| What else is there to learn once his father is killed in a mine-shaft explosion? Some things are inflexible and one of them is that in The Company's town, the oldest single son supports the family if the father is killedIn 1925, when Red is thirteen, there are other miners' sons who are younger than him also working in the shaftsHe is the oldest man left in the family and that suffices
By the time he is fourteen he is able to use a drillGood money for a kid, but down in the shafts, at the extreme end of the tunnel there isn't room to standEven a kid works in a crouch, his feet stumbling in the refuse of the ore that has been left from filling the last cartIt's hot, of course, and damp, and the lights from their helmets are lost new louis vuitton handbags quickly in the black corridorsThe drill is extremely heavy and a boy has to hold the butt against his chest and clutch the handles with all his strength as the bit vibrates into the rock
When the hole is drilled, the charge is set up, and the miners retreat around a bend in the tunnel, and explode the dynamiteThe loosened ore is shoveled onto a tiny flatcar, and when it is filled they roll it away, stopping to clear the tracks of the earth that has scattered over itThen they come back with another cart and continue to shovelRed has ten hours a day, six days a weekIn the wintertime he can see the sky on Sundays
Puberty in the coal dust
In the late spring evenings he sits with his girl in a little park at the end of the company mulberry bags streetBehind them the town ends, and the brown bare hills, deepening in the twilight, roll away into the westLong after it is dark in the valley, they can still see the last striations of the sunset beyond the western peaks
Beautiful scenery, the girl murmurs
To hell with that, I'm getting out of here
I always wonder what's on the other side of the hills, the girl says quietly
He grinds his shoes in the grudged sparse grass of the parkI got restless feet, I'm like my old man was, he used to be full of ideas, had a bunch of books, but my mother went and sold themThat's a woman for you
How can you go, Red? She'll be needing the money you make
Listen, when the time comes; I'm just gonna pick up and goA man's gotta get out where he replica cartier tank watches don't owe nobody nothing(Staring into the darknessAlready there's the deep impatience, the anger, and the other thing, the distillate of the sunset beyond the encircling hills You're a good kid, Agnes(The sense of minor loss and pleasurable self-pity as he thinks of leaving her But I tell ya I ain't gonna end up living the kind of life my old man didI ain't gonna sweat out my guts in the mine
You're going to do a lot of things, Red(He breathes the sweet-laden night air and smells the earthThe knowledge of strength, the taunt at the surrounding hills You know, I'll tell ya something, I don't believe in God
You don't mean that, Red!
(Underneath the blanket his father's body had been crushed almost flat Yeah, that's right, I just denim louis vuitton handbag don't believe in God
Sometimes I don't either, Agnes says
Yeah, I can talk to you, you understand
Only you want to go away(There is the other knowledgeHer body is young and strong and he knows the smell of her breasts, which are like powdered infant-flesh, but all the women turn to cordwood in the town You take that guy Joe Mackey who got Alice with a kid and left her, my own sister, but I tell ya I don't blame himYou got to see that, Agnes
Yeah, that's rightIt's praise to the eighteen-year-old
Of course you can always depend on the mines to shut down
It's good for a week; there's hunting for jack rabbit and a ball game or two, but it loses its edgeThere's more time to be in the house, and it's all bedrooms except for the white ceramic chanel watch kitch |
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