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She Accidentally Bid $40,000 on a Date With Boston's Most Eligible Billionaire — Transcript

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0:00Molly Finch was only waving at her
0:01friend. That was what she would tell
0:03people afterward. That was what she
0:06would tell [screaming] her landlord and
0:07her mother in Gloucester and the
0:09reporter from the Boston Herald and
0:11eventually a great many strangers on the
0:14internet. She was only waving at her
0:16friend. It was a Saturday night in
0:18October [laughter] in the great marble
0:20hall of the Boston
0:20[cheering and applause] Public Library
0:22at the annual library foundation gala.
0:25There were 500 people in evening dress.
0:28There were crystal chandeliers and
0:30silver trays and a string quartet. There
0:32was a camera crew from Channel 5 filming
0:35the auction for the late news. And there
0:37was Molly in a borrowed green dress that
0:39was a little too long standing at the
0:42very back of the room beside the coat
0:43check because she wasn't a guest. She
0:46was staff. She'd been handing out
0:48programs at the door since 6:00. The
0:51auction was nearly over. They had sold a
0:53week in a villa in Tuscanyany, a signed
0:56Red Sox jersey, and dinner for eight
0:58with a famous chef. And now the
1:00auctioneer, a large, cheerful man in a
1:03velvet jacket named Barnaby Leadeds, was
1:05announcing the final lot of the night.
1:08Ladies and gentlemen, Boom Barnaby, the
1:10moment you've been waiting for. Lot 30,
1:13six Saturdays with Boston's most
1:15eligible bachelor. Six dates planned and
1:19paid for by the gentleman himself. all
1:21proceeds to the library foundation.
1:24Please welcome Mr. Hugh Thornton. The
1:26room burst into applause. A man walked
1:29out onto the little stage and Molly at
1:31the very back of the room stopped
1:33folding programs. She knew who he was.
1:36Everybody in Boston knew who he was.
1:38Hugh Thornton, 38, [clears throat]
1:40founder of Thornon Marine, the shipyard
1:43in Charles Town that built the fastest
1:44sailing yachts in the world. a
1:46billionaire who never gave interviews,
1:49never went to parties, and had never
1:51once been photographed with a woman. The
1:53newspapers called him the ghost of
1:55Charles Town. In person, he was taller
1:58than she expected and much more
2:00uncomfortable. He stood in the middle of
2:02the stage in a black dinner jacket with
2:04his hands clasped behind his back like a
2:07man waiting to be shot. He had dark,
2:10slightly unruly hair, a strong jaw, and
2:13gray green eyes that looked out over the
2:15crowd as if searching for the nearest
2:17exit. The bidding began at $5,000. It
2:21went up very fast. At the front of the
2:23room, a tall blonde woman in silver
2:26sequins raised her paddle again and
2:28again and again. Her name was Cresa
2:32Peton. Molly knew that because Cresa had
2:35been rude to her at the coch two hours
2:37earlier. And because every person in the
2:40room seemed to know two things about
2:41her. Her father, Harold Peton, was the
2:45chairman of the library foundation. And
2:47Cresa Peton, had been trying to marry
2:49Hugh Thornton for 2 years.
2:5235,000? Cried Barnaby. 35,000 to the
2:56lovely Ms. Peton. Do I hear 36?
3:0036 came from a woman by the window. 38
3:03came from Cresa. without even looking.
3:06On the stage, Hugh Thornton's face had
3:09gone very still, like a man watching a
3:11large wave come toward his boat. And at
3:14that exact moment, Molly's best friend,
3:16Jojo, who also worked at the Doorchester
3:19Branch Library and who was supposed to
3:21be helping with coats, appeared on the
3:23far side of the hall by the dessert
3:25table, holding up two cream puffs and
3:27grinning. Molly, who had not eaten since
3:30lunch, raised her hand high in the air
3:32and waved. She was holding something in
3:34that hand. She didn't even think about
3:37it. It was a green bidding paddle number
3:3947 that a guest had left on the coat
3:42check counter. 40,000 roared Barnaby
3:46Leadeds. $40,000 to the lady in green at
3:49the back. 500 heads turned. Molly froze
3:53with her arm in the air. No, she said.
3:57No, no, I was just 40,000 going once,
4:01cried Barnaby. Going twice. At the front
4:05of the room, Cresa Peton was turning
4:07purple. Her paddle was halfway up. And
4:10on the stage, for one tiny second, so
4:13small that almost nobody in the room
4:15noticed it, Hugh Thornton looked at the
4:18auctioneer and nodded. Sold. Barnaby
4:22brought the gavvel down with a crack
4:24like a pistol. sold for $40,000 to the
4:28lady in green. The room erupted. People
4:31cheered. People laughed. The string
4:34quartet played a little fanfare. And the
4:36camera crew from Channel 5 swung around,
4:39lights blazing and pointed their camera
4:41straight at Molly Finch, librarian, who
4:44earned $51,000 a year, and who was
4:47standing at the coat check in a borrowed
4:49dress with a green paddle in her hand
4:51and her mouth wide open. On the far side
4:54of the hall, Jojo dropped both cream
4:56puffs. The next 10 minutes were the
4:59longest of Molly's life. She tried to
5:01explain. She tried to explain to the
5:03young woman with the clipboard who came
5:06rushing over to take her credit card
5:07details. She tried to explain to the
5:10photographer. She tried to explain to
5:12Ruth Delaney, the head of the Dorchester
5:14Branch Library, her boss of seven years,
5:18who came pushing through the crowd with
5:19her reading glasses swinging on their
5:21chain and her face white. I was waving
5:24at Jojo, said Molly. Ruth, I was waving
5:28at Jojo. I can't pay $40,000.
5:31I can't pay $4,000.
5:34I've got $216 in my checking account,
5:37and my car needs tires. Then tell them,"
5:41said Ruth. "Tell them it was a mistake.
5:43They'll give it to the Peton woman."
5:46Molly turned. Cresa Peton was already
5:49marching toward the stage like a
5:50battleship. And then a voice said from
5:53right beside her, "Excuse me, I believe
5:56you've just bought me." She turned
5:57around. Hugh Thornton was standing
6:00there. Up close, he was even taller. He
6:03smelled of cold air and something like
6:05cedar. He did not smile, but there was
6:08something in his gray green eyes behind
6:11the stiffness that looked very much like
6:13relief. "Mr. Thornton," said
6:15[clears throat] Molly, "I'm so sorry.
6:18There's been a terrible mistake. I was
6:20waving at my friend. She had cream
6:22puffs. I'll go up and tell them right
6:25now, and Miss Peton can." "Please
6:28don't," said Hugh Thornton. Molly
6:30blinked. "I mean," he said and cleared
6:33his throat and looked briefly at the
6:34ceiling. It would be very embarrassing
6:37for the foundation on camera to reverse
6:40the last sale of the night. He paused.
6:43What do you do, Miss Finch? Molly Finch.
6:47I'm a librarian at the Doorchester
6:49branch. She swallowed. I run the adult
6:53literacy program. Second chapter. We
6:56teach grown-ups to read. It's being cut
6:58in January. Something moved in his face
7:01just for a second. Then it was gone. How
7:05much would it take, said Hugh, to keep
7:07it open? $40,000, said Ruth Delaney
7:10before Molly could open her mouth. For
7:13two years, I've been begging the city
7:15for 18 months. Hugh Thornon looked at
7:18Ruth. Then he looked at Molly. Then,
7:21without another word, he turned and
7:23walked back up onto the stage, took the
7:26microphone from a very surprised Barnaby
7:28Leads, and spoke to the room for the
7:30first time that night. Ms. Finch's bid
7:33stands, he said. His voice was low and a
7:36little rough, as if he wasn't used to
7:38using it in public. I'll cover it
7:40myself, and I'll match it for the
7:43Doorchester branch's adult reading
7:44program. $80,000,
7:47he paused. On one condition, she goes on
7:51all six Saturdays. That was the lot. A
7:54deal is a deal. The room went wild. The
7:57camera swung back to Molly. Ruth Delaney
8:00took both of her hands and squeezed them
8:02so hard her rings hurt and whispered,
8:04"Molly, Molly, please. 40 people, Teddy,
8:08Mrs. Alvarez, all of them." And Molly
8:11Finch, librarian, who had come to the
8:14gala to hand out programs, stood at the
8:16coat check in her borrowed green dress,
8:18and understood that she had just been
8:20sold to a billionaire for six Saturdays,
8:22and that she could not possibly say no.
