from a ranger will cause unwanted excitement while Sydney and the other foster children are preparing for bed. Valerie insists on seeing Sydney, disliking Mrs. Wambles’s attempts to prevent it, and she worries about the girl’s well-being. 

Finally, Mrs. Wambles permits Sydney to come outside and speak with Valerie. Sydney once again expresses interest in doing a ride-along with Valerie to learn more about her job. She tells Valerie that Braden went to JROTC camp the previous summer because he wants to join the military or become a pilot. Sydney’s description of Braden’s keys matches the lanyard that Valerie found earlier, but Sydney claims that Braden would only ever hike in boots. 

Valerie feels like she is making progress when Sydney mentions Braden’s girlfriend Rachel for the first time. Rachel attends college in Oklahoma City. Sydney advises Valerie to visit Budgie (Sydney’s grandmother) at a healthcare facility called City of Faith. After wrapping up her conversation with Sydney, Valerie retrieves Charlie from daycare and stops by Curtis’s house, hoping to ask for additional help in the investigation while the details from her conversation with Sydney are fresh in her mind.

Talihina is decorated with flags and buntings to welcome Kate Barnard. Olive is amazed at all the fuss that the town is making, especially for a woman. Olive finds an ideal vantage point from which to watch Kate Barnard’s speech, and fortunately, when the parson sees Olive holding the bag of turnips that Dewey stole, he assumes that she has been sent by the women’s club to help those who are preparing the meal that will be served after the speech. Olive goes along with his assumption, pleased to avoid trouble and excited when he promises that the job will pay. This encounter allows Olive to work alongside other women’s club volunteers just backstage.

Kate Barnard is a passionate, persuasive speaker who soon enthralls the large crowd with her energetic retelling of some of her political victories. She declares her dedication to the welfare of children, speaking out against the use of child laborers in mines and factories and calling for Oklahoma’s new child labor laws to be extended nationally. Listening to Kate Barnard’s speech inspires Olive, who decides to start a school for the other children once they arrive safely at their mountain destination.

After the speech, the women’s club members ask Olive to help serve the meal and offer to pay her another nickel. She agrees and waits tables with two other girls from a nearby school called Choctaw Academy. While they are serving the meal, they meet a newspaper journalist who takes their photograph. Serving the meal to Kate Barnard and her travel companions gives Olive more opportunities to listen to their political talk and to admire Kate’s no-nonsense approach and dedication.

Curtis had not been home when Valerie tried to visit the night before, immediately after her conversation with Sydney, so she left him a note. He calls her early the next morning, waking her up at 6 am on her day off. Curtis agrees to help Valerie investigate whether anyone in town has seen or heard of Braden’s girlfriend, Rachel. 

Valerie takes Charlie on a long hike. He is excited to see the site of the recent rockslide in the park, while she is looking forward to some peaceful time outdoors with her son. They enjoy observing details about the forest together before reaching the very large rubble field that indicates the recent rockfall. Valerie is shocked to see how large the rockslide is and doesn’t have a good answer for Charlie when he asks what could have caused it. Charlie hunts around in the rubble for trash and potential treasures. Valerie doesn’t notice at the time, but the narrative will later reveal that he picks up an empty blasting cap: evidence that the rockslide was triggered intentionally. 

Valerie feels unnerved by the rockslide. At one point, she thinks that she might hear footsteps nearby. Later, she thinks she hears whistling or singing, which would not make any sense given that the area is closed to park visitors in the aftermath of the rockslide. She calls out, but no one responds.