Us and Them

by Hugh R. MacDonald

  “I’m sorry, I forgot we had plans. Beth asked me to come over for an hour after supper.”

  Alfred smiled. “That is where I would be going, if I were your age. Perhaps when you get back. I will have a nap after supper and be ready when you return. We can get a few pieces on the hull tonight.”

  “That would be great. Thank you. And thanks for doing the chores.”

  JW held the door for Alfred and followed him into the house. The aroma of supper wafting through the doorway started JW’s stomach growling. All other thoughts left his mind as he watched his mother dip up his meal.

  —

  The hour with Beth turned to two, and their talk of possible future plans had consumed the evening. The moon was bright in the sky as JW walked homeward. It was later than he’d planned, and he didn’t have the heart to wake Alfred when he arrived home.

  Chapter 36

  Mickey walked ahead. JW had to bend his knees to keep from hitting his head.

  “These tunnels are some low, Mick.”

  “You’re spoiled from loading the trams. Tonight we get to work in the three footers – picks and shovels.”

  “I’d have to lie on my stomach to get that low,” JW said, then laughed.

  “You wouldn’t be the first – or last,” Mickey said.

  The deeper they went, the staler the air got. JW felt his chest rise as he worked to get more air into his lungs. A feeling of panic washed over him, and he wondered if the trapper boy had fallen asleep with the trap door open, letting all the fresh air escape.

  “Hey, Mick, you having trouble breathing?”

  “Yeah, it’s normal. The deeper we go, the less air. Don’t breathe deep. Just breathe normal. You’ll get used to it.”

  JW hoped he wouldn’t have to get used to breathing stale air. “I was worried the trap was left open, and we’d become the ghosts that haunt the trapper boys.”

  Mickey stopped. “Well, there she is, JW.”

  JW looked at the hole in the wall in front of them. It didn’t look like much of a tunnel. There wouldn’t be enough room to get a full swing of the pick, and they’d have to work on their knees. The floor was covered with coal and other rubble. JW pushed some away to make a smooth area to kneel down.

  Gripping the pick handle in the middle, JW swung against the side of the tunnel. Pieces of coal splintered and flew directly into his face, stinging. He watched Mickey swing, and more coal fell.

  “Don’t we have to worry about a cave-in?” JW asked.

  “When we get in a little deeper, we have to put in some posts to secure the ceiling.”

  “So this is gonna be slow going.”

  “Listen. What’s that?” Mickey said.

  JW and Mickey turned toward the sound of someone coming up the tunnel. The bobbing light soon showed it was Anderson. He’d gone back to the mine in New Waterford or Glace Bay, so they hadn’t expected to see him.

  “Tunnel’s not deep enough. Gonna hafta do some more blasting to get her deeper.”

  That was more words than JW had ever heard Anderson say.

  “Donaldson, you place the charge.”

  “I can do it, Anderson,” Mickey said. “I’ve done it before.”

  “No, Donaldson gets a turn tonight. He ain’t ever gonna learn if he don’t do one.”

  “No one said they’d be blasting tonight,” Mickey said.

  “I just did,” Anderson said.

  JW listened to Mickey and Anderson go back and forth.

  “If it’s got to be done, I’ll do it,” JW said. “Just show me what to do.”

  JW placed the black powder in the hole Mickey had drilled and set the fuse exactly as Anderson had shown him. He scurried up the tunnel where Mickey and Anderson waited, expecting the blast to go off before he reached them. The seconds turned to a minute. Another minute passed.

  “You’ll have to go check on why it didn’t blow,” Anderson said.

  Mickey started to say something, but JW cut him off.

  “I set it the way you showed me. I’m not going to check it. If there’s something wrong with it, it’s because you showed me wrong.”

  “I’m boss down here, boy!”

  “Then you should go see what’s wrong!” JW said.

  “I’ll go, but you won’t have a job here come morning.”

