“Talk, chatterbox. You will anyway. What is it?”
“You know Judge Harrison uses Ms. Belle as his own personal bodyguard ’cause she is mean enough to scare half the town?”
Daddy somehow managed to laugh in spite of the misery of a burned hand and the job he had in front of him. I was afraid that Judge Harrison stood mostly on the side of the operators anyway, and if Daddy can’t even get in the door, it could be doomsday for him and Burl and the rest of the miners.
“What do you mean, you can get me past Belle? Planning to shoot her, maybe?”
We both laughed. Laughing felt a whole lot better than the yelling and cursing whirling around the Pridemore mine.
“When I was junior clerk for the circuit office this summer, I noticed that Sue Ann Howard always kept a lot of paper work stacked up for the judge. Ms. Belle wouldn’t let me or anyone else touch it, and it made Sue Ann so mad, she always made Ms. Belle walk up all those stairs and get the folders herself. It was my job to deliver the message to Ms. Belle. I hated to do it because she always quarreled about having to stop and go upstairs, making out as if somehow, it was my fault. She doesn’t know I haven’t worked here today. I will just tell her Sue Ann has papers for her. When she goes upstairs, you are in like Flynn.”
“Aren’t you leaving Sue Ann in the middle?”
“She won’t care. Besides, I don’t think she is even here today. We are in her parking place. There’s her name on the curb where one of the trusties painted it. I think he is her cousin.”
“Pretty sneaky, Rach. You might be developing a criminal streak that I should discourage, but I am not going to start now. Today, I am going to take full advantage of all the sneakiness you can think up. When we get out of the car, you go up the back stairs and come down the front steps there by her office door. I’ll stand in the courtroom so she won’t see me waiting. Go to it, girl. We’ll get this done together. How about you?”
My head began to swell with pride, but I had to hurry. Gloating about how clever I was would have to wait.
Chapter 25
THE INJUNCTION
He gave me a wink, and I jumped out of the car and up the back steps of the courthouse. When I got to the mezzanine and looked over the heavy rail, I saw Daddy standing just inside the wide swinging doors of the courtroom. My heart was about to jump out of my throat as I started down the hand-carved marble staircase. When I was halfway down, Ms. Belle walked out of her outer office door and down the hall to the restroom. I jumped down four steps at a time and waved Daddy to the office door. He shot through the outer door and picked up a stack of papers on Ms. Belle’s desk. He clenched his jaw hard and pushed open the door leading to Judge Harrison’s chambers. Daddy pointed me to the chair by the door
I figured Ms. Belle was bound to be back soon, so I hid behind the door instead. I could hear well enough through the hinge side of the open door. The judge’s high-backed leather chair was turned toward the window opposite the door, and he did not see Daddy walk in.
He shuffled the papers and spoke softly, “Judge, here are some papers from Ms. Belle, sir.” It wasn’t exactly a lie—more of a convenient truth of the moment.
“Afternoon, Ed. Right kind of you to be delivering Ms. Belle’s dictation notes. She’ll be much obliged, I’m sure, that is if she doesn’t pin your ears back first. What are you up to this afternoon besides sneaking in here while Belle isn’t looking?”
“Judge, thank you for seeing me. I know this is somewhat out of order, but I need to get your advice about some trouble I stumbled onto this morning.”
Daddy had an instinct about people. He knew better than to try to introduce the subject of an injunction. If there was going to be any help at all, Judge Harrison was going to have to decide pretty much on his own that an injunction was in the best interest of the court and the county.
“Judge, Pridemore’s have ordered a bunch of scabs to cross the picket line at the mine up on Nolan’s branch. I was at the mine face this morning, and I saw enough firepower on both sides to blow them all to kingdom come and back. That mine is struck and picketed just like all the others in the county. What do you think a man ought to do?”
