Losing Shakespeare

A freshman high school debate team traveled from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Newark, Delaware to battle other high school teams across the nation for the nation's top debating award, worth an undisclosed sum of money. As a result, the Pittsburgh team won the tournament. Unknown to them, their school was to be awarded a special prize, but nobody on the team was ever informed about the type of prize.

The prize included a facsimile of a rare book by William Shakespeare, known as the "First Folio" inside a box which Dr. Titus Tweet - a wealthy elderly book collector who owned many rare books gave to Mr. Garble - the school's debate instructor. Then Mr. Garble gave it to Mike Donavan, the team captain, who gazed at it while pretending to smile in false triumph. All the other members just smirked and made faces at it. Mike held the box above him as pictures were taken of him holding it as if it were the Super Bowl trophy. However, nobody on the team knew anything about the book which didn't include a title on the box. The book was then handed back to the debate team instructor who knew the real title of the book inside but decided not to share it with his team.

A few hours later, the team and the instructor got on their school bus which was taking them back to their school in Pittsburgh. Mr. Garble placed the box with the book in it directly in back of him on the seat. One of the team members walked up to him and asked, "Why did we get a book and not a trophy, or even money?" The instructor replied, "It's a reproduction of an old book, called the "First Folio" by a William Shakespeare."

The boy didn't know what to say; the title made no sense to him. So, he turned around and walked back to where his buddies started drinking bottles of beer which were they had poured into empty soda bottles to fool the instructor. Within thirty minutes they were drunk.

One of the drunk students quietly stumbled down the aisle, picked up the box while the professor had fallen asleep. One of them opened it and took out the book without their instructor knowing it. The book looked old, but each team member rummaged through it while carelessly handling it.

"A book? A damn book?" one of them said. They took turns looking at it while laughing hard as they passed it around. "We got plenty of books back at school. What do we need this for?" "Here... David, Keep it!" This woke David up. He looked through it for a few minutes but thought the book was worthless.

Two hundred fifty miles later, their bus stopped at a deli for dinner after exiting on to a ramp, all of the students got off, leaving David who was still turning the pages carefully. But when he got up, everyone had gone inside.

David took the book with him, chuckled and threw it in an outside trash can. Then he walked in to order food with his friends. As they chatted while looking at the menu, a middle-aged man wearing a moth-ridden old coat, walked into the same diner. His head was long and wild looking as it stood out beneath a moldy cap. He wore a full gray mustache, which connecting downward with a long beard.

When the students saw him, they couldn't help but point to him and chuckle. But the poor man was used to it. His name was Jim. He had given life his all, teaching at several colleges until he got married to a seemingly nice woman who turned into a trashy nightmare of a rich harlot. They had several children who ended up in jail on charges of selling dope, stealing and beating up people they didn't like. The wife threw him out of their home after considering he was a "nobody" who couldn't keep a job due to physical illness.

When the students finished their meal, they were ready to board the bus back to their school. As they walked in and took their seats, they all had forgotten about the book they had passed around. A couple of hundred miles later, one of the boys remembered it and asked what happened to it. Nobody knew except, of course, David who had been given the book.

"I threw it away at the diner. What did you expect me to do with it?" David confessed.

"Why? That belonged to Mr. Garble. We won that book at the conference! What are we going to tell Mr. Garble?"

"We have to go back and get it. We'll be punished."

"We're too far away. David, can you get the book at the library?"

"I'll try! As soon as we get off the bus when we get home, I'll go to the school library and get a book like the one that was in the box," David replied anxiously. "Let's just make sure Garble thinks we have the book.

Mike said, "If he asks, just tell him we're reading it."

Later, Garble was sleeping as the bus approached the school. When it stopped, Garble started to feel sick and as he stepped off the bus he vomited. Some of the boys stayed to help him as two of them rushed toward the library with the empty box to find a copy of the "First Folio" masterpiece. They found a common book full of all of Shakespeare's works, checked it out and put it in the box. When they ran back to Mr. Garble, who was still sick, they gave him the box.

Back at the diner, the poor man had only eaten what he could afford, which amounted to half of a dry burger. He couldn't afford to tip but apologized to his waitress that he had no money. As he opened the door to leave, he stumbled to the outside trashcan and started to rummage through it. He saw the book laying on top. Curiously, he picked it up and opened it to the first page. It read Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. In the middle was a large etched image of William Shakespeare. The bottom read London... 1623.

Jim examined the book, not believing what he was seeing. Shakespeare?? Couldn't be, he thought. It was certainly old. He looked around, walked back into the restaurant. He spied his kind waitress and asked her if he could have a bag without telling her he wanted to protect the book he had hidden in his coat. Then he decided to take a short bus ride close by to the University of Delaware where he could examine the book more closely.

When he got out, he walked to the closest library and was let in even though he didn't carry any id. Everyone in the library looked at Jim's ragged attire but did not bother him. For the moment he kept the book hidden, not trusting anyone to see what he was holding. He walked to a desk at the back of the library.

Within an hour, Jim had examined the book as much as he could. He wasn't sure but believed it was a modern facsimile of some sort of a famous book by William Shakespeare called the First Folio. Jim looked up and around him. He intended to use the computers but he didn't want to appear so disheveled. What could he do?