8:25"Fine," she said faintly. six Saturdays.
8:29At the front of the room, Cresa Peton
8:31snapped her paddle in half. Molly didn't
8:33see what happened next. Almost nobody
8:36did. Cresa walked straight to her
8:38father, the chairman, at the head table,
8:40and bent down and whispered in his ear.
8:43And Harold Peton, a heavy silver-haired
8:45man who had never in his life refused
8:47his only daughter anything, frowned and
8:49nodded and beckoned the foundation's
8:51lawyer over with one finger. It was on
8:54the 11:00 news. Of course it was.
8:58Librarians accidental wave wins date
9:01with billionaire, said the caption at
9:03the bottom of the screen under a slow
9:05motion replay of Molly's arm going up,
9:08her face falling, and her mouth forming
9:10the word no. By Sunday morning, the clip
9:13had been watched 200,000 times. By
9:16Sunday afternoon, someone had said it to
9:18music. On Monday, a card arrived at the
9:21library. Heavy cream paper engraved with
9:23a small blue sailboat. The handwriting
9:26was strange. Very large, very careful.
9:29The letters printed one at a time, like
9:32the handwriting of someone who had
9:33copied it from something. Saturday,
9:3610:00 a.m. Helicopter from Logan to
9:39Nantucket. Lunch at the Wawanet. Dress
9:42warmly. H. Thornton. Molly read it. Then
9:45she took out a pen and wrote on the back
9:47of it in her own neat librarian's
9:49handwriting. No helicopters. It's my
9:51Saturday. I'll choose. 10:00 a.m. Lucky
9:55Strike Lanes, Dorchester Avenue. Wear
9:57something you can bowl in. M. Finch. She
10:00mailed it to Thornton Marine. She
10:02expected to hear nothing at all. On
10:05Saturday morning at 10:00 exactly, a
10:08long black car pulled up outside Lucky
10:10Strike Lanes on Dorchester Avenue. A
10:13small, shabby, beloved candle pin
10:15bowling alley that had been there since
10:181952.
10:19The back door opened and Hugh Thornton
10:22got out in a navy sweater, jeans that
10:25looked as if they'd been ironed, and a
10:27brand new pair of white sneakers with
10:29the price tag still hanging from one
10:31lace. He walked over to Molly, who was
10:34waiting by the door with her arms folded
10:36and stopped. "I've never bowled," he
10:38said. I could tell from the sneakers. He
10:41looked down. He saw the tag. He went
10:44faintly pink. Molly reached down,
10:47snapped it off, and handed it to him.
10:49"Rule one," she said. "In Doorchester,
10:52we don't show off how new our shoes
10:54are." "Candle pin bowling," it turned
10:57out, is extremely difficult. The balls
11:00are small, the pins are thin, and you
11:03get three throws instead of two. Hugh
11:05Thornton was terrible at it.
11:07Spectacularly,
11:09gloriously terrible. His first ball went
11:12into the gutter. His second ball went
11:14into the next lane. His third ball
11:16somehow bounced, rolled backward, and
11:19came to rest gently against Molly's
11:21foot. The man behind the counter, a bald
11:24gentleman of about 70 named S, laughed
11:27so hard he had to sit down. But Hugh did
11:29not give up. He watched her throw. He
11:32asked questions, short ones, precise
11:35ones. How much weight on the front foot?
11:37Where do you look? He studied her the
11:40way she imagined he studied the hull of
11:42a boat. And on the fourth frame, he
11:45knocked down nine pins out of 10 and
11:47turned around with an expression of such
11:49pure boyish astonishment that Molly
11:52laughed out loud before she could stop
11:54herself. They went to the diner next
11:56door for lunch. A waitress named Bev
11:59slapped two laminated menus down on the
12:01table. Molly ordered the tuna melt and a
12:03chocolate milkshake. Hugh looked at his
12:06menu for a long moment very seriously
12:08and then closed it. "The same as her,"
12:11he said. "You don't like tuna," said
12:14Molly. "I saw your face." "I'm
12:17adventurous," said Hugh. He ate the
12:20entire tuna melt with the expression of
12:21a man doing his duty. Molly watched him
12:24across the table and found to her deep
12:27annoyance that she was starting to like
12:29him. "Can I ask you something?" she
12:32said. Why did you do it at the auction?
12:36Cover my bid. Double it. You could have
12:38just let them give you to Miss Peton.
12:41Hugh put down his milkshake. He looked
12:43out the window at Dorchester Avenue.
12:46Cresa Peton has asked me to dinner 11
12:49times in two years. He said, "She sent a
12:52cake to my office on my birthday shaped
12:54like my face. She once followed me onto
12:57a ferry." He paused. When you raised
13:00your hand, I was very relieved. That's
13:03the truth. It was the truth. It just
13:06wasn't all of it. And Molly, who had
13:09read 10,000 books and should have
13:11noticed a sentence with something
13:12missing from the end, didn't notice at
13:14all. So, I was an escape route, she
13:18said. Sorry. Nothing. She smiled into
13:22her milkshake. One down, five to go. Mr.
13:25Thornton. Hugh? He said. Mr. Thornton
13:29said Molly is a lot I want at auction.
13:32He laughed. It was rusty and surprised
13:34as if he didn't do it very often. And
13:37for one long moment in the cracked red
13:39booth of the diner on Dorchester Avenue,
13:42neither of them could look away. The
13:45second Saturday was his choice. The
13:47Boston Symphony Orchestra, a private
13:50box. Molly had never been to the
13:53symphony. She had never been in a
13:55private box. She wore the same borrowed
13:57green dress because it was the only nice
14:00dress she had. And Hugh noticed and said
14:03nothing except that it was a beautiful
14:05color. The concert was bronze. It was
14:08very long. And about 40 minutes into the
14:11second movement, Molly, who had worked a
14:14double shift at the library that week,
14:16leaned toward Hugh and whispered, "Is it
14:18supposed to be this slow? It sounds like
14:21the cellos are walking home in the
14:23rain." Hugh's mouth twitched. 5 minutes
14:27after that, she whispered, "If the Tony
14:30player doesn't do something soon, I
14:32think he's going to fall asleep. Look at
14:34him. He's resting his chin on his drum."
14:38And Hugh Thornton, billionaire, the
14:41ghost of Charles Town, who had never
14:43laughed in public in his life, put his
14:45face in his hands in a private box at
14:48Symphony Hall and shook with silent,
14:50helpless laughter until a very small,
14:54very elegant, elderly woman in the next
14:56box, leaned over the rail and said, "Sho
15:01loudly that half the orchestra heard."
15:04They were asked to leave at the
15:05intermission, politely, by an usher who
15:08was trying very hard not to laugh
15:10himself. They walked along the Charles
15:13River in the dark instead under the
15:15trees with the lights of Cambridge
15:17shimmering on the black water. I've been
15:20a member of that symphony for 9 years,
15:22said Hugh. I've never been thrown out
15:24before. Did you enjoy it? I've never
15:28enjoyed it more, he said, and meant it.
15:31She told him about second chapter that
15:33night. The 40 grown-ups who came to the
15:35little room at the back of the
15:36Doorchester library twice a week. The
15:39bus driver who'd hidden it for 30 years.