“Stop it! By god, that whole thing has got to be stopped. Might know it’d be a Pridemore who’d try to push the strike to a bloody war. The only one of that clan worth a damn is old Doc, and he’s pretty near past it these days. Those boys of his have gone and pulled the wool over his eyes this time.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” said Daddy. “Doc saves what strength he has these days to see a few patients. Most of them won’t or can’t see anybody else, and he’s about all that’s keeping them on foot.”
“I’m going to slap a temporary injunction on those shenanigans up there before some of the boys on both sides of this mess wind up dead. Ed, no legal action will hold them off forever. I want you to see if you can’t find some way or somebody to get them talking again. I’m giving this thing sixty days.”
“Thank you, judge. I’m just about stumped. I don’t think anybody but John L. Lewis himself could put a stop to this one.”
“If it takes John L., then we might just as well plan on wiping up the blood and doing some sad singing and slow walking. John L. is a big shot these days. It doesn’t look to me he has any use for the rank and file. And these men are both ranking and filing right out of existence if you ask me.”
Daddy chuckled at the judge’s little word twist. Daddy could have given Judge Harrison strong arguments for the injunction all backed with relevant precedents, but today, getting in the door and asking the senior man’s opinion had been argument enough.
“Thank you again, judge. Two months will put some pressure on both sides to get at it and get on past this.”
“On your way out, please ask Belle to step in here with her pad and pencil. I’m going to get this thing issued today before another hothead decides to truck in more firepower.”
“Yes, sir, hope she doesn’t take after me for slipping in.”
“Whatever she does, you deserve it. She thinks she’s the queen around here, and she doesn’t take it kindly when any of us forget that.”
“I’ll try to take it like a man. Thank you again, sir.”
Daddy could usually charm his way through sticky situations, but Belle Eggars had his number. No amount of grace and good manners from my Daddy with his blond good looks and easy smiles could make a dent. Today, he got lucky.
I told Ms. Belle when she got back from the restroom that Sue Ann needed her upstairs. When he came out, her chair was still empty.
“Did you lock Belle in a closet?’
“I did better than that. I used the Sue Ann plan. We have to hurry before she comes charging us like a mad bull.”
“I swear, Rachel, I’m of a mind to keep you, handy as you are.”
“Hurry, Daddy! Let’s duck out the back door.”
Just as we turned the corner and out of sight, we heard her thick heels come clomping down the marble steps. We both grinned and hit the road. We didn’t stop until we jumped in the car.
“You know this is worth a double-dipped chocolate ice cream cone. Let’s just stop off at Green Miller and celebrate.”
“Green Miller? You serious?”
He winked at me, “I don’t joke about ice cream.”
Green Miller, ice cream, Daddy, and the injunction all at once. Not a bad haul. It was almost enough to make me forget the desperate men up at the mine face but not quite. The trouble was never far from anyone’s mind.
Chapter 26
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
The miners in this coal-mining valley had been on strike for six months. Yesterday, Daddy, using his most persuasive lawyer skills, convinced Judge Harrison to issue an injunction to stem the violence at the picket line. In the middle of the morning, I heard the transmission grind and a muffled bump of tires
as Daddy negotiated the car over the gullies and ruts of our steep road. He never came home during the day unless something was wrong. I ran to the door, but he was still sitting in the car. I pushed open the screen door and walked to the edge of the porch and watched as he stepped out of the car, but he stopped. He turned and looked past the car and down into the valley spread out in front of him and then put his hand over his eyes and cried.
I started down the porch steps but stopped midstep. For the first time in my life, I saw my daddy cry. Mother and I cried, but never Daddy. I knew my strong, proud daddy would have been embarrassed if he knew I had seen him crying, so I slipped back inside the front door and waited until he began walking up the porch steps. I pushed open the door. He had wiped away the tears. His eyes were red and his complexion gray. The lines in his face seemed etched deeper than usual. His dark blond hair showed the number of times he had run his fingers through it, and his wide shoulders were slumped.
