Red Helmet by Homer Hickam

Author:Homer Hickam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Song stood with the other students on the porch of the Cardinal and watched the trucks and cars containing the miners of the hoot-owl shift passing by, bound for home. Several of the veterans tooted their horns at them and called out rude comments such as “You’ll be sor-r-r-r-y!” and “Don’t get them pretty helmets all dirty now!”

The time had come for Square Block’s students to walk in their new hard-toe boots to the mine. Song had worn them everywhere, but they were still stiff. The other red caps complained theirs were too. Now it didn’t matter. They were going inside the mine, stiff boots or not.

It was still dark, and their breath made little clouds of steam in the cold air. Day-shift miners were driving or walking past in the direction of the mine. Rhonda came out on the porch. “You red caps gonna just stand here all day or are you going to work?”

“We’re trying to get up the nerve,” Justin confessed.

Rhonda crossed her arms and looked up the street to the tipple grounds. “My husband was killed in that hole.”

“Thanks for the encouragement,” Ford said.

Rhonda laughed. “Honey, I’m just reminding you what you’re about to do. You go inside; you hold hands with death all day. That’s just the way of it. But Henry, that would be Old Henry, used to tell me he’d rather mine coal than anything in the world. So you take the bad and you take the good. Some folks believe your days are numbered anyhow, so you might as well do something you love until you step up to heaven.”

Gilberto swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know if I can do this,” he confessed. “Having an entire mountain on top of me. That is muy asustadizo, very scary.” He looked with stricken eyes at his classmates. “I might need some help today.”

“If you get scared, just reach out and hold my hand, Gilberto,” Song said. “And don’t any of you boys say a thing about it!”

“I ain’t sayin’ nothing,” Chevrolet said. “Hell, I might want to hold your hand myself.”

“I wouldn’t mind holding your hand now,” Justin said with a shy smile.

Song smiled encouragingly. “Anytime you need to.”

“Okay, that’s our plan,” Ford said. “We hold Song’s hand if we get scared.”

“Agreed,” Justin said.

“Remember, I’ve only got two hands,” Song reminded them.

Rhonda checked her watch. “Don’t make me get my broom and chase y’all off my porch. Get on with you! Time to go to work!”

GO TO WORK they did, feeling self-conscious as they walked onto the tipple grounds and caught the eye of the day shifters. “Nice clean clothes,” one of the miners said with a knowing grin. “That ain’t gonna last long!”

“Welcome, red caps,” Square said in the classroom. “Take a seat. I’m gonna tell you what we’re gonna do and then we’re gonna go do it.” He quickly reviewed the steps every miner took before descending into the mine.

“Any questions? You boys look a mite trepidacious.”

“I keep thinking about an old well in my village,” Gilberto confessed.

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