15:41The grandmother who wanted to read the
15:43labels on her own medicine. And Teddy
15:45Mensah, 58, a retired bus mechanic who'd
15:49come in a year ago with a shoe box full
15:51of letters his wife had written him when
15:53they were young, which he had never been
15:55able to read. He's on the third letter
15:57now, said Molly. He reads one sentence a
16:00week slowly. He cried at the end of the
16:03first one. Then he laughed because she'd
16:05spelled his name wrong. Hugh didn't say
16:08anything. He just walked beside her with
16:11his hands in his coat pockets looking at
16:13the water. But Molly noticed that he'd
16:16gone very quiet and stayed quiet for a
16:18long time. The third Saturday was hers.
16:22The friends of the library annual book
16:24sale in the basement of the Doorchester
16:26branch. Thousands of donated books on
16:28folding tables. volunteers in aprons.
16:32"You want me to work?" said Hugh. "I
16:34want you to sort," said Molly and handed
16:36him an apron that said, "Friends of the
16:38library in faded red letters. Fiction on
16:41the left, non-fiction on the right,
16:43cookbooks at the back. Can a billionaire
16:46handle that?" He could not, as it turned
16:48out, handle it at all. An hour later,
16:51Molly went to check on him and found
16:53that he had carefully shelved 12
16:54cookbooks in True Crime, a biography of
16:57Abraham Lincoln in Romance, and a book
17:00called Knitting for Beginners in the
17:02section labeled Military History. The
17:05friends of the library thought it was
17:06hilarious. A lady named Mrs. Alvarez
17:09bought Knitting for Beginners from
17:11Military History just so she could tell
17:13the story at church. Hugh laughed along.
17:16But Molly saw his face just for a second
17:18when he realized what he'd done. It
17:20wasn't embarrassment. It was something
17:22much older and much deeper. Something
17:25like fear. That was when she first
17:27wondered. It was a small thing, a
17:30librarian's thing. She thought about the
17:32menu at the diner, closed after one
17:35long, serious look, the same as her. She
17:38thought about the large, careful letters
17:40on his card, as if each one had been
17:42copied. She thought about the program at
17:44the symphony, which he'd held all night
17:47and never opened. And she thought about
17:49the people in her Thursday night class
17:51who ordered what the person next to them
17:53was having. But it couldn't be. He was a
17:56billionaire. He built the fastest boats
17:58in the world. Teddy Mensah came down the
18:01basement stairs at that moment. A big
18:03gentle man with gray hair and enormous
18:05hands carrying a box of donations. He
18:08saw Hugh in the apron and stopped. and
18:11his face did something very strange. It
18:13looked for just a second as though he
18:15recognized him. Then it closed like a
18:18door. "Afternoon," said Teddy to nobody
18:21in particular and put down his box and
18:23went back up the stairs very fast. Molly
18:26frowned after him. But then Jojo called
18:28her to the cash box and the moment
18:30passed. The fourth Saturday, Hugh took
18:34her sailing. It was his favorite thing
18:36in the world. He told her so. He'd built
18:39the boat himself, a 40-foot sloop called
18:42Second Wind, all honeycoled wood and
18:45white sails kept at a moing in
18:47Gloucester Harbor. Molly hadn't told him
18:50she was from Gloucester. She hadn't told
18:52him her father had been a lobsterman
18:54there for 35 years. She hadn't told him
18:56that she'd been handling a tiller since
18:58she was 7 years old. It was a bright,
19:01blowing November day. The sea was still
19:04blue and choppy, and the wind came hard
19:06off the water. And 20 minutes out of the
19:09harbor, Hugh Thornton, who built the
19:11fastest sailing yachts on Earth, went a
19:13delicate shade of green. "I'm fine," he
19:16said. "You're not fine. It's just the
19:19chop. I'm usually on bigger boats with
19:22stabilizers. I'm usually designing them,
19:24not standing on them." He swallowed
19:27hard. I'm fine. Molly looked at him.
19:30Then she looked at the sails. Then she
19:33stood up, took the tiller out of his
19:35hand, and said, "Sit down, Mr. Thornton.
19:38Head between your knees. Look at the
19:40horizon. You can't sail this. Watch me."
19:44She sailed it. She brought second wind
19:46around into the wind, eased the main
19:49sheet, and settled the boat onto a long,
19:51smooth reach along the coast, with the
19:53spray flying off the bow and the sun on
19:56the water as easily as breathing. She
19:59sailed past the lighthouse on Eastern
20:01Point. She sailed past the breakwater
20:03where she used to fish as a girl. She
20:06sailed past her father's old mooring and
20:08lifted one hand in a small salute. Hugh
20:11sat on the deck with his back against
20:13the cabin and stared at her as if she'd
20:15turned into a mermaid. Who taught you
20:18that? My dad. He fished out of here for
20:2235 years. Lobster. He used to say, "A
20:25boat's like a person. Doesn't matter how
20:28fancy it is. What matters is whether
20:30it'll hold together in bad weather. My
20:33father said that too, said Hugh slowly.
20:36About boats, he started Thornton Marine
20:39with one dinghy in his garage. He looked
20:41at the water. He said it about me, too.
20:44Except he said I wouldn't. Molly glanced
20:47at him. I wasn't a good student, said
20:50Hugh. I was what my father called lazy.
20:53Every report card lazy. Doesn't apply
20:57himself. could do better. He laughed,
21:00but it wasn't a happy sound.
21:02[clears throat] So, I worked very hard
21:03to prove I wasn't. I built a company. I
21:06built a hundred boats. But he still
21:09never He stopped. Never what? Never
21:13mind. He stood up a little unsteadily
21:16and came to sit beside her at the
21:17tiller, not touching, just close. Teach
21:21me how you did that, the turn. So she
21:25did. She put his hand on the tiller and
21:27her hand over his and showed him how to
21:30feel the wind in the sail through the
21:32wood. And they sailed back into
21:34Gloucester Harbor together as the sun
21:37went down orange and gold over the town
21:39with his hand under hers on the tiller
21:41and neither of them said very much at
21:44all. On the dock as he tied up the boat,
21:47Hugh said without looking at her,
21:49"Molly, do you teach the Thursday night
21:52class at the library?" No, that's Jojo's
21:56class. I do Tuesdays. She looked at him.
21:59Why? No reason, said Hugh Thornton, and
22:02went very carefully back to tying his
22:04knot. The following Thursday, Jojo came
22:08down with the flu. So, at 6:30 in the
22:10evening, Molly walked into the little
22:12room at the back of the Doorchester
22:14Branch Library with its mismatched
22:16chairs and its whiteboard and its shelf
22:18of easy readers for grown-ups to teach
22:21the Thursday night class herself.
22:24There were 11 students. She knew most of
22:26them. Mrs. Alvarez, who was learning so
22:29she could read her medicine labels. A
22:32young cook named Danny. Teddy Mensah in
22:35his usual chair by the window with his
22:38shoe box of letters on his lap. And in
22:40the chair beside Teddy in a plain gray
22:43sweater with a notebook open in front of
22:45him and a pencil in his hand, sat Hugh
22:48Thornton. On the sign-in sheet, in
22:51large, careful, copiedl looking letters,
22:53he had written his name, H. Thorne.
22:57Molly stopped in the doorway. Hugh
22:59looked up and she saw his face change,
23:02not to embarrassment, to something much
23:04worse, to the face of a little boy who
23:07had just been caught and who expected
23:09any second now to hear the word lazy.
23:12The whole class went quiet. Then Teddy
23:15Mensah put a big hand on Hugh's
23:16shoulder. He's been coming since
23:19October, said Teddy quietly. Week after
23:21that party. Sits next to me. Never
23:24misses. He looked at Molly. Didn't want
23:27you to know. Miss Finch made us all
23:29promise. I almost told you at the book
23:32sale. Couldn't. Molly came into the
23:34room. She sat down at the front table.
