Christmas Stories by Richard Barre

Author:Richard Barre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

***

I have no recollection how long I was out, but the world in which I awoke, stuffed in behind a smashed and overturned coal car, was far from the one I’d left. This one was pitch black, fire hot, smothering. I lay gasping against a track in rushing effluent—the big pipe suctioning out groundwater had burst. I could tell from the smell of sulfur filling the haulway that somewhere the seam still burned.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph…

No sound but the water, my own groan as I tried moving my shoulder. And whether I could smell it or not, I knew what followed mine explosions and fires: gas—blackdamp that killed within seconds. I fumbled for my cap and lamp, felt nothing but water and debris. A wave of dizziness sucker-punched me. I felt warmth running on my face, touched it, tasted blood. I lost my lunch, my shoulder screaming with the retching.

I was finished.

I give you my heart and my soul.

And then I saw it.

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