Read Online Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman - Free Book Online Page B

mining company?”
    He took a tin of lantern oil from the shelf and headed toward the register. “Miners and their families have to shop here.”
    “Why?”
    “The mining company owns the store.” He grabbed a basket and moved down the center aisle.
    She went with him. “So?”
    He looked at her as if she thought the world was flat. “The miners would be out of a job if they shopped anyplace else.”
    “Why?” she said. Then the answer came to her, and she made a face. “You mean they’re forced to shop here? I’ve never heard of such nonsense!”
    “It’s always been that way.”
    “I only lived here for a few months, remember? And I was ten. I didn’t pay attention to things like that.”
    Percy pulled two bags of dried beans from a shelf. “Then you’ve got a lot to learn about this place,” he said. “And I’m not just talking about this store.”
    “What can you tell me about the breaker boys?” she said. “Aunt Ida won’t tell me who they are.”
    He frowned, took the basket to the front of the store, and set it on the counter. “The breaker boys work in the breaker.”
    “Doing what?” she said. “Some of them can’t be any more than six or seven years old!”
    “Sorting coal.”
    “Every day?”
    “Of course every day,” he said. “Every day except Sunday. That’s the only day the colliery isn’t running.”
    “I heard there was an accident, and a boy was killed. Is their job dangerous?”
    “It can be.”
    “Is it legal?”
    “The Bleak Mountain Mining Company isn’t doing anything different than the rest of the collieries in this state,” he said.
    “What about school?”
    He shot her that look again, as if she’d just fallen off a turnip truck. “There’s no school for miners’ children in Coal River.”
    She gaped at him, trying to recall if she’d seen miners’ children wandering around in the middle of the day the last time she was here. She couldn’t remember. “Why not?” she said. “Aren’t there state laws requiring all children to get an education?”
    He looked troubled. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s been the same around here for as long as I can remember. Half of them barely know English, let alone how to read and write. How would anyone teach them anything?”
    She shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. What kind of people put young boys to work in a coal mine instead of sending them to school? Some way, some how, she had to find a way out of this Godforsaken place. Then she had another thought. Maybe, if I’m able to get out from under Aunt Ida’s thumb for a bit, I can find a way to teach the miners’ children something, even if it’s just how to write their names.
    A little while later, she helped Percy carry Aunt Ida’s purchases out to the horse-drawn wagon. The sun was hanging just above the horizon, casting long shadows across the road. When they had loaded and covered the bags and parcels in the back of the wagon, Emma grabbed the wooden armrest and hoisted herself into the bench seat. On the driver’s side, Aunt Ida rearranged the thick folds of her skirt and picked up the reins.
    Percy squinted up at them. “Go straight home, now,” he said.
    “Yes, sir,” Aunt Ida said, her words tinged with sarcasm.
    “Why didn’t the driver bring you?” Percy said.
    “You know I like driving the wagon,” Aunt Ida said. “Besides, the driver was busy helping Cook make sausage in the summer kitchen.”
    “But everyone knows who you are,” he said. “And with everything that’s going on—”
    “Don’t worry about me.” Aunt Ida patted her skirt. “I can handle myself.”
    Until now, Emma hadn’t noticed the slight bulge beneath one side of her aunt’s dress.
    Percy’s brows shot up. “That better not be what I think it is.”
    Aunt Ida grinned. “Your daddy’s pistol?” she said. “Darn tootin’ it is. And don’t you be telling him I’ve got it either. If something happens, you’ll both be glad