23:38She didn't look at Hugh. She opened the
23:40lesson book. She cleared her throat.
23:43Good evening, she said. Let's start
23:45where Jojo left off. Who'd like to read
23:48first? There was a long pause. Then Hugh
23:51Thornton picked up the book in front of
23:53him. It was a simple book, large print,
23:57a collection of short poems chosen for
23:59beginning adult readers. His hand was
24:02shaking very slightly. I'll go, he said.
24:06It took him four minutes to read eight
24:08lines. He went slowly, one word at a
24:11time. Some of them he had to sound out
24:14letter by letter, his finger moving
24:16under the print. Some of them he got
24:18wrong and had to go back. Twice he
24:21stopped completely and pressed his lips
24:23together and started again. The room was
24:26absolutely silent. Nobody helped him.
24:29That was the rule in second chapter. You
24:31let people finish. It was a poem by
24:33Robert Frost. Nothing gold can stay.
24:37eight short lines about how the first
24:39green of spring is really gold and how
24:41nothing gold can stay. When he finished,
24:44he put the book down very carefully on
24:46the table and the whole room clapped.
24:49Teddy Mensah first, his big hands like
24:52thunder, then Mrs. Alvarez, then Dany,
24:56then all of them. Molly didn't clap. She
24:59couldn't. She was sitting at the front
25:01table with her hand pressed hard over
25:03her mouth, trying very much not to cry
25:06in front of 11 students. After class,
25:09when the others had gone, he waited for
25:11her in the reading room. The big room at
25:13the front of the branch with the tall
25:15windows in the old oak tables and the
25:18green shaded lamps. The library was
25:20closed. The lights were low. It was just
25:23the two of them among the shelves.
25:26"Dyslexia," said Hugh. He was standing
25:28by the window with his hands in his
25:30pockets. Severe. They didn't test for it
25:33when I was a boy. Not in my school. They
25:36just called me lazy. He shrugged. So, I
25:39learned to hide it. I memorize
25:40everything. Contracts, blueprints,
25:42speeches. Felix reads me my email. I
25:46have a man who reads me the newspaper
25:48every morning. I order what the other
25:50person orders. I've built a billion
25:52dollar company and I've never read a
25:54book for pleasure in my life. Why didn't
25:56you tell me? Because you're a librarian,
25:59said Hugh. You spend your whole life
26:02with books. You're the cleverest person
26:04I've ever met. And I'm a man who can't
26:06read a menu. He looked at her. I didn't
26:09want you to look at me the way my father
26:11did. How did he look at you? Like I was
26:14the thing that wouldn't hold together in
26:16bad weather. Molly crossed the reading
26:18room. She stopped in front of him. Hugh,
26:21she said. It was the first time she'd
26:24ever used his name. You walked into a
26:26room full of strangers at 38 years old
26:29and sat down in a plastic chair next to
26:31a bus mechanic and read eight lines of
26:34Robert Frost out loud while 11 people
26:36watched you get it wrong. Do you have
26:38any idea how brave that is? Do you know
26:40how many people I've seen walk up to
26:42that door and turn around? Hundreds.
26:44Hundreds. Hugh, you walked in. He didn't
26:48say anything. He was looking at her as
26:50if nobody had ever said anything like it
26:52to him in his whole life. Why? said
26:54Molly softly. Why did you start coming
26:57the week after the auction? Because you
27:00said second chapter, said Hugh on the
27:03night of the gala. You said you teach
27:05grown-ups to read. And I thought if she
27:07can teach Teddy, maybe she can. He
27:10stopped. I wanted to be able to read
27:12your cards, the ones you send me. I've
27:15been having Felix read them to me, and I
27:17wanted to read them myself.
27:20Molly Finch looked up at him in the low
27:21green lamplight of the reading room.
27:24Read me the poem again," she said. So he
27:27took the book out of his coat pocket,
27:29the large print book from class, and
27:31opened it and read it again, slower this
27:34time, not shaking, one word at a time,
27:38looking up at her at the end of every
27:39line. Nature's first green is gold, her
27:43hardest hue to hold. When he got to the
27:46last line, nothing gold can stay, she
27:49took the book gently out of his hands
27:51and put it on the oak table. That's not
27:53true, she said. Some things do. And she
27:57kissed him. Right there among the stacks
28:00in the closed reading room of the
28:02Doorchester Branch Library, under a
28:04green-shaded lamp, he made a small sound
28:07of surprise against her mouth, and then
28:09his hands came up to her face very
28:11carefully, as if she were a book he'd
28:14only just learned how to open. He kissed
28:16her back slowly, and then not slowly at
28:19all. Somewhere above them, the old
28:21radiators knocked and hissed. Somewhere
28:24outside, a bus went by on Dorchester
28:26Avenue. Neither of them heard it. When
28:29they finally pulled apart, he rested his
28:31forehead against hers and laughed very
28:33quietly. "That's not on the list," he
28:36said. "For the Saturdays." "It's
28:38Thursday," said Molly. "It doesn't
28:41count." Over the next 10 days, Molly
28:44Finch fell the rest of the way in love
28:46with Hugh Thornton and was too happy to
28:48notice the clouds coming in. The first
28:50cloud was the newspapers. The Herald had
28:53found out about the sailing trip.
28:55Someone had taken a photograph from the
28:57dock in Gloucester. Billionaire and
28:59bidding librarian set sail, said the
29:02headline with a long article underneath
29:04wondering whether a woman who earned
29:06$51,000 a year really could have bid
29:09$40,000 by accident. One columnist
29:12called her the Cinderella of Dorchester.
29:15Another called her something much less
29:17polite. Molly wondered briefly who on
29:20earth had been standing on a dock in
29:22Gloucester in November with a long lens
29:24camera. Then she forgot about it. The
29:27second cloud was the money. The
29:29foundation's lawyers had sent it in
29:31writing. The full $80,000 for second
29:34chapter would be released only after the
29:36sixth Saturday, not one day before. The
29:39clause had been added the night of the
29:41auction at the personal request of the
29:42chairman, Harold Peton, and Ruth Delaney
29:45had already told the city that the
29:47program was saved. She'd already told
29:50the students. Teddy Mensah had bought a
29:52new notebook. The third cloud was a gray
29:55car. Teddy noticed it first. Teddy
29:58noticed cars. He'd spent 30 years
30:00listening to bus engines. Same gray
30:03sedan in the parking lot every Thursday,
30:06he told Molly on his way out of class.
30:08fellow sits in it the whole two hours.
30:11Got a camera with a long nose on it. I
30:14don't like it, Miss Finch. Molly said it
30:16was probably someone waiting for his
30:18wife. Teddy said nothing, but he wrote
30:21the license plate in the back of his new
30:23notebook slowly, letter by letter,
30:25because he could do that now. And on the
30:28Wednesday before the fifth Saturday,
30:30Cresa Peton came to see her. She was
30:33waiting in the staff parking lot at 6:00
30:35when Molly came out into the dark with
30:37her bag over her shoulder. She was
30:39leaning against a white car in her white
30:41fur coat and she was holding a large
30:44brown envelope. I'll be brief, said
30:47Cresa. You'll want to see these. She
30:50held out the envelope. Molly didn't take
30:52it, so Cresa opened it herself and
30:55fanned the contents out on the hood of
30:56the car under the yellow light of the
30:59parking lot lamp. Photographs taken
31:02through a window at night. The window of
31:04the little room at the back of the
31:06Doorchester Branch Library. Mrs.
31:08Alvarez, Danny, Teddy with his shoe box,
31:12and in the chair beside Teddy bent over
31:15a large print book with his finger under
31:17the line, Hugh Thornton. There was more.
