Page 69 of Five Mountain Daddies

I turn and leave the conference room. Ingram is lurking nearby, but I don’t even bother looking over at him. I know he’s a lost cause. If he could have his way, he’d cut all our benefits, give us minimum wage, and let us all die down there in the goddamn darkness of themine.

Amelia might be different, though. I just have to show her the people she supposedly wants to help and the conditions they work in. I want her to see how real all this is. It’s not just numbers on paper, these are living humans with dreams and love andhope.

I’ll open her eyes. And then, if that goes well, I’ll open those pretty legs and get another taste of what I reallywant.

5

Amelia

We ride in this small trolley along old, weather-beaten tracks. It’s just me and Samuel, although Ingram was angry when I told him that I would be going alone. I wanted to get a taste of this mining thing for real, and not have Ingram whispering in my ear the wholetime.

“Wear this,” Samuel says, tossing me a white hardhat as we approach the mine’sentrance.

I put it on my head and connect the chin strap. Samuel nods at me as the trolley slowly moves into the mine, and daylight slowly turns to gloomydark.

I can feel Samuel standing close to me. “What do you think?” he asksme.

I shake my head. “It’s…terrifying.”

He laughs softly, but he doesn’t disagree. The ceiling is about ten feet above our heads, cut smooth and flat. It’s clearly an unnatural tunnel. The walls are even, although they crumble here and there. Piles of tools and old machines line the tracks as we go deeper and deeper. There aren’t a lot of lights on at the entrance to the mine, and I can’t see all that much. It’s almost eerie, how strange it is going deep into this mountain. The floor’s sloping downwards, and I start to get the feeling of weight all aroundme.

“Tunnel widens up here,” he says, “but the ceiling drops. Youready?”

“Ready,” I call back tohim.

We round a bend, and he’s right, the ceiling drops down. In fact, I have to tilt my head to the side to keep it from brushing against the stone. Samuel’s crouched down, grinning at me, and the trolley keeps moving deeper into themountain.

I look away from him. We haven’t come across any other people yet. “Where are the workers?” I call back tohim.

He shakes his head. “I’m not taking you to any activespots.”

“What?” I ask him. “I thought you wanted me to seethem.”

“It’s dangerous,” he says. “I can’t risk you gettinghurt.”

I make a face and he grins at me. I let it go, turning back ahead as we wind around another bend. The ceiling mercifully gets higher again, and Samuel stands backup.

Ahead, there’s a larger chamber, and the trolley slows down. We stop in the middle of it and Samuel hops out. I follow him, climbing over the railing, and we walk toward a bunch of things that looks liketractors.

“These are our tools,” he says. “These big fuckers do most of the actualmining.”

“You’re not down here with a pickaxe?” I askhim.

He grins at me. “Nope, absolutely not,” he says. “That’d take too long. We’re all about efficiency at EvansEnergy.”

I grin and look back at the big machines. I’ve seen pictures of them before, and some videos that Ingram made me watch, but seeing them in person is a whole new experience. The chamber thins out at the edges, and there are shafts cut in the rock that lead outward. The machines look like they’re parked near each shaft, and I think they could just barely fit throughthere.

“This way,” Samuel says, leading me away from the machines. I follow him back across the tracks. He heads over to one of the shafts, grabs a flashlight from a little bench shoved back against the wall that’s covered in equipment and soot, and steps forward. I follow him into thedark.

“We don’t use this shaft much anymore,” he says as we walk. “We used to, back before coal started goingdownhill.”

“What do you mean?” Iask.

“Cuts,” he says simply, and I look away. Evans has laid off a lot of guys in the last ten years, like every other coal company. “Here, look atthis.”

We stop in front of a smooth wall and he runs his hand along it. I watch as he crumbles some of the rock and grins atme.

“Coal,” hesays.

---