  JW didn’t respond. He watched Anderson walk to the hole and followed a short distance behind. Anderson pulled at the charge, and JW was knocked off his feet by the force of the blast. Although his ears were ringing, JW heard a howling sound like an animal caught in a trap. JW saw Anderson trying to crawl toward him, then noticed his mangled hand. Fingers were missing. Blood flowed profusely. JW quickly pulled his belt from his pants and used it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

  Anderson was in shock and moments later passed out. Mickey hurried to his side, and he and JW decided to carry Anderson back to the cage.

  —

  “Two of his fingers were missing when he arrived at the hospital, and the doctor had to amputate another one three days later,” Beth said. “He’s been there ten days, and it seems like he’ll be there a while longer. He wasn’t too pleased to be in hospital over Christmas, but the doctor said it will be a slow recovery, and he’s worried about possible infection. I’m not to speak about patients outside the hospital, but I know you and Mickey were the ones that got him to the cage.”

  “Yeah, we were,” JW said.

  “The doctor said the tourniquet probably saved Mr. Anderson’s life. That he might have bled to death. Where’d you learn that, JW?”

  “I must’ve read it somewhere.” Then he remembered his father had told him how he’d used it on the battlefields during the Great War. Andrew had joined the Cape Breton Highlanders in 1916 and gone overseas until the war was over two years later.

  “Well it’s a good thing you did.”

  “I’m glad the doctor was able to patch him up. Anderson wanted me to check on the charge, and I wouldn’t. If I had, it could be me in the hospital bed. Cave-ins and explosions and runaway trips and broken cables on cages, not to mention back-breaking work on a good day. A miner doesn’t have much to look forward to. To top it all off, a boss that doesn’t want to pay him decent wages for his hard work. The majority of the miners share a bond, a camaraderie, but there are some like Anderson and Shawn McGuire that can make the days and nights seem excessively long, especially for the boys. Sorry. I get worked up, thinking about it.”

  Beth had come to JW’s to see the progress on the boat. The two of them were huddled together in the barn. The January weather had turned colder, the temperature well below freezing.

  “It looks ready to sail, JW. Is it finished?” Beth wanted to give JW something more pleasant to talk about.

  “Not quite, but really close. It’ll be ready by the time the ice is out of the harbour.”

  “You must be excited,” Beth said.

  JW noticed that Beth hadn’t responded when he’d said it could have been him in the hospital instead of Anderson. He knew she wanted him out of the pit.

  “Yes, I’m pretty excited. Like I mentioned before, I was thinking that I could use it to fish or carry goods, maybe both. And ever since Mrs. Johnson said I have enough education to go to Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking about that a lot. In a year I’d be a teacher. Can you imagine, Beth, being able to teach young people the importance of education? Mrs. Johnson pointed out that my friends listen to me. She said that I could make a difference. Change the world, at least for some of the boys around here.”

  Beth smiled as JW talked about possibilities, but she knew that it was difficult to leave an actual job to go after a maybe job. Still, she hoped JW would choose teaching, or at least using his boat. In her short time at the hospital, she’d already seen miners who’d been killed, others who had been maimed and ones
with lasting lung issues that stole their very breath. And the dangers were real for the new miners as well as the experienced ones.

  “Sounds like you’ve got some choices to make, JW.”

  “Yeah, I guess, but that’s a few months away, and I gotta work nights next week. Might get a few hours to spend with Alfred working on the boat. Can’t you just picture it, riding the waves with the wind blowing in our faces?”

  “Sounds wonderful. Just hope it’s warmer than it is right now,” Beth said, and snuggled closer to JW. He put his arm around her and drew her nearer. He could feel her shivering from the cold.

  JW put his coat around Beth’s shoulders then quickly cleaned the stalls and threw some fresh hay in for Lightning and the cow. Meanwhile, Beth petted Beauty. Although she was a barn cat, she acted more like a house pet, spending her nights in the shed, sleeping on the cot, perhaps missing Alfred now that he slept in the house. JW had seen her chase mice, but she seemed to leave the rats alone, perhaps in deference to Tennyson. Alfred fed her cooked rabbit and scraps from his meals. She hadn’t yet gotten the taste for the mice and squirrels that also called the barn home.