Despite his appearance, he decided to ask a librarian. So, he looked around and eyed a middle-aged, dark brown haired woman who was shelving books. He walked towards her until he stood a few feet from her and asked, "Excuse me. I have a question about a book I own." The lady looked at him and did a double take when she saw he looked like a bum, but she smiled as she approached him to look at his book. She stopped her shelving and took the book. "Come with me. We'll go to my office to take a look at it."

Jim walked behind her as they made their way to her office downstairs. He asked her name. "I'm Donna Schmitt, head librarian. But please just call me 'Donna'." "Glad to know you're the head librarian. My name is 'Jim' by the way." "Nice to meet you, Jim," she replied.

As soon as they walked into Donna's office, she cleared her desk and placed the book in front of her. Jim sat off to the left chair next to her and watched Donna as she carefully examined the book's exterior. Then she opened the title page and her eyes open slowly. After minutes of more studying it, her eyes grew as far as they would go. She turned her head and asked sternly, "Where did you get this?"

Jim lied and said, "It's been in my family for many years." He lied because he knew she probably wouldn't believe that he found it in a trash container on the other side of town. "Actually, I... "

She interrupted and her hands started to shake. "From what I can determine, you own a genuine, rare book called the First Folio of all of Shakespeare's thirty-six plays. Based on condition and rarity... your book... I... believe is worth over a million dollars."

Jim opened his mouth quickly. "I'm a little hard of hearing, but did you just say what I thought you said?" "Yes. You have an extremely rare book and I'm going to call Heritage Auction House," she replied. Jim thought a moment and began smiling. He couldn't believe his luck.

"Don't worry! I used to work there selling extremely rare books." Jim sat frozen in place, unable to reply. Donna looked up the Heritage's website and wrote down some information. Jim felt numb; from all of those years of living on the streets, his fortune was coming his way faster than a Tokyo subway.

"I can't believe it!" Jim replied.

"You look like you could use a place to stay. It's a little late. In the morning, why don't we arrange for your book to be auctioned?" Sensing Jim couldn't afford a place to stay, she called a road-side inn and asked for a reservation for one night for Jim. Jim hardly heard her as he was counting how much a million dollars could do for him.

She drove him to the Calhoun Inn. She left him there, paid for a room with an understanding she would pick him up in the morning. Donna let him keep the book. When she left Jim at the Inn, he walked into the room and took a long needed shower. Then he fell asleep dreaming happily all night.

At the mansion of Titus Tweet, the wealthy book patron looked on his desk and spotted the original Shakespeare "First Folio". He stared at it and looked away for a few seconds. Then he anxiously looked at it and picked it up. "Oh no!" Tweet opened the cover. The facsimile. Horrified, he realized what he had done - accidentally given the debate team his original copy.

Tweet called the high school and demanded to speak with Mr. Garble. The operator transferred him to his office but only received his voice message. After the beep, Tweet told Garble that he accidentally gave him an original copy worth millions - not the facsimile. He wanted it back immediately.

The next morning, Garble walked to his office with the box with the library book in it and unlocked the door. He still felt nauseous, but better. He checked his phone's messages and noticed someone had called. He punched the button and heard Dr. Tweet's message. When the message finished, Garble tore open the box and found the copy. Confused, he immediately called all of his debate club members through the school intercom.

They knew they were dead when they heard his voice but slowly made it to his office. "Did you know that you were given an original book from the time of Shakespeare? Dr. Tweet called and said he gave you his real copy?"

Every team member felt stunned and looked guilty. Dave bravely told him, "I threw it in the trash when we ate at that restaurant."

"What?? That book is worth millions of dollars? I don't believe this! What's the number for that restaurant? Never mind. I'll look it up!" As he did so, each team member prayed the book was still there. However, after Garble got hold of the manager and asked him to look in the trash to see if there was a book, the manager told him that the trash was picked up that morning.

"We're screwed!" Garble said angrily. Actually, they were all screwed. The high school would be on the hook for another authentic "First Folio", which could bankrupt the school.

In a week, Donna helped Jim get the iconic book to Heritage Auction. In the meantime, she gave him money to get a much-needed haircut, and clothes for him to wear. Donna regarded Jim as a handsome man. Feelings about him began to stir in his heart. She had been divorced for a decade and had one son. Jim thought of Donna as his guardian angel because she had been so nice to him.

When the finger biting auction began, Jim and Donna kept track of it live on Heritage's website. Donna reassured him the price would go above $1 million, but they both wanted it to go as high as possible. She reached for his hand and held it as they saw the amount climb. During the last thirty minutes, they couldn't help chewing their nails. At the end of the auction, the book sold for $4.75 million.

They cheered and hugged each other. Then they stared at each other without saying a word. Perhaps there was no need for words. It wasn't long before they became a couple and started dating. After a year, Jim popped the question to Donna, who cried when he kneeled and pulled out a beautiful gold ring. She told him in a tearful "yes."

The foolishness of the rich man made the poor man rich, but a "rich man is nothing but a poor man with money." (W.C. Fields).