“There’s a fresh pot of coffee on the stove, strong and dark, the way you like it. Come sit at the table, and I’ll pour a cup for you.”
He nodded and looked at me for the first time. “That sounds good, Rachel. Why don’t you have one with me? Sometimes, I forget how grown up you are these days.”
“What’s wrong, Daddy?”
“Give me a minute.” His voice sounded as if it was forced through gravel.
He followed me up the steps and lingered on the front porch. I walked to the kitchen and poured the coffee. I set his cup on the table at his usual place, but when he came in the room, he sat in Mother’s chair. He seemed too tired to walk to the head of the table. When I picked up his coffee and slid it toward him, he gripped my arm hard, and I swear I could feel his hurt through my sleeve. There was a hush in the room when I sat down beside him.
“What happened?”
The gravels in his voice were gone. It was soft and almost tender when he answered, “This morning, right after the injunction was issued, the striking miners went back to the picket line at Pridemore’s. Sheriff Hershel Garber was waiting for them. You know I’ve known Hershel all my life. He was a man you could trust. I knew I could depend on him to take care of the trouble up at the mine.”
“Is that the Mr. Hershel who brought us some doves after the last shoot?”
Daddy nodded. “Hershel told the men they were not to carry weapons, and if they did, he would confiscate them. He promised to turn the scabs back, but he demanded there be no interference from anyone. If there was, he would arrest them on the spot. Hershel knew how the miners felt and told them he would not send them down the mountain until the scabs were gone.”
“You mean the picketers had to leave after all those weeks of walking that line day after day? You know that had to make them plenty mad. It’s a wonder they didn’t start shooting right then,” I said.
“Hershel had it worked out that after the scabs hightailed it back to town, all but two of the picketers had to leave. That way, they wouldn’t have to walk away with the scabs yelling all that filth at them.”
“Did that help? Did they really agree to what Hershel wanted?”
“Yes, it seemed so. Hershel climbed in his car, placed his shotgun on the seat beside him, and drove down the hill. He turned his car sideways to block the road so he could stop anyone from ramming a truck all the way to the mine face.”
“Anyone like Donyel? He would do anything he could to cause trouble.”
Daddy nodded, but he didn’t say anything for a long time. I sat there, really hesitant to move. After he had taken my arm the way he did, I had the feeling that he wanted someone near. That it was me was a surprise, but I was there, and Mother wasn’t.
Finally, I broke the silence. “What did they do when he left?”
“The miners broke apart their wall of men and scattered. It had to be killing them to stand back and let the sheriff do their fighting. Each one to a man wanted to pull out a weapon and plunge into the middle of a fight to drive the scabs back down the mine road. The truck loaded with Pridemore scabs stopped on the hill in front of Hershel’s car. He got out and stepped three steps to the side of the truck and spoke to the driver, a Pridemore agent.
“He said, ‘You go tell your boss this fight has gone to the courts. Judge decided there would be no work in this mine for sixty days, and if he has any objection, he will have to take it up with the judge.’ Then he told the driver and the scabs crowding the truck bed, ‘I have to do my duty, and I’d a whole lot rather do it peaceful, but I can go the other way if you push it.’”
Daddy went on. “The driver spit out a string of goddamns and hell fires, enough to make the devil blush, but Hershel just stood there, not moving. He’d heard it all before. He wasn’t about to shoot a man because of his poor grammar. The truck finally backed down the hill and onto the county road and headed toward town. Hershel was good as his word. Just as soon as the truck was out of sight, he told the men to go on home. After an hour, all the men but two had left the mountain, and Hershel decided to go back to town and send a deputy out to keep watch.”
“Wasn’t that the end of it then, after they all left?” I asked.
“That’s what we all thought, but I guess it was way too easy. His car bounced over the deep ruts and rocks to the bottom of the steep road, and he turned toward town on the county road. About two miles from the mine, you know where the road dips real low near the water?”