  JW pulled the barn door tightly behind them as he and Beth left, to keep the wind and drafts out. They waved to JW’s mother, silhouetted in the kitchen window, busy with the supper preparations. Alfred and Andrew stood by the chicken coop, each with several eggs in their hands.

  “Tell Ma I’ll be back for supper, Da,” JW said. “I’m just going to walk Beth home.”

  “Oh, I don’t think she’d be too worried that you’d miss supper.”

  Beth laughed. “Not likely. I think he carries a snack in his pockets. Bye, Mr. Donaldson. Bye, Alfred.”

  “I am a growing boy, after all,” JW said. Gulliver caught up to them and tapped his nose against Beth’s hand.

  “Hello, Gullie the Hero,” JW said. He had been very impressed when Alfred told him how Gullie had protected him in the woods last month.

  Gulliver did his usual full-body shuffle, enjoying the extra attention of late. After getting petted by both Beth and JW, he trotted alongside, keeping an eye out for any wildlife, especially a lynx.

  Chapter 37

  JW’s headlamp illuminated the floor in front of him as he scanned the coal that had fallen from the last blast. “Look, Mick!” Large sections of the coal displayed ferns and other plant life.

  “Been a while since we looked for fossils, JW,” Mickey said.

  The experience of the cave-in three years earlier – Mickey being trapped and JW helping to dig him and the others out – had made the boys put aside their youthful desire to search for fossils.

  “Yeah, but look at how many there are, Mickey. I wonder if there are any with animals in them.” For a moment, JW was transported to a time when all the world held wonder for him and Mickey.

  The scraping of Mickey’s shovel brought him back to the present. “Guess they’re just rocks for the boys at the breakers to pick out,” JW said, and joined Mickey to load the trams. The tunnel was low, and after a few hours of shovelling, JW was glad it was time to break for lunch. His back was sore from being bent over, and he supposed Mickey’s was too.

  He watched Mickey quickly devour two sandwiches and a cookie or two.

  “I’ve seen seagulls eat slower than you,” JW said. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t gonna ask you for any.”

  Mickey laughed. “Yeah, almost as fast as you. I learned to eat like that these past months working with you.”

  “I might have to give you a new nickname. Seagull.”

  “No thanks. Mick suits me just fine. Besides, I can think of a couple new ones for you. Hollow Leg, or, I know, Lumpy, for all the times you bumped your head on the beams.”

  “Deal,” JW said. “No new nicknames.” They shook hands.

  “That’s all we’d need,” Mickey said. “Here comes Lumpy and Seagull.”

  JW and Mickey laughed, and their laughter echoed along the tunnels. Despite the hard work, JW had become aware of the camaraderie that most miners felt toward each other. Oh, there were a few hard cases, but he imagined that was the same as with most jobs. Smitty and Patty and Donnie were all good fellas, and the men he met a short time ago, Butts and Dawe, were two of the nicest men he’d ever known. They were the ones who had blasted the coal seam for him and Mickey tonight so they’d have coal to shovel.

  “You know, Mick, ever since Anderson’s accident I’ve been nervous about having to set another charge. I did everything he told me to do.”

  “That black powder seems to have a mind of its own. I’ve only used it a few times, and I’ve been lucky so far, but there’s been more than Anderson that’s been hurt, some a lot worse than him. Maybe it was wet, or maybe he didn’t show you right.”

  “I’m not in a hurry to try again,” JW said.

  “Most times they get someone smaller to set the charge, ’cause they can get into smaller spots.”

  “Good to know,” JW said. “I’ll be sure to eat extra to keep growing.”

  “Don’t think you hafta grow much more. If you do, you won’t fit in any of the tunnels.”

  “Be nice if we worked on the surface, and I don’t mean at the breakers or anywhere connected to coal.” JW didn’t want to sound like he was complaining and changed the subject. “How’s Sally getting along in nursing?”