31:20A photocopy of a page from a second
31:23chapter workbook. simple sentences,
31:26threeletter words circled, and in the
31:28corner in large, careful, copiedlooking
31:31letters, Hthornne.
31:33I hired a very good man, said Cresa
31:36pleasantly. He's been following Hugh
31:38since the auction. I thought there was
31:40another woman. I never dreamed it would
31:43be something so much more interesting.
31:45She tapped a photograph with one long
31:47silver nail. Did you know that Thornton
31:50Marine is about to sign a $2 billion
31:52contract with the United States Navy in
31:55January? 40 new ships. Do you think the
31:59Navy will hand $2 billion to a man who
32:01can't read the specifications?
32:03Do you think his board will keep him
32:05once they know he's been hiding it for
32:0720 years? Molly's mouth had gone
32:09completely dry. What do you want? The
32:12dinner's on Saturday. You'll be there
32:14with him, I'm sure. Afterward, you'll
32:16end it publicly, properly. No sixth
32:20Saturday, no more sailing trips. Cresa
32:23began sliding the photographs back into
32:25the envelope. If you do, these stay in
32:28my drawer. If you don't, they go to the
32:30Herald on Monday morning. She smiled.
32:33And as for your little program, Daddy's
32:36lawyers wrote the clause. No sixth date,
32:38no money. I'm afraid that's just the
32:41rules, sweetie. I didn't make them. She
32:43paused. Well, I did actually. She opened
32:48the car door, then turned back. I always
32:50get what I bid on, Miss Finch, said
32:52Cresa Peton. Always ask anyone. She got
32:57into the white car and drove away and
33:00left Molly standing alone in the staff
33:02parking lot in the dark. Molly did not
33:04sleep that night. She lay in her bed in
33:07Dorchester and stared at the ceiling and
33:09thought about a man in a plastic chair
33:12reading eight lines of Robert Frost with
33:14his hands shaking. She thought about the
33:17word lazy. She thought about what it
33:20would do to him to read that word in the
33:22newspaper over his own photograph with
33:26four million strangers watching. By
33:29morning, she had decided. She would tell
33:31Hugh everything. On Saturday, at the
33:34dinner before dessert, they would face
33:36it together. She didn't know that
33:38Crescent of Peton had planned for that,
33:40too. The fifth Saturday was the library
33:43foundation's winter dinner. Black tie in
33:46the great marble hall again, the same
33:48room as the auction. Hugh asked if she'd
33:50go with him as his date. Not as a lot,
33:53as his date. She bought her own dress
33:56this time, dark blue from a secondhand
33:58shop on Newberry Street. The most money
34:01she'd ever spent on clothes. When she
34:03walked into the hall on Hugh's arm,
34:06three photographers took her picture.
34:08And for once, she didn't mind. It was a
34:10lovely evening. Molly kept waiting for
34:13the right moment to tell him about the
34:14parking lot and the envelope, and the
34:17right moment kept not coming. Every time
34:20she opened her mouth, someone came over
34:22to shake Hugh's hand. Across the room at
34:26the chairman's table, Cresa Peton sat
34:28beside her father in silver and watched
34:31them both all evening like a cat
34:33watching two birds. And Molly noticed
34:36something else. Cresa had spent most of
34:39the evening at the bar with Barnaby
34:40Leads the auctioneer, laughing at his
34:43jokes, refilling his glass with her own
34:45hands. At dessert, Cresa walked Barnaby
34:49over to their table herself with her arm
34:51through his. He was big and cheerful in
34:54his velvet jacket and very pink in the
34:56face from the champagne. Barnaby,
34:58darling, said Cresetta sweetly. You were
35:02just telling me the funniest story about
35:04the night of the auction. Tell them. Go
35:07on. And she stepped back and folded her
35:10arms and waited. Barnaby clapped Hugh on
35:13the shoulder. Thornton, my old friend.
35:17He beamed down at Molly. And this must
35:19be the famous lady in green. My dear,
35:22you're the best thing that ever happened
35:24to my career. Do you know that clip's
35:27been watched four million times? 4
35:29million? My agency's had 19 bookings
35:32since October. He leaned down to Hugh
35:35and lowered his voice, but not nearly
35:37enough. Best nod of my career, old boy.
35:40I'll never forget your face. I've been
35:43doing this for 20 years, and I've never
35:45had a man on the block pick his own
35:47buyer before.
35:48There was a silence at the table.
35:51Barnaby looked from one face to the
35:52other. His own face slowly changed.
35:55"Ah," he said. She didn't know. Molly
35:59put down her spoon. "Pick his own
36:02buyer," she said. "Molly," said Hugh.
36:06"You nodded," said Molly. "I saw it that
36:09night. I thought I imagined it. You
36:12looked at him and you nodded." She
36:14turned to Barnaby. "Mr. leads. Did you
36:17see me wave? Did you think I was
36:19bidding? Barnaby Leeds, who was not a
36:22cruel man and who now wished very much
36:25that he had stayed at the bar, looked at
36:27his shoes. I saw a lady in green waving
36:30a paddle at the dessert table, he said
36:32quietly. I'd have let it go. I looked at
36:35Hugh. He nodded at me. So, I took it. He
36:38swallowed. I'm so sorry, my dear. I
36:42thought you were in on it. Molly Finch
36:44stood up from the table. She did it very
36:46carefully, the way you stand up when
36:48you're not sure your legs will hold you.
36:51"Excuse me," she said to nobody in
36:53particular, and walked out of the marble
36:55hall. He caught up with her on the front
36:57steps of the library in the cold under
36:59the great stone archway with the words
37:02free to all carved above it. "Molly,
37:04please let me explain." "Explain what?"
37:08She turned around. Her eyes were very
37:10bright. that you picked me out of a
37:13crowd like a lot at an auction. You
37:16looked at the auctioneer and you nodded
37:18and in one second you decided I'd be
37:20humiliated on the 11:00 news and that 4
37:23million strangers would watch me say no
37:26and that every newspaper in Boston would
37:28call me a gold digger and that I'd spend
37:30six Saturdays with you because I
37:32couldn't afford to say no. Her voice
37:34cracked. You didn't ask me, Hugh, you
37:37bought me. That's not what it was. Then
37:40what was it? I'd seen you before, said
37:43Hugh. That night before the auction, you
37:46were at the door handing out programs.
37:48Teddy came in in his one good suit to
37:52see the library where his class was. And
37:54the man at the entrance tried to turn
37:56him away because he didn't have a
37:57ticket. And you walked over and took
38:00Teddy's arm and walked him in and
38:02introduced him to the mayor's wife as
38:04the most important man at the party. He
38:06took a breath. I watched you do that and
38:09then two hours later I was standing on a
38:12stage while Crescent of Peton bought me
38:14and I looked out and there you were at
38:16the back with a paddle in your hand and
38:19I thought just once I'd like to spend a
38:21Saturday with somebody like that. So I
38:23nodded. It took one second. I didn't
38:27think about the cameras or the
38:28newspapers or what it would cost you. I
38:31just didn't want to lose the chance. And
38:33then you didn't tell me. Five Saturdays,
38:36a sailboat, a poem. You kissed me in my
38:40own library, Hugh. And all that time,
38:42you knew I'd been bought and I didn't. I
38:44was going to tell you when. After the
38:47sixth Saturday, after the money came
38:50through, so I couldn't walk away. She
38:52shook her head and wiped her face with
38:54the back of her glove. I'm the one
38:56person in this whole story who didn't
38:58plan a single thing. And it turns out I
39:01was the only one who didn't know. Hugh
39:03had no answer. He stood on the steps of
39:06the library with his hands at his sides
39:08and the snow just beginning, small and
39:11dry and silver in the light from the
39:13great doors. Molly took a long breath.
39:16When she spoke again, her voice was
39:18steady. "I'm not coming next Saturday,"
39:21she said. "Molly, the money, the
39:24program." "I know," her chin came up.