“Yes, that’s where Logan always hides his eyes because he thinks we are going in the water.”
“Maybe Logan has second sight about that dip because Hershel must have seen a fishing boat moored near the road and slowed down to wave. A vote is a vote, and he never hesitates to let people know he is on the job.
“As he rounded the sharp curve just beyond the dip, the Pridemore’s man pulled his now empty truck in front of Hershel’s Chevy. Shots rang out, and Hershel was hit in the shoulder and hand. He slammed on the brakes, and the car spun out of control. It skidded and careened into a sycamore and threw him into the windshield. The pressure of his body on the steering wheel set off the horn. The car stopped, and Hershel fell off the steering wheel into the passenger seat, silencing the horn. The man in the truck gunned it forward, spinning rocks and gravel behind him as he put distance between him and the sheriff’s car. The truck disappeared around the curve, and the two men on the river poled the boat to the shore. One jumped to the bank. The other picked up a can and a bundle of rags and scrambled up to the car. He opened the car door, slapped down the door locks, poured kerosene on the rags, and hurled them into the back seat of the car. He turned the sloshing can upside down onto the floorboard and made a matchbook igniter by placing the cover over all the matches but one. He placed the makeshift fuse on the kerosened floor and lit the single match. It burned down to its base and began to eat into the cardboard cover.
“In sixty seconds or less, it exploded the rest of the matches. He slammed down the last lock and kicked the door shut. They jumped the bank in one leap, pushed hard on the pole, and floated down the river. Two little kids were fishing off the bank on the other side of the river and saw most of this happen. Poor kids.”
“Daddy, you don’t mean that Hershel was in the burning car and they left him like that?” My stomach was rolling, and I felt cold all over.
“The heat and odor of the burning kerosene must have startled Hershel into consciousness. The lock prevented him from opening the door with the handle. I guess he must have slid his hand down the window, searching for the lock. His fingers could have wrapped around the metal lock post and pulled. The handle was just below his elbow, and it would not have taken much to shove it down. The door swung open, and the rush of fresh air would have exploded the already raging fire into an inferno. Hershel’s head and shoulders fell out the door as he stretched his hand toward the ground he never reached. Black smoke belched its way above the trees, throwing up his last sig
nal.” Daddy’s voice broke.
I couldn’t do more than whisper, “Daddy, who were they? Who killed him? Why?”
“Both sides of this blasted strike are guilty, Rachel, but I played right into their hands. I was the one who got that damn injunction and condemned one of the best friends I or this county ever had. I should have realized he would enforce the court order regardless of the danger. I have to live with that the rest of my life.”
He pounded his fist on the table, and the cups rattled in the saucers. He then stomped out and slammed the back door. I watched as he stalked across the backyard, pushed open the back gate, and started up the narrow mountain path. Right at that moment, from the bend of his back, it looked to me that he was carrying all the misery a man could lift. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I picked up his cup and poured out the cold black coffee.
Chapter 27
MORE TROUBLE
I stopped Mother on the front steps and told her what happened to Hershel. “Daddy cried. Mother, I have never seen him cry before.”
“Rachel, don’t start. You just take the kids and stay out of the house. He needs to be left alone. What a tragedy.”
Mother had two opinions of me. First, I was capable of working like an adult, and second, I was as naive as baby Logan. She assumed I had no notion of what was going on around me. If I had an opinion, it was based on nothing of value, and any new idea I might have was a waste of her time. Today was no different. She walked past me on her way to the front door, determined to hear Daddy’s version. I knew what was going on in her head. She didn’t trust my telling of a story and knew that what I told her couldn’t possibly be all there was to know, but Daddy must have been talked out. He stopped Mother on the porch and told us he had to go see Judge Harrison.
“Will he be mad, Daddy?”
It was a logical question because the day he got the injunction, Judge Harrison seemed determined that Daddy should get to the bottom of the trouble.
Fleetie's Crossing Page 20