Bent Creek (3 page)

“I reckon she does,” Roy said. She’s done past her fourteenth birthday. Time tah find her a husband.”  He roared with laughter, knowing that such talk was always a sore subject with Rachael.

Within a few months with everyone working, Roy was able to buy an old truck. It was the first vehicle he ever owned. He sat behind the wheel of the beat up old truck and grinned from ear to ear. The stuffing was coming out of the seats and the floorboards were rusted, but it had an engine and it could get them to town three times faster than the old mule.

Each morning on the way to the mine, Rachael would jump into the back of the truck, along with Benjamin and Paul. Her father would drop her off in front of the store. Life was the best it had ever been for the Riley family, yet Rachael knew it had to be a lot better for her to stay in Kentucky. The reality of living in a coal-mining town was always with her.  Black lung, cave-ins and premature death were always in the conversations of the coal-mining families. Life could change in an instant when the breadwinner of the family was killed in the mines or died from a related illness.  It could happen to the Rileys just as well.

Working in the store on a Friday morning, Rachael wiped the sweat from her brow as she unpacked bolts of mate
rial and put them on the high shelves.  The sound of the sirens interrupted her thoughts. Running to the door she saw thick, black smoke trailing across the sky.  Something had gone wrong at the mine. Most everyone stopped what they were doing when the chilling whine of the sirens blared. Men, women and children ran past the store, across the tracks and down the steep grade to the entrance of the mine. Rachael pulled the door shut behind her and hurried along with the others toward the mine. As the crowd gathered, there seemed to be an ominous silence. Another burst of soot and smoke began to escape through the air chambers on the outside of the mine. It was a sign that there was a fire deep below the earth.  An hour later, word was passed through the crowd that three men were killed inside one of the shafts as they tried to escape the fire. The cries and wails of those related to the miners hurt everyone deeply.

Ida Mae and Rachael were there each time the sirens went off
, waiting just like the others to make sure that their family members were safe. When the men began to appear at the mouth of the tunnel, the wives and children were given a reprieve one more time. Once again the men in the Riley family were saved from the Black Death.  This time the mine took three lives.

Three months later a cave-in killed one of Grandpa Abe’s brothers and just a few months later the siren sounded again. This time all of the Riley boys filed out of the mine opening, but there was no sign of Roy. Paul said that his father was working in tunnel sixteen which was further into the mine.  It was one of the longest tunnels in the mine. Ben and Paul said when they heard the rumbling and when the siren went off they ran out of the mine as fast as they could.  Ida Mae kept asking the men filing out of the tunnel if they had seen her husband. There were only somber-faced men shaking their heads. Afternoon turned to night and night to morning and there was still no word on the fourteen miners still below ground.  Someone brought soup and handed a bowl to Ida Mae. She pushed it away. She sat silently on the side of the hill, wrapped in a blanket.

A few hours later word came that the shaft in tunnel sixteen had been cleared and the men were coming up.  Everyone stood up, inching closer to the rim of the mine.  They watched as the men filed out—coughing and wheezing, their faces black as night. Someone handed the men wet cloths so they could wipe off their faces and be identified.  As each man removed his mask of soot there were cries of joy from his family.  Roy was the ninth man to come out.  Ida Mae ran down the hill and hugged him almost knocking him off of his feet.  His hands and knees were bleeding and he couldn’t talk.  Paul picked him up like a rag doll and carried him to the truck and placed him on a blanket. Ida Mae held his hand all the way home.

After washing in the outside tub, Roy changed his clothes and laid down across the bed.  Now was not the time to talk. Ida Mae rubbed salve on his hands and knees and bandaged them with white strips of cloth. She brought him soup and black coffee, but he was too exhausted to eat.  He rolled over and spent the night coughing up the soot that was lodged in his lungs.

In the morning the family gathered around him as he sat on the porch eating oatmeal. His voice was hoarse and raspy but he feigned a smile as each of his children filed out the door and sat down beside him.

“It was bad, real bad,” he said, shaking his head.  “Coal been a fallin’ all mornin’ from the ceilin’, hittin’ our helmets like hail on a tin roof. We kept askin’ the pit boss if we wuz safe and he kept sayin’ we had nothin’ to worry about.  Bout noon we started to hear the rumblin’ a long
ways down in the tunnel. Ya hear them sounds all the time, but when it started gettin’ louder and louder we knew we wuz in trouble. Then the soot got thick as black molasses and the lamps started goin’ out.  We couldn’t see nothin’ at tall. The lead man told us tah clip our lines tah each other and hold on tah the reins of the mules and follow him out of the tunnel. We could hear the rumble gettin’ louder and it was pourin’ coal. It was catchin’ up with us.  Then all hell broke loose and the walls just started comin’ down in big chunks. We was followin’ one behind the other, holdin’ tight tah that rope and then the line stopped and got real taut. The mules went crazy and tried to break loose.  They were bawlin’ and heehawin’ all down the line, so we jest unhitched them and let them run on ahead afore they stomped us tah death.  We could hear the men at the end of the line screamin’ as they wuz kivered with piles of coal. The lead man yelled to unhook the line, but old Boswork who was behind me didn’t want tah leave them men. He kept pullin’ and pullin’ but he couldn’t get them out. All them at the front of the line was lettin’ go of the rope, so he unclipped his line and we moved forward. When we reached the line of rail carts the coal comin’ off the ceilin’ was fillin’ them cars up faster than ten men shovelin’ all at once.”