39:27"The program loses $80,000. Teddy loses
39:31his class. I'll find another way. I'll
39:34write to every foundation in New
39:36England. I'll hold bake sales. I'll
39:38stand outside the state house with a
39:40sign. But I'm not going on a date I was
39:42bought for. Not even for second chapter.
39:46She turned toward the street. Teddy
39:48taught me something. You don't let
39:50people read for you. Not even when it's
39:52hard. You read it yourself or it's not
39:55really yours. She walked down the steps
39:57into the snow. She didn't look back. She
40:01was afraid that if she did, she'd go
40:03back.
40:04And there was something else she didn't
40:05say. Something in her head the whole
40:08time she was shouting at him on the
40:09steps. A brown envelope in a white car
40:13and a silver nail tapping on a
40:14photograph. If she ended it tonight
40:17publicly, the way Cresa wanted, the
40:20photographs would stay in a drawer. Hugh
40:22would sign his contract. Nobody would
40:25ever write the word lazy over his face.
40:27She was furious with him. She would be
40:30furious with him for a long time. But
40:33she loved him too much to let anyone
40:34take the last thing he'd been hiding
40:36before he was ready to give it up
40:38himself. So she let him think it was
40:40only about the nod. When she got home,
40:43she sent a text message to a number
40:44she'd never wanted to know. It said,
40:47"Done. Leave him alone." The reply came
40:50in under a minute. Pleasure doing
40:52business with you, sweetie. Monday was
40:54terrible. Ruth Delaney didn't shout.
40:57Ruth never shouted. She just sat in her
41:00little office at the back of the branch
41:02with a new letter from the foundation's
41:04lawyers on her desk and her reading
41:06glasses on their chain and said, "Oh,
41:09Molly" in a voice that was much worse
41:11than shouting. The letter was signed by
41:14Harold Peton chairman. All foundation
41:16money for the Dorchester branch, not
41:18just Second Chapter, was frozen, pending
41:21an ethics review into the circumstances
41:23of the October auction. The Herald ran a
41:26news story on Tuesday. bidding librarian
41:29walks out on billionaire. Was it all a
41:32setup? Someone had told them about the
41:34nod. The article called Molly a clever
41:37girl from Gloucester who had found a
41:38rich man's weak spot. It quoted an
41:41unnamed source at the dinner who sounded
41:43a great deal like Cresa Peton. Cresa had
41:46kept her promise about the photographs.
41:48She had simply found other ways to win.
41:52On Wednesday, Molly told the second
41:54chapter students that the program would
41:56probably close in January. She did it
41:58standing at the front of the little room
41:59with the whiteboard behind her. She
42:01didn't cry until they'd all gone home.
42:04And on Thursday evening, Teddy Mensah
42:06walked out of the Dorchester Branch
42:07Library across the parking lot and
42:09climbed very slowly into a long black
42:11car that had been waiting outside every
42:14Thursday since October. She won't take
42:16my calls, said Hugh Thornton in the back
42:18seat. No, sir, she won't. Teddy, I don't
42:22know what to do. Teddy Mensah sat for a
42:25long moment with his shoe box of letters
42:26on his knees. "There's something you
42:29ought to know first," he said. "That
42:31Peton woman, the blonde one. I saw her
42:33in the staff lot last Wednesday talking
42:35to Miss Finch. She had an envelope
42:37pictures. I saw one fall on the ground
42:40when she was putting them back." He
42:42looked at Hugh. "It was you and me, sir,
42:44in class through the window." "Hugh went
42:47completely still." There's been a gray
42:50car out here every Thursday since
42:51October, said Teddy, man with a long
42:54camera. I wrote down his plate. He
42:56opened his new notebook to the back page
42:58and held it out with the letters printed
43:01slowly and carefully. I gave it to Miss
43:03Finch on Monday, too. She's been at the
43:06library till midnight every night this
43:07week. Ruth says she's looking something
43:09up. Won't say what. Hugh stared at the
43:13notebook. She didn't leave because of
43:15the nod, he said slowly. Not only
43:17because of the nod. She left so they
43:20wouldn't print it. She left to protect
43:22me. That's my guess, said Teddy. Then he
43:25took a letter out of the shoe box. The
43:27fourth letter, the one he'd been working
43:29on for 6 weeks. Want to know what this
43:32one says? Said Teddy. Took me a month
43:35and a half. My Lraine wrote it the week
43:37before I asked her to marry me. 1972.
43:41He unfolded it with his big, careful
43:43hands. She says, "Teddy, you never say
43:47anything. You just do things and hope
43:49I'll notice." Well, I notice, but a girl
43:53wants to be told. Teddy folded it back
43:56up. 52 years I've been carrying this
43:59letter, and it took me till this year to
44:01read it. She'd been telling me the whole
44:04time. I just couldn't read it. Hugh said
44:07nothing. You don't fix this by doing
44:09something and hoping she'll notice, said
44:11Teddy. You tell her out loud and not
44:16where it's easy. He opened the car door.
44:19You've been reading in a back room for
44:21two months with 11 people who love you.
44:24Time to read somewhere it's hard. He
44:26tapped the shoe box. And here's the
44:28thing about a secret, sir. Nobody can
44:31use it against you once you've said it
44:33yourself. On Friday morning, Hugh walked
44:35into Felix's office at Thornton Marine
44:38and closed the door.
44:39I need you to call the library
44:41foundation, he said. I'd like to be
44:43added to read aloud night tomorrow,
44:46Bates Hall. Felix looked up from his
44:49computer very slowly. To read, sir. To
44:52read out loud out loud in front of 800
44:57people and the press and the board who
45:01always attend because it's good for the
45:03brand. Felix took off his glasses. Sir,
45:07with respect, you've spent 6 years
45:09having me read you the lunch menu. I
45:11know the stock will drop. I know that,
45:14too. Felix Brandt looked at his employer
45:17for a long moment. Then he did something
45:20he had never done in 6 years. He stood
45:23up, walked around his desk, and shook
45:25Hugh Thornton's hand. "I'll call them
45:28now," he said. "And sir, I'll be in the
45:30front row. If you get stuck, I won't
45:33help you." He cleared his throat. That's
45:36the rule, isn't it? You let people
45:38finish. Every December on the second
45:41Saturday, the Boston Public Library
45:43holds read aloud night. It happens in
45:46Bates Hall, the great reading room on
45:49the second floor of the McKim Building
45:50on CPPley Square with its enormous
45:53barrel vaulted ceiling and its long rows
45:55of oak tables and its green shaded lamps
45:59stretching away into the distance like
46:01the lights of a harbor.
46:03Famous people come to read. Actors,
46:06writers, senators, the mayor. They each
46:09read one page of their favorite book out
46:11loud to 800 people and the television
46:14cameras and then everyone drinks hot
46:17cider and goes home. That year, the
46:19program had one late edition. The name
46:22had been printed on a separate slip of
46:24paper and tucked into every program at
46:26the door. Final reader, Mr. Hugh
46:30Thornton, founder Thornon Marine. Molly
46:34Finch went to read aloud night for a
46:36different reason. She had spent every
46:38night that week at the library until
46:40midnight doing the one thing she was
46:42better at than anyone in Boston. She had
46:45looked things up. She had started with
46:47Teddy's license plate and a public
46:49database of licensed private
46:51investigators in Massachusetts. The
46:53plate belonged to a man named Joe
46:55Kowalsski of Kowalsski Discrete
46:57Services, Quincy. She had found the
47:00photograph credit in the Herald under
47:02the picture of the sailboat JK.