  “Pretty good. It seems she and Beth will be all done their training come summer. I’m glad Sally decided to go back after what happened. Bad enough to see her first dead person as part of her job, but for it to be her Uncle Artie was a real shocker.”

  “Yeah, it must have been especially tough for her. It was scary enough for us seeing them like that. I still think about Artie and Gerry every time I step in the cage. Bad enough we have to drop like a rock off a cliff for almost a thousand feet, but we have to worry that the cable’s gonna break too.”

  “If the cage hadn’t gotten wedged against the shaft, we’d all be angels.”

  JW and Mickey looked at each other and took a deep breath. The pause was interrupted by a familiar noise. Several rats had smelled the food and gathered nearby for any crumbs. The boys threw the crusts up the tunnel and listened to the squealing sounds as the rats raced toward their feast.

  —

  JW and Beth sat in the town library. Several books lay on the table in front of them.

  JW whispered, “Mrs. Johnson sent a letter of reference with my application to Teacher’s College.”

  Beth’s eyes glistened. She was happy he’d made up his mind to apply. “What did she say?”

  They heard someone clear their throat behind them and turned to see Mrs. Johnson, who was smiling.

  “I wrote that JW had been one of the best students I’d ever had the pleasure to teach, and that if he wanted, he could be a doctor, lawyer or whatever he wished. I then added who better to teach young minds of tomorrow than someone who had excelled in school, someone who could impress upon young minds the importance of education.”

  Mrs. Johnson smiled again then headed back to her desk. She stopped. “Oh, Beth, I would have written the same letter for you, had you decided to become a teacher. But I know you’ll be a wonderful nurse.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Johnson,” Beth and JW said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed.

  “We better get on our way, Beth,” JW said. “I haven’t told Ma and Da about applying. I was going to wait until I heard back from the college, because I might not get in, but I think I should tell them tonight, before someone else does.”

  “Oh, you’ll get in, I’m sure, but it’s best you tell them that you applied,” Beth said.

  Chapter 38

  JW’s mother and father were seated at the dining room table having tea when he arrived home. Since JW’s first time in the pit, three years ago, the dining room had become used more often. It was no longer only fo
r special occasions. JW poured a cup of tea for himself and joined his parents.

  “Just got back from Beth’s. Her Ma said to say hi. Where’s Alfred?”

  “Out checking on the boat. He must circle it fifty times a day looking for flaws,” Andrew said, smiling at his son.

  “It looks beautiful, JW,” his mother said. “You must be so pleased.”

  “I really am, Ma. From a raft with a canvas sail last summer to a real boat this summer. I never thought I’d get to own one, let alone help build it. Couldn’t have done it without all the help, first with Alfred teaching me, and then Da making the tools and showing me how to make them. Smitty and Mickey coming over on their days off. Even Patty and Donnie helped.” JW smiled.

  Andrew and Mary looked at their son and couldn’t help smiling along with him.

  “You know, Beth will be a nurse come summer, and she and I were talking.” JW saw an expectant look on his parents’ faces and realized what they were thinking. “No, we’re not getting married. We are, but not really soon. Still don’t think she can cook like you yet, Ma,” JW said, and they all laughed.

  “What were you talkin’ about?” his father asked.

  “Well, she’s gonna be a nurse by summer,” JW repeated. “And Mrs. Johnson said I have enough education to apply to be a teacher, which I could be by the following summer, so I’m thinking about, come fall, going to Teacher’s College.”

  JW expected a look of relief from his mother but really wasn’t surprised to see one on his father’s face as well. They had narrowly escaped death in the cage. He waited while his parents digested the news. His mother was first to speak.

  “You’ve always made good choices since you were a little boy, and not always the easiest ones. I think you’re making another good one.”

  Before JW could respond, his father added.

  “Your mother’s right, JW. Oh, you could be a fine miner and eke out a living the same way I have and many other miners have, but I like that you’re going to try something else. So what happens in the fall? I mean ... what’s it gonna cost?”