Roy stopped and began coughing. He wanted to tell his story. He wanted his family to know why some of the men were left behind. “I member we crawled next to them carts on our hands and knees fer what seemed like hours an hours. Them rails would lead us out if’n’ we was lucky.  I’d told mahself that when it finally happened tah me and I was caught down there in a cave-in or a fire I wouldn’t be afeared, but I wuz wrong. I kept thinkin’ bout mah family and that I didn’t want tah die.  I jest kept movin’ till we could see the light of the shaft.”  Roy stopped and began to sob. Long, anguish
ed sobs that wracked his whole body. “Them was my friends that got left behind.  Them wuz good men who didn’t deserve tah  die jest because them mine owners won’t spend the money to shore up them tunnels.  Good men died today and it could’ve been me.”

He wiped his nose on his sleeve and ate his oatmeal. He was given two days off with pay.  By the next Monday he had to swallow his fear and once again go below ground.

The families in Bent Creek were in a panic wondering who would be next. This had been the worst year ever. Three weeks later the unthinkable happened. Another cave-in claimed two more lives. Sammy Joe’s father, Jed Montgomery
, and Rachael’s brother, Willie Riley, were caught in a mineshaft elevator and buried under tons of large chunks of coal.  Even as the other miners frantically dug with their bare hands to find the men, it was obvious that no one could have survived.

Funerals come quick in the summertime in the hollow. The intense heat and no refrigeration usually resulted in burials the very next day after someone died. It was the same for Willie and Jed. Standing on the grassy knoll covered in white crosses, Rachael held on to her mother as the minister sprinkled dirt on Willie’s coffin, sending him into a black hole for the very last time. Minutes later the scene was repeated a few feet away at Jed’s grave. Among the wailing and soulful cries, Rachael saw Sammy Joe walking away from his father’s grave. She sidled through the small crowd and caught up with him. “I’m sorry about yer pa, Sammy Joe,” she said softly.

“Thanks, I’m sorry about Willie, too,” he replied.

Rachael wiped a tear from her face. “I can’t believe he’s gone. His life ain’t even started and now it’s over. I hear you and yer ma are leavin’ Bent Creek.  Is that true?” she asked.

Sammy Joe nodded. “Yep, we’re goin’ to Ohio tah live with mah aunt and uncle. Can’t stay here. We ain’t got no money now and I’ll be damn if I’m gonna go tah work in the mine. I never said it, but I’m like you, Rachael, I’ve always wanted tah leave this place.  But not like this, losin’ mah pa and all. I’m almost nineteen, the same age as Willie and now he’s outta here for good.” Rachael could hear the sobs catching in his throat. She turned to leave.  “You take care of yerself, monkey ears.”

“You too, Rachael Roach,” he answered.

Inconsolable, Ida Mae had to face the reality that she had given one of her children to the mine. The sadness that engulfed the Riley house lasted for weeks.  Roy took to his bed and said he was ailing and wouldn’t come out of the bedroom. Ida Mae, who once bragged that she was probably the only woman in the hollow to raise six children to adulthood and not lose a one of them from sickness or accident, joined the other women who mourned their dead children.  The rest of the Riley kids moped around the house and every once in a while one of them would break into tears. They huddled together on the porch giving comfort to each other.  The boys especially harbored a fear that they could be the next one to die in the mine.

Afraid and angry the mineworkers decided to ban together and talk to the managers about the unsafe conditions and the constant threats of a cave-in, but they were listened to with deaf ears.  The foremen said either go to work or quit, but the miners picked a third option, they went on strike. In the spring of 1928 the men refused to enter the mine and laid down their picks. They stood fast. Over the next few weeks there were meetings, but nothing was accomplished and Fridays came and went without paychecks in their pockets.

Soon the realization hit home that the strike was chang
ing the lives of everyone in Bent Creek drastically.  The only income in the Riley family was the money that Rachael was making. With the mine’s company store now closed, the other businesses in town began to follow suit.  The lack of money was evident everywhere. She started working as many hours as she could get in the dry goods store.  And so her life had taken on a rhythm to a tune she did not like.  And it never seemed to get better. They were once again living in extreme poverty.

Chapter Four

Summer had come to the holler bringing the sizzling heat and constant torment of insects biting deep into your skin. Even though the river was just down the road they stayed clear of it. The river’s bank was covered with debris the high water had deposited during the spring floods.  Tangled masses of tree branches hugged the muddy shoreline.  The undertow was swift and treacherous, along with a good number of water moccasins
that occupied the river. The only release the Riley kids found to relieve themselves of the heat was to trek partway up Black Mountain, to an old abandoned quarry that was filled with ice-cold water. After their chores were finished, the four oldest would escape before their mother found something else for them to do. Emma Jane was left behind.  She was much too young to go with them and afraid of the quarry from the stories Paul told her about the monsters that lived in the water.  Ida Mae watched as her children disappeared into the woods, and wished she could go with them.

By the time they reached the quarry to join the other kids already swimming, their clothes were soaked with sweat. The boys peeled off their overalls and jumped into the water in their underwear. Rachael was forced to swim in her clothes like most of the other girls. Diving off the edge of the quarry into the dark blue pool of water was instant relief. Rachael learned to be a good swimmer after being tormented by her brothers who would drag her out into the deep water and let her go. She screamed and paddled and somehow made it to the bank, while they laughed at her. In time they gave up the game since she could easily make it to shore.

No one was sure how deep the quarry was.  Some said as deep as seventy-five or eighty feet.  Whatever its depth, the Riley kids made sure that they stayed within reach of the bank and always on the left side of the quarry. That was the rule their father had given them on the first day he brought them up to the deep pool.