47:06She had sat with Jojo in the branch
47:07office and gone through the parking lot
47:09camera footage, two months of Thursdays,
47:12and found the gray car every single
47:14week. And on one Wednesday night, a
47:17white car beside it and a woman in a
47:19white fur coat handing something through
47:21the window. And then she had done the
47:23bravest thing of all. She had called Joe
47:26Kowalsski on the phone. [clears throat]
47:28He was a tired man of 60 with a smoker's
47:30voice. And when she told him who she was
47:33and what second chapter was, and that
47:35his photographs were going to be used to
47:37shame a man for learning to read, there
47:40was a very long silence on the line. "My
47:43mother couldn't read," said Joe
47:45Kowalsski at last. Till she was 50.
47:48Church basement in Quincy. Nobody ever
47:50knew but me. Another silence. Lady told
47:54me she was checking on a cheating
47:56boyfriend. I'll send you the invoice,
47:58Miss Finch. It's got her name on it and
48:00the emails. All of them. He sent them
48:03everything. In a brown envelope, which
48:06Molly found rather fitting. The
48:08foundation's board would all be at read
48:10aloud night. They always were. The vice
48:13chair, Dr. Margaret Osi, a retired judge
48:17of 70 who had spent 40 years refusing to
48:19be impressed by anyone, would be in the
48:21front row. So at 8:00, Molly Finch stood
48:25at the very back of Bates Hall in her
48:27one good coat beside Teddy behind 800
48:31people in their best clothes, holding
48:33the brown envelope against her chest.
48:35She didn't know Hugh was going to be
48:37there. Nobody had told her. Teddy had
48:40made sure of that. The mayor read, a
48:43famous novelist read. A Red Sox pitcher
48:46read badly to great applause. And then
48:50Hugh Thornton walked to the little
48:51wooden lectern at the front of Bates
48:53Hall under the great vaulted ceiling in
48:55front of 800 people and the cameras of
48:58three television stations and put a book
49:00down on it and did not open it. He
49:03looked out at the room. He was very
49:05pale. I'm supposed to read a page of my
49:08favorite book, he said. His voice
49:10carried low and rough all the way to the
49:12back. I don't have a favorite book. I've
49:15never read one. Not all the way through.
49:17Not in 38 years. He paused. I have
49:21severe dyslexia. I've hidden it my whole
49:23life. My company doesn't know. My board
49:26doesn't know. My shareholders will find
49:29out about 30 seconds from now. And I
49:31imagine tomorrow will be a very
49:33interesting day for the stock price. A
49:35murmur went through the room. In the
49:38front row, three men in suits looked at
49:40each other in horror and two seats along
49:42from them beside her father, Cresa
49:45Peton, went very white. In October, said
49:48Hugh, I started going to a class at the
49:50Dorchester Branch Library. It's called
49:53Second Chapter. It teaches grown-ups to
49:56read. I sit next to a man named Teddy
49:59who's been learning so he can read his
50:00wife's love letters. He's on the fourth
50:02one. He's faster than me. Somewhere in
50:05the hall, someone laughed kindly. The
50:08woman who runs that program is the
50:10reason I walked in the door. Her name is
50:12Molly Finch. Some of you will know her
50:14as the lady in green from the auction.
50:18800 heads began to turn. Molly stood
50:21very still at the back of the hall. "I
50:24need to tell you the truth about that
50:25night," said Hugh. "Because the
50:27newspapers have it wrong, and it's my
50:29fault." She didn't bid on me. She was
50:32waving at a friend. The auctioneer
50:34looked at me and I nodded and I let him
50:37take her wave as a bid. I did it because
50:40I didn't want to spend six Saturdays
50:42with someone who'd bought me and instead
50:44I made her the one who looked bought. I
50:47never asked her. I never told her. She
50:50found out at a dinner from someone else
50:52and she walked away and she was right,
50:55too. He took a breath. She also walked
50:58away from $80,000 for her program. I
51:01thought it was only because of what I'd
51:03done. It wasn't. Someone had photographs
51:06of me in that class. Someone told her
51:08that if she didn't leave me, they'd go
51:11to the newspapers and the Navy and my
51:13board. So, she left. She let me think
51:17she hated me so that nobody would ever
51:19print the word lazy under my picture. He
51:22looked out at the room. Well, I've just
51:24printed it myself, so there's nothing
51:27left for anybody to sell. The room was
51:30utterly silent now. So tonight, said
51:33Hugh Thornton, the foundation has the
51:35full $80,000 with no conditions and an
51:39endowment which will keep Second Chapter
51:42open for as long as there's a
51:43Doorchester. That's done. It's signed.
51:47It doesn't depend on anything. He looked
51:49down at the book on the lectern. And now
51:52I'm going to read you a page. It's going
51:54to take a while. I'm sorry. He opened
51:58the book. It was not a long page. It was
52:01a page from a book of poems. And it took
52:04Hugh Thornton six minutes to read it out
52:07loud in Bates Hall in front of 800
52:10people and the cameras of three
52:12television stations. He went one word at
52:14a time. He sounded some out. He got some
52:18wrong and went back. His finger moved
52:21under the line twice. He stopped
52:23completely and the whole vast room held
52:26its breath and waited and nobody helped
52:29him because somehow every single person
52:32in that hall understood that you let
52:34people finish. Molly stood at the back
52:37with her hands pressed together against
52:38her mouth and Teddy Mensah's big hand on
52:41her shoulder and watched. He read eight
52:44lines of Robert Frost. And when he got
52:47to the end, he didn't read the last
52:49line. He stopped. He looked up from the
52:52book. He looked straight down the length
52:54of Bates Hall, past the lamps and the
52:56long oak tables and the 800 faces to the
53:00very back of the room where she was
53:02standing. The last line says nothing
53:05gold can stay, said Hugh. Someone I know
53:08told me it isn't true. I'd like to find
53:10out if she was right. Then he closed the
53:13book and stepped away from the lectern
53:15and walked off the stage. For a moment,
53:17nobody moved. And then Teddy Mensah
53:20started clapping, big hands like
53:22thunder. And then the whole of Bates
53:24Hall was on its feet. 800 people, the
53:28mayor and the novelist and the Red Sox
53:30pitcher and the three horrified men in
53:33suits from Thornton Marine. All of them
53:35clapping, clapping, clapping for a man
53:38who had just read eight lines of a poem
53:41slower than anyone in the history of
53:43Read Aloud Night. Molly Finch was not
53:46clapping. She was walking straight down
53:49the center aisle of Bates Hall between
53:51the long oak tables past 800 people who
53:54were still on their feet with a brown
53:56envelope held against her chest. She
53:59walked all the way to the front row and
54:01stopped in front of a small white-haired
54:03woman in a dark suit. "Dr. Oay," said
54:06Molly. Her voice shook, but it carried.
54:09"I'm Molly Finch, Dorchester Branch,
54:12second chapter. The foundation froze our
54:15funding last Monday pending an ethics
54:17review. I've done the review for you.
54:19She held out the envelope. That's an
54:22invoice from a private investigator
54:24named Joe Kowalsski made out to Miss
54:26Cresa Peton for photographing an adult
54:29reading class through a library window
54:31for 2 months. Those are her emails
54:34asking him to find something she could
54:35use. And that's the camera footage from
54:38our parking lot. She took a breath. The
54:41chairman froze our money the week after
54:43his daughter lost an auction. I think
54:45the board should know why. The room had
54:48gone quiet again. Very quiet. Dr.
54:52Margaret Oi, retired judge, opened the
54:55envelope. She read the first page. She
54:57read the second. Then she took off her
55:00glasses and turned slowly to look along
55:02the front row at Harold Peton who had
55:04gone the color of old paper and at his
55:07daughter beside him in silver who was
55:09looking at the floor. Harold said Dr. OC
55:13in the voice she had used in court for
55:1540 years. I think you and I should have
55:18a conversation tonight and I think your
55:21daughter should go home. Cresa Peton
55:25stood up for a moment. and she looked at
55:27Molly and her face was very strange,
55:30angry and frightened and something else,
55:32something almost like envy. Then she
55:35picked up her white fur coat and walked
55:37out of Bates Hall alone down the long
55:39center aisle, past 800 people who did
55:42not say a single word. Harold Peton
55:45resigned as chairman of the library
55:47foundation before the cider was served.
