Creative Commons – The Plainsrunner – Chapter Twenty-Three

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Sage takes on the world.

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Chapter Twenty-Three – Fame

The newspaper didn’t agree with her. Even though they originally came to her to do a story about the prodigy who won a place at the university against all odds, they ended up doing a feature about the girl who survived a month alone in the wilderness. Of course it included the story of her killing the day flier, complete with pictures of her holding her spear and wearing the necklace. For an interesting juxtaposition, they took the pictures on the university grounds. The primitive and the civilized. She indulged them, but she refused to stand on the grass, nor would she allow them on it in spite of their insistence that they needed a better angle. Nor did she allow them into her quarters, because that would have disturbed the Professor. She did allow them to take pictures of her in the library. The primitive reading. They needed the university’s permission, but they only had to promise to publish pictures of the Head Librarian and the University President for that.

The feature was a success, and not long after that the city magazine called. They did a big glossy spread contrasting the intellectual academic against the tough country girl. She refrained from pointing out that it was the same intelligence that made her successful in both cases. She had already learned that they showed little interest in the nuances, subtle or otherwise. Next came the inter-metropolitan magazines that were sold in many other cities along with hers. She was able to choose among them and she chose the one that offered to pay her the most. They also claimed to have the widest coverage with the most subscribers. She was interested in the money because it could buy her security and independence. She didn’t let it blind her, though. She made them commit to giving substantial attention to the university and to Professor Tailor. He wound up with a lot of job offers, but he chose to stay where he was, at a significant increase in benefits. The university didn’t mind because they were in more demand and could raise their rates. Sage felt bad about that unintended consequence and, when she was in a position to do so, established a very generous scholarship.

Next came the book deal. Once again she was faced with competing offers and relied heavily on the advice of the university and their recommended experts to choose the best one. As it turned out, the one she chose was the only one that didn’t try to get her to turn over the rights to her story in exchange for a larger cash advance. She was glad of the advice because without it she would never have seen the trap, and she would have been left out in the cold when the movie deal came along.

That was almost too much for her. The disruption of her life and the demands on her time made her want to pull out and go back to being a simple cleaner. All the distractions were affecting what she thought of as her real work, and the damage to her pride in her work ethic had her wanting to call it all off. Fortunately the Professor was able to talk to her and convince her that, with her money, she could hire someone to take over her cleaning duties and not need to give anything up. She burst out from under the gathering clouds, kissed the Professor’s cheek and got hold of Digger. He was able to find someone, a shy young woman who was willing and needed the work, and Sage was able to concentrate on her new duties.

The movie was successful and it spawned a sequel. Sage was on the books as author – with a ghostwriter – co-screenwriter and technical advisor. Her fame led to more magazine articles and more books and more movies. It seemed as if once it got going, it became self-sustaining. Fame led to more fame, and success to more success. If Sage was embarrassed by it, and she was, she didn’t let it show publicly. She was embarrassed because it felt as if she was being rewarded far out of proportion to the effort she was putting in. She didn’t show it because the money, in addition to securing her life, allowed her to help Digger and fund her scholarships.

In spite of all the turmoil, she was able to find the time to continue working with the Professor, which she considered her most important work. They made some progress with the artifacts. Sage, from the broad mass of knowledge she was absorbing, came up with suggestions for the symbols etched on their backs. The Professor’s, a circle apparently orbiting another circle, was already suggested to represent the lightest element, hydrogen. She agreed and suggested that they say so in a paper. Hers, a large circle with two smaller circles embedded in it, like a simple face drawn by a child, didn’t resemble any element. She told the Professor that she thought it might represent a water molecule, and they co-wrote a paper about that, too. They also speculated that the material they were made from was carbon. They were hesitant because it seemed metallic and they had never heard of metallic carbon, but they published anyway. Their tests indicated carbon, and that’s what they reported. They would let the scientific community work it out.

When the book deal came through and she received her first cheque, Sage decided that it was time to move out and get her own place. She felt she had enough money now, and soon she would have a degree in astronomy and could find a job, so it would be a safe move. She loved her place on the campus and she liked how it was so convenient to her work, but the time had come. She wanted the Professor to have his room back, for those nights he worked late and didn’t want to have to go all the way home to sleep. Also, if she had her own place she would be able to take in some of Digger’s people. It bothered her that she was receiving so much good fortune and she wasn’t repaying the man who had made it possible.

She would move out and get things going in the right direction, but first there was something she wanted to do. She was just coming into oestrus, and she started to work on the Professor. At first he didn’t know what was going on. Then he did know, but pretended he didn’t. Next he let on that he knew, but pretended that it was inappropriate, with him being her employer. And how would it be if they made all the cliché rumors true? He resisted, however feebly, but she persisted. When they passed each other, she always made sure to brush against him. When they were at the workbench, she pressed close, shoulder to shoulder, their heads close, breathing mingled breath. He didn’t stand a chance and soon they did what came naturally.

She moved within days, and when her pregnancy became obvious, and later when her son was born, there was enough uncertainty around the timing to make the nasty rumors impotent. She didn’t reveal who the father was, not even to the Professor, and she let herself be seen with enough men, from Digger to film producers, that it might have been anyone. That led to talk about the loose morals of the northern girl, which wounded her natural sense of rectitude, but she only used it to enhance her already overblown public image.

By the time Tallgrass was born, the mystique around Sage was so well established that single motherhood was on its way from a state of disgrace, to a courageous choice.