Chapter 32
thirty-two
Now This Is Hell
Charlie
This week had been rough, but last night was the reprieve I needed to help pull me out of it.
Waking up safe in Jimmy’s arms every morning had been amazing.
I’ve never slept so well. But I am missing my dad, the grump.
I should stay at his place tomorrow tonight just to spend some time with him, even though I’d miss Jimmy.
Maybe he could sneak over there for the night instead. Hmmmm.
I’m excited about tonight, though. Seeing Stewie, and maybe some other people I met the last time.
They all made me feel like I belonged and that there was nothing wrong with me.
I still feel indifferent about leaving the mine.
I fought my dad so hard to even work down there.
Now I feel like I’m caving to his requests for me to do something different.
But truthfully I don’t want to be down there.
I know I don’t belong, I wasn’t built for that kind of work.
Not saying someone like me can’t work down there, look at Jimmy. And Will and John.
Wow. Will and John. Shocked myself after they shocked us with that announcement and me figuring it out on a whim. I was so thrilled we had another couple to converse with on a regular basis. It made me feel less alone in the world knowing there were more people out there like me or like us.
Jimmy and me.
We were still the outcasts of society but not the lone sheep in a field anymore, ready to be pounced on by a wolf. Stronger in numbers.
Our morning was as normal as it could be.
I showered again even though I did last night after Jimmy raptured me.
I was floating, as high as cloud nine. It was intoxicating.
My hole still felt open, like I could feel air where I normally don’t from being stretched so wide, the elasticity of my pucker is taking longer to close again.
Jimmy fed me, David came for coffee, my god he really loves the stuff. Then Jimmy kissed me, pulling me harder against him than usual in front of David, with his hand in my hair, probably still full of bliss from last night.
We just happened to walk out when Dad was walking by, so we joined him on our walk to work. He kindly waved to Jimmy, who waved back. A little way down the street, Dad asked while looking at David, “So you’ve been coming to get my son every morning?”
“You could say that. Jim asked, just to make sure he got there without being hassled by the town with everything going on, but I selfishly am doing it so I can drink his coffee every morning. He has the good shit,” David laughed at himself, with me joining him making my dad give a little smile.
“He always comes in and beelines for his cup and chugs it, heat be damned. He’s like a camel in need of water in an oasis,” sassing David and his behavior.
Dad clapped me on the back, his little grin didn’t leave his face the rest of the way to the mine, probably the longest I have ever seen his mouth not clamped in a straight line or frown.
That was until we got to the Dry Room and the office across the way from it.
There was a lot of commotion. Police officers were scattered around, going in and out of both the office and the Dry Room, standing outside the buildings talking to people.
Susan, Will and Tom were all being talked to, their answers being written down by the officer they were with.
“What the fuck is this,” David bluntly stated, not like we all weren’t thinking it.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good. It’s giving me a bad feeling in my gut,” Dad grumbled in return.
At that moment, Will happened to look over at us and excused himself from the officer he was talking with. “Morning everyone,” he greeted when he got close, his mood as grey as the pollution in the sky.
“Clearly not a good one,” David replied instead of the usual response anyone would give.
“No, it isn’t,” Will shook his head, giving a big exhale. “Charlie, I am going to be up here for who knows how long until this is complete. John is already down there at The Hole. Work with him today.”
“Okay, sure,” I nodded. I knew I would be okay with John, especially after last night, but I thought dad’s bad feeling was contagious. “I hope everything goes okay up here. Sorry about whatever happened.”
Will looked up to the sky, eyes closed, like he just needed all the answers to be given to him by the angels watching over us.
“The office was broken into last night. The door was bashed in, the place trashed. We are trying to figure out what all was taken,” then he swept his hand to the bigger building.
“The Dry Room was damaged too. Some of the shower heads were bashed off the walls, the water was turned on, flooding the place, with some of the jumpers lowered to the ground to get soaked. Lockers were opened and items tossed too. It’s bad.
” He sounded exhausted already and the day had barely begun, the sun just making its appearance through some clouds and the smog in the air.
“I guess David and I better go see if our jumpers survived,” Dad rasped out, his grumpiness back in full force, like his little grin never happened.
I waited and they came back quickly, dressed and ready to go, saying that David and Jimmy’s lockers were two of the ones that got tossed, but their jumpers were good.
Down in the mine, it was full mayhem. I had never heard it so loud with human voices before.
Normally the sound of the axe hitting or the mine cars moving drowned out all conversation.
Clearly, what was happening above was going to be the main event today, over getting any work completed.
I parted ways with David and Dad, heading straight for The Hole to join John.
The day started out slow. It took a while for our first round of cars to be delivered for us to dump them. Everyone was distracted.
Right before I was about to break for lunch, Paul showed up empty handed, looking pissed off, the complete opposite of how he had been since the pregnancy announcement. “Paul, is everything okay?” John asked as he was getting the cart we had just tipped out of the way.
“No. My partner is an asshole and disappeared on me half an hour ago, leaving me to work alone, and I have a full car,” his tone was gruff, his eyes hot. “Can one of you come help me get it here?”
“Sure,” I nodded. I looked at John. “I’ll go. I was about to go to meet my dad for lunch anyway.”
“Okay, only if you are sure?” John gave me a hesitant look. I think my dad and Jimmy have everyone looking out for me at this point.
“I’m okay. See you in a moment,” then followed Paul, who had stomped off pretty fast. I caught up to him at the Heart right before he turned down the passage toward rooms four and five, then taking the left fork to room four, where there was a full cart waiting.
As I waited at the front, Paul shimmied to the backside of the car, and said, “I can’t wait to get topside to report Dan for abandoning me on the job, the asshole,” when Paul jumped back startled, “Oh shit!” Then a wooden plank swung out from behind the car and hit Paul over the head, his body dropping like a rock.
“Holy shit! Paul!” I started toward him when Richard stood up, having hid behind the mine car. I stepped back to where I was but bumped into someone. I swung around and looked into Dan’s menacing eyes before everything went black.
I came to in semi-darkness, my helmet with the light was missing from my head making it hard to see.
My wrists were tied together in front of me so tight with rough rope that it was cutting off circulation and hurt.
My head was pounding. My right eye was sore and tight, probably bruised and swollen.
Ten feet away I could make out Richard and Dan, kneeling at the wall, their lights pointing downward at whatever they were dallying with. Dan’s fingers were twisting and twirling what looked like two strands of something together that were coming out from a pile of coal debris.
I looked in the other direction, and I could see Paul’s form lying on his side.
He wasn’t tied up like me, arms flung out laying limp with the side of his head bashed open.
He was clearly dead. The brothers set him up to get to me, then killed him.
Now his unborn child will grow up without a father.
Panic settled in and my breathing became more erratic. I shifted to look back at the brothers, making Richard look in my direction. “Well, Sleeping Beauty woke before we could finish. You must not have hit him hard enough, Dan.”
“At least I didn’t kill him…yet.” It was the first time I have ever heard him speak. His voice drips with pure evil. Instead of his voice coming from his throat and vocal cords, it sounded like it came from the bowels of hell in his gut.
“What are you doing? Let me go!” I yelled. I figured if they were going to kill me, I might as well try to draw attention to us.
“Scream all you want. I’m sure everyone is at lunch, and we are so far back, no one will be able to hear you,” Richard’s permission and confidence to be loud made me uncomfortable, like he knew he was going to get away with everything that they were doing.
I yelled, “HELP! ANYONE! I’M IN HERE! HELP!” in a constant flow, the echoes of the words drowning each other out, and all it did was make the brothers grin, the points of their mouths sharp as the axes we use down here.