The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

Author:Kim Michele Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

I climbed atop the mule and rode into a busy town square, grieving with a burning hunger to reach my folk.

Men and women called out their hidey-dos as they went about their Saturday business and morning shopping. I nudged Junia over to the post office where I tied her to a hitching post, deciding to buy stamps to write letters to my folk.

Postmaster Bill waited patiently while I tried to decide which stamps to buy. In the end, I purchased a sheet of the deep-blue, three-cent Women in Our Armed Services stamps, admiring the four brave women who fought in the four branches of the military. I stared at their cheerful faces, surprised they were blue. I puzzled over whether their color was a trick of the artist or whether they were really blue, and I wondered why war would make them so happy—doubting that their four-star generals did anything better than the women here in Troublesome, the miner woman, the frontier nurse, and the lookout. A man in line behind me inched closer, stepping an impatient reminder onto my heel with his shoe. I scooted forward, paid for the stamps and envelopes, and slipped outside.

Inside the library, I lingered over the latest book arrivals before leaving.

When I was through, I stepped outside and watched miners come out of the Company store next door on their afternoon dinner break. Some chatted while others piled into the back of pickup trucks to head back over to the mines. I searched for Bonnie but couldn’t find her.

In a minute, Perry Gillis stepped out with another miner, and Bonnie followed seconds later. She had a Coca-Cola in her hand and moved over to the other side, away from the men, sipping her cool drink. She still wore her blackened bib overalls, hadn’t followed the boss man’s orders yet.

Francis opened the Company’s door, peeked outside. When he saw his cousin, he went up to her. I could see that Francis was upset about something because Bonnie kept shaking her head. Then she ripped off her miner’s helmet and threw it on the ground, the coal-stained hat bouncing out into the street, her boy’s cut poking out like a spent scarecrow at the end of its season.

Her cousin stepped back as if he’d been hit, pointed at her hair. “Who did it? Tell me!” His shouts carried high above the town and into pine-treed hills, his face mottling with anger.

The small group of huddled miners peered over their shoulders. Francis stormed over to them, yelling, “Which one of you filthy dirt-diggers touched my cousin? You best tell me now, or you’ll all be getting a piece of me.” He raised both fists.

“Francis, stop,” Bonnie said, grabbing his arm. But he jerked away. “Francis, please—” Her Coca-Cola tumbled to the sidewalk and busted, the jagged neck of the bottle rolling into the streets.

I hurried over to Bonnie’s side. “Francis, stop it,” I yelled. “Please don’t!”

Mr. Gillis shoved the boy away. Francis punched him in his jaw, and then they were tumbling, fighting out in the street.

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