55:49The freeze on the Dorchester branch was
55:51lifted by 10:00 that night, and by the
55:54time anybody thought to look for her,
55:56Molly Finch was gone. He found her on
55:58the front steps, not the steps of the
56:00Dorchester branch, the great granite
56:03steps of the Boston Public Library on
56:05CPPley Square, under the three tall
56:08arched doorways, with the words carved
56:10into the stone above them that she had
56:12walked under every day of her working
56:14life. Free to all. It was snowing
56:18properly this time. Big soft flakes
56:21coming down slowly in the yellow light
56:22from the doors settling on the steps and
56:25the stone lions in her hair. She was
56:28sitting on the top step in her winter
56:30coat with her hands shaking in her lap
56:32now that it was over and she didn't look
56:34up when he came out. He sat down beside
56:37her, not too close. You knew, he said
56:41about the photographs. You let me think
56:43you left because of me. I did leave
56:46because of you. Partly I'm still angry
56:49about the nod. I know. And partly said
56:53Molly because nobody gets to take that
56:55from you. Not her. Not anybody. That's
56:59yours to tell. When you're ready, not
57:02when Cresa Peton decides. She wiped her
57:05eyes with her glove. And then you went
57:08and told 800 people anyway. You idiot. I
57:11learned it from a librarian, said Hugh.
57:14Teddy says, "Nobody can use a secret
57:16against you once you've said it
57:17yourself." He paused. "The stock's
57:20already down 4%. Felix has texted me 11
57:24times. Do you care?" "No," said Hugh.
57:28"Not even slightly." He looked out at
57:31the snow falling on CPPley Square. "I've
57:34spent 38 years hiding the one thing
57:36about me that was true. And I spent 6
57:38weeks hiding the one thing I did that
57:40was wrong. I'm finished hiding. Even if
57:43you never speak to me again. Molly was
57:46quiet for a long time. You should have
57:49asked me," she said finally. At the
57:51auction, you could have just come down
57:53off the stage and said, "Would you like
57:55to have dinner with me?" I'd have said
57:57no, probably. I'd have been terrified,
58:00but it would have been mine. "I know you
58:03took that away, that one second, the
58:06choosing." "I know," said Hugh. So, I'd
58:10like to give it back. He reached into
58:12his coat pocket. He took out a small
58:14rectangle of green cardboard with a
58:16wooden handle, a bidding paddle, number
58:1947, bent at one corner, a little faded.
58:23"You left it in my car," he said. "After
58:26the first Saturday at the bowling alley,
58:29I've been carrying it around for 2
58:30months." He held it out to her. I'm not
58:34asking you to bid on me. I'm asking you
58:36to decide whether there is a seventh
58:38Saturday and an eighth and however many
58:41come after. You choose. Not me, not an
58:44auctioneer. Not a nod. Molly looked at
58:47the paddle. Then she looked at him in
58:50the snow on the steps of the library
58:53with the light from the doors behind him
58:55and the snowflakes catching in his dark,
58:57unruly hair. She took the paddle. She
59:00looked at it for a moment, then slowly,
59:03deliberately looking straight into his
59:05eyes, she raised it high in the air.
59:09"Sold," whispered Hugh Thornton. And he
59:12kissed her on the steps of the Boston
59:14Public Library in the falling snow under
59:18the words free to all. Behind them, the
59:21great doors opened and people began to
59:23stream out of read aloud night into the
59:25snow and stopped and stared. And
59:28somebody started clapping again. And a
59:31big gay-haired man in his one good suit
59:33stood in the doorway with a shoe box
59:35under his arm and smiled and said to
59:37nobody in particular, "Told her out
59:40loud."
59:41One year later, on a Saturday night in
59:43October, in the Great Marble Hall of the
59:46Boston Public Library, the Library
59:48Foundation held its annual gala. There
59:51were 500 people in evening dress. There
59:53was a string quartet. There was a camera
59:56crew from Channel 5 and there was
59:59Barnaby Leadeds in his velvet jacket at
1:00:01the auctioneers's podium who had been
1:00:03forgiven mostly and who had promised
1:00:06never to take a nod from anyone ever
1:00:08again. The auction was nearly over.
1:00:12Ladies and gentlemen, boomed Barnaby,
1:00:14the final lot of the night, lot 30,
1:00:17donated by Mr. Hugh Thornton. He read
1:00:20from the card and his voice softened.
1:00:22every Saturday for the rest of my life,
1:00:25planned by the buyer. Bidding is open
1:00:28only to one person at the donor's
1:00:30request, and I'm told the starting price
1:00:32is $1. The room went quiet. 500 heads
1:00:37turned toward the back of the hall.
1:00:39Molly Finch was standing by the coch,
1:00:42not as staff this time, as a guest in a
1:00:45green dress that was her own and fitted.
1:00:48Jojo was beside her, holding two cream
1:00:50puffs, crying. Hugh Thornton was on the
1:00:53stage in his black dinner jacket with
1:00:55his hands clasped behind his back, but
1:00:58not like a man waiting to be shot. Like
1:01:00a man waiting for something he wanted
1:01:02very much. Molly reached into her
1:01:05handbag. She took out a green paddle
1:01:08number 47 bent at one corner and a
1:01:10little faded. And very slowly looking
1:01:13straight at him, she raised it into the
1:01:15air. "$1," said Molly Finch. $1 to the
1:01:19lady in green, said Barnaby, and his
1:01:21voice cracked a little. Going once,
1:01:24going twice. On the stage, Hugh Thornton
1:01:27looked out over the crowd straight at
1:01:29her, and he nodded. "Sold," he said. He
1:01:33came down off the stage, he walked the
1:01:35whole length of the Great Marble Hall,
1:01:37through 500 people to the coat check at
1:01:40the very back of the room. And there, in
1:01:42front of the string quartet and the
1:01:44camera crew and Teddy Mensah, who had
1:01:46brought the entire Thursday night class
1:01:48in their best clothes, Hugh Thornton
1:01:50went down on one knee. He didn't have a
1:01:52speech. He didn't need a card. He just
1:01:55held up a small velvet box and looked up
1:01:57at her. "I wrote this down," he said.
1:02:00Then I realized I didn't need to. "Molly
1:02:02Finch, will you marry me?" Molly laughed
1:02:05and cried at the same time. "Yes," she
1:02:08said. "Yes, out loud." Yes. And this
1:02:12time when the camera crew from Channel 5
1:02:14swung around with their lights blazing
1:02:16and pointed their camera straight at the
1:02:18lady in green, she didn't mind at all.
1:02:20Second chapter has 200 students now in
1:02:23four branch libraries. The Thursday
1:02:26night class at Doorchester is taught by
1:02:28a volunteer named Hugh who reads slowly
1:02:30and isn't ashamed of it and always lets
1:02:33people finish. Teddy Mensah finished
1:02:35reading all of Lraine's letters. There
1:02:37were 31. On the last page of the last
1:02:40one, she'd written, "I knew you'd get
1:02:42here, Teddy. Take your time." And on the
1:02:45wall of the reading room at the
1:02:46Doorchester Branch Library, in a small
1:02:48wooden frame, hangs a green bidding
1:02:50paddle. Number 47. Bent at one corner.
1:02:54Underneath it, on a small brass plate in
1:02:56letters anyone can read, it says, "Free
1:02:59to all." If this story made you smile,
1:03:02please subscribe to Soul Stories. And
1:03:04the next time you see someone at the
1:03:05back of the room, maybe give them a
1:03:07wave. You never know who's waving back.

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