Page 72 of Five Mountain Daddies

I watch him for a second before calling out. “Samuel.”

He turns around. “Yeah?”

“What was that machine called? The diggerthing?”

He grins. “It’s called a ‘continuous miner,’ but I just call it Frank.” He grins and heads offagain.

I sigh to myself, shaking my head, unable to stop smiling. I slowly head back toward the offices, mind buzzing with Samuel, the mine, the darkness, therock.

6

Samuel

Ididn’t expect her to actually come down into the mine, but damn if I don’t respect her forit.

“As far as I know, she’s the first corporate person down there,” I say to the room. The guys look up at me as I stand in front of the tables, shoved together and covered in beer bottles. The miner’s union stares back at me, missing a few guys, but mostlythere.

“So what?” one of the guys calls out, an idiot namedArnold.

“So, that means she might actually give a fuck,” I say tohim.

A few guys chuckle. “Doubtful,” Arnoldgrumbles.

“You know how it is down there, Samuel,” Vance grumbles, a portly guy with dark blue eyes. “Almost had a fucking collapse just a few daysago.”

“He’s right,” Boone says. “Not exactly been safe down there since crazy Tommydied.”

There’s a grumble around the room, and I can’t disagree with them. Ever since Tommy died, our quotas have been doubled, and the safety checks that used to be standard have mysteriously disappeared. Corporate doesn’t send anyone down to oversee what we do, as long as we fill their orders on time, they don’t give a fuck aboutus.

“I don’t know why it’s happening,” I say to them. “But we can all agree that things arechanging.”

“Fuck yeah, they are,” Arnoldgrumbles.

Vernon stands up. “I don’t want to die in that fucking mine,” he says, looking around. “Ain’t no man here that wants it. So what are you gonna do,Samuel?”

I nod at him as he slowly sits down. “I hear your complaints,” I say. “I fucking share them. You all know I’m down there with you, working those fucking shafts. But I don’t have any power right now, not until we start tonegotiate.”

“We can give you power,” Roy says suddenly. I look over at him,surprised.

“What do you mean?” Arnold calls out. There are grumbles all over theroom.

“We can strike,” he sayssimply.

I shake my head quickly. “We don’t strike. If we go that route, they’ll never fucking deal with us, and they’ll replace us all withscabs.”

“We’ll kill the fucking scabs!” someone yells out, and a few guyscheer.

I sigh, shaking my head. This is why nobody wanted this job right now. These guys are all angry and emotional, and I can’t blame them. The mines are getting more and more dangerous every day we’re pushed to dig faster than we should. Some of these guys might die doing this job, and although it doesn’t happen as much as it used to in the old days, collapses do still happen. We all know a guy that’s died down there in the pitch black, choking on coaldust.

“I’ll talk to them,” I call out. “We don’t strike, not yet. Any other fuckingquestions?”

Nobody says anything, and the meeting ends. I turn to Roy and we walk together back over toward the bar. We’re both handed a beer and Roy leans in toward me as the other guys all get their owndrinks.

“You know why this is happening,” Roy says to mesoftly.

“Ingram,” Isay.

He nods. “Damnright.”

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