The 15th Star (A Lisa Grace History - Mystery) Read Online Free Page B

and put him into the light of truth, the light of the future where he belonged. The dichotomy of early America is what drove her interest in history. The horror of what happened and how everyday people survived through it. The wars, the famine, the poverty, the injustices. The ingenuity of the true heroes, the ones who lived and died with honor. These things made history live for Keiko, and it was important that history stayed alive. History in turn gave her the energy to go on. Some lives, including hers, were nothing but a series of losses. Perseverance and those who sacrificed, gave comfort to Keiko. She would persevere, survive, and recognize the unremembered.
    Keiko entered her office, put her coffee down on the table, and grabbed the next box of letters in the trunk. This job represented everything she wanted. She ’d beat out at least a hundred other applicants for her master’s internship at the Smithsonian and if she didn’t do something extraordinary while she was here, she might blow her opportunity of a lifetime. No one knew better than Keiko how sometimes doing your best wasn’t good enough. God may be in control but he let luck and the devil each have a turn in the game of life. She would play the game because she didn’t know what else she could do. She made sure she was the first to arrive and the last to leave in her department, but that wouldn’t be enough to keep her job.
    Whoever had left the letters to the Smithsonian over fifty years ago had carefully placed them in one of those blue and white textured boxes for cataloging. In the space on the front someone had slid in a cut index card saying, ‘ letters approx. 1812 - 1819, L. Armsted .’
    Keiko got to work. She opened the box and saw the letters were still in their envelopes, true to form. From this time period they were brittle with age. She sat down and opened her desk drawer to take out her reading glasses. She wouldn ’t need them for the first hour or two, but after that, eyestrain would kick in and Keiko would be glad to have them. Her coffee was on the small table behind her. She never kept it on her desk in case of a spill.
    She put on gloves so the natural oils from her fingers wouldn ’t do any further damage to the delicate aging paper before removing the letters from the box. As Keiko examined the first one on top, she noticed the name was not L. Armsted as written on the outside of the box, but Louisa Armistead.
    Keiko sat back and thought a minute. She knew that name.
    Keiko leaned over and took her laptop out of her bag. She plugged it in and waited for it to come up. As much as Keiko hated to do it, she went to the American Histories Department website and put the name and year in the search engine. Sure enough, the letters were to Louisa Armistead, wife of Major George Armistead. George Armistead was the Major who commissioned the flag which inspired the song by Francis Scott Key, The Star Spangled Banner. The flag flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and was now kept upstairs in its own special case in the rotunda built just to hold it.
    This might be interesting after all. Keiko looked at the front address on the outside of the envelope and her heart quickened. The address looked familiar. She checked the website again just to be sure. NO. 60 Albemarle Street, Baltimore, Maryland.
    It was the original address of the house known as the “Flag House.” Mary Pickersgill’s house.
    Mary Pickersgill was as famous as Betsy Ross in colonial American circles. She had learned to make ship flags, standards, and colors while working for her mother ’s company and eventually took it over.
    As a second-generation flag maker, Mary was highly respected. Her daughter Caroline was known to have worked side by side with her mother, carrying on the tradition and befriending other well-known people in history. Reading this set of letters might not lead to any breakthroughs, but learning the private thoughts of some of the women who