Chapter 35
thirty-five
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Jim
This past week had been rough to say the least.
Watching Charlie go through the steps of grief and not being able to do anything about it but sit there and watch, like some science experiment in biology class. I was even hesitant to go and check on him, not wanting to set him off.
It was a weird week too. Obviously, the mine is now unworkable.
Tom asked about me coming back but I declined completely, because I didn’t want to leave Charlie alone even though I was letting him be, but also, I just couldn’t bring myself to go down there.
I wasn’t even present, in the mine, when it all happened and I still feel traumatized.
I didn’t know how some of the other men were doing it.
Instead, I was going to take the job at the library. Betty was successful at getting me the position. Come to find out, it shockingly paid more because of a grant that was given to expand and run the library system. To babysit books. Who knew?
They spent the first two days after the explosion in recovery mode. Finding the ten that didn’t make it, in addition to Mike. It was a long week of funerals for the town, but I didn’t go to any of them, again, not wanting to leave Charlie.
Paul was the one that was the most brutal I think, since he was expecting a baby with Linda, and with him being killed before the events even occurred as the outcome of the trap Richard and Dan set for Charlie.
After finding those we lost, they set out to stabilize the site.
It was going to be a long process. They have to scale the entire site first by removing all the loose debris.
Then they would move on to rock reinforcement, installing extra supports with tree trunks or specialized iron beams. Then shooting bolts and wire mesh to bind and strengthen fractured rock walls, before grouting and injecting concrete, to fill gaps and thicken walls.
They decided to seal-off rooms three, four, and five completely after all was said and done for extra precaution, installing iron supports, and pouring a two-foot concrete walls at all the junctions.
But the most dangerous was the Adit.
The Hole.
They had to do all these steps while another crew from the city dealt with the landslide, and all the unstable ground.
It was a tedious job that required a lot of care, or else risk having more of the ground above come down on top of them, including the church, that apparently God was watching out for, as it was barely saved.
They sealed the Adit off with a five-foot-thick section of iron supports and a concrete wall. Once the landslide was completely cleaned up, they would then start the job of reinforcing the outside of the mountain and reconstructing the edge again.
After Charlie finally reappeared, and we got through the funeral service, he made himself busy around the unit, packing.
Since we no longer worked for the Pittsburgh Coal Company, we had to move.
They were giving us time, but I don’t think Charlie wants it.
Not wanting to stay here longer than he had too.
I don’t blame him. Plus, I think it helped going through some of Mike’s things, even though I heard him weeping occasionally.
I gave him the privacy to mourn his father with whatever memories he found.
Since that could only really be done by him, I spent the day after the funeral looking for a place to live that was either close to the North Side where I would be working on Federal Street or in the city where Charlie would be working.
I preferred the city so Charlie wouldn’t have to travel far, so that’s where I started.
Tom let me borrow his car since it would have taken forever with the trolley system partially being shut down and the incline was still closed out of precaution, as well as the Indian Trail Stairs, with part of it having collapsed from the force of the blast. Maybe they will finally take the whole damn thing down for good. Wishful thinking.
I scoured the area, asked around and looked at a couple that were either too small or not good enough. It didn’t help that we had to find a two bedroom out of precaution, so it didn’t seem like two men were living together illegally. We needed to pass as roommates.
Before heading to the North Side, I stopped to visit Stewie.
Another man was at the desk, so I asked if Stewie was in, pointing toward his apartment door.
When he nodded, I went and knocked. He answered with, “Robert, I fully trained you. There is no reason–” before he faded off at the sight of me, his tune completely changing to his high-pitched excitement.
“Baby! Wait, why are you here? What’s wrong? ” His face morphed into worry.
“Nothing. Everything is fine. I was just in the area so I decided to stop by to say hello,” patting him on the shoulder.
He smiled and stepped aside for me to enter.
His apartment was a little odd. The bathroom was to my right, closest to the front desk area, with a small kitchen that shared the wall, while the living space was to my left.
A constructed closed off bedroom in the back right with its door closed, and a small walkway to the left of it led to the back door and alleyway.
“How’s Charlie holding up? How are you doing, holding up Charlie?” His voice was sincere, and the second part of that question caught me off guard.
Out of all of this, not one person had asked me how I was doing.
The focus had been on Charlie and rightly so.
I narrowed my eyes, my brows dropping in answer, so he continued, “Your wellbeing is just as important as Charlie’s, Jim. If not more. You can’t support the grieving if you aren’t stable yourself.”
Wow.
I stood there, tears welling up.
I didn’t even know why.
Stewie came to me and held me while I cried. It was the first time I had. After a beat, I pulled myself together enough to speak, “God, sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
After guiding me to the couch, he walked to the kitchen and started to pour water for us.
“Baby, you went through something too. You almost lost the man you love. Your heart. And you are watching him go through something that is horrible. He lost the only blood family he had left. You also lost people. You are grieving too.”
“But I barely knew Mike, or the other men in the mine,” I replied in confusion. Why would my emotions be so heightened for people I wasn’t close with?
“That doesn’t matter. Love and care are invisible and mystical powers.
It’s not felt all the time in the way you would normally think, not like the way you love and care for Charlie,” he paused to take a drink of water before continuing.
“Didn’t Mike approve of you and Charlie?
I know he was supportive of who Charlie is, which is already a powerful level of love. ”
“He did. It took him a moment,” giving a wet chuckle, shaking my head. Then, I teared up again. “He was one of those that could talk without speaking. It was actually a little scary to tell you the truth. But, yes, I think he approved wholeheartedly, even if he seemed a little sad about it too.”
“Well, I would expect him to be. His only son was up and leaving him for another man,” Stewie laughed out.
After he calmed, he added in his thick southern accent, “Look. You lost Mike just as much as Charlie did, Baby. You may not have known him for long and your connection may not have been as strong, but you still lost him. You are allowed to mourn him.”
I wiped my eyes, thinking back at all the moments I had with the man, starting with day one. Him making me promise to protect Charlie, not knowing that it was going to be a lifelong promise at the time. I took a swallow of water, feeling dehydrated now.
“What you and Charlie had with Mike was magical, Jim,” reaching and placing his hand on my shoulder, giving me a connection to a living thing.
“I should know. He supported a homophile son and him being in a relationship with another man. We know it’s rare in society for support of any kind, but the support of a widowed single father…
That’s like gambling in Las Vegas and winning a record jackpot.
I know my dad loves me but without my mother, I don’t know if I’d be as lucky as Charlie was. ”
I swallowed, and blinked my eyelids into the air, hoping to control my moisture that was still collecting, sniffling.
“So,” Stewie said, clearly changing the topic away from sadness. “Why were you in my area of town?” He popped a brow, tilted his head and puckered his lips to the side. The man can be either one-hundred percent serious and full of southern wisdom, or one-hundred percent southern sass.
He had no in-between.
“Looking for a place to live,” I exhaled and shook my head. “Even if we weren’t given time to vacate, I don’t want to be up there any longer than we have to be, for both our sakes.”
“By the look on your face when you got here and now, I’m assuming you aren’t having any luck,” his tone held confidence without sympathy, which seemed more bitchy than normal for him.
“None,” rearing back from his reply. “I was heading to the North Side next since that’s where I will be working.”
“You don’t need to,” was his only reply before getting on his feet, walking toward the back door.
I followed him out of curiosity. He unlocked and stepped out into the back alleyway, where there was a set of black steel stairs attached to the outer wall to the right of his door that went up to a second-floor grate landing that stretched the building’s width, with two windows and a black door.
I trailed after him up the stairs and along the catwalk where he produced a key ring, letting us in.