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Shock momentarily rendered me mute, the vision of what Kyland would look like with the blackened face of a miner, only his teeth and the whites of his eyes showing blossoming in my mind. No way. She was obviously mistaken. “The mine? Belowground? He can’t.” I recalled Kyland’s fear of small spaces, how he feared the dark…his father… his brother… I shook my head. He’d never work that job. I felt almost sick to my stomach at the very thought of Kyland down there in those dark tunnels, the weight of the earth pressing down… I knew he’d have to work somewhere, but I never for one second imagined he’d work at Tyton Coal. “It’s not possible that he works there,” I insisted.
“Well,” she said gently, “it is, because he does. I know I’m not supposed to talk about him, but I just thought you might want to know.” She watched me with a sensitive expression in her eyes. “In case you were going to go see Jamie at the mine, I wouldn’t want you getting blindsided.”
“Thanks, Mar,” I whispered.
“How is Jamie by the way?” she asked, clearly to move my mind away from Kyland.
“He’s good,” I said, my breath coming easier as I thought of my friend. While I’d been in San Diego, my friendship with Jamie had blossomed. He’d gone to school in California as well, at Harvey Mudd, just a couple hours from me, and when I’d been heavily involved in applying for grants, I’d reached out to him for some information about Tyton Coal that I thought would be applicable to my cause. We’d gotten together several times over lunch that turned into dinner. Over a few too many glasses of wine, I’d told him about Kyland and how he’d broken my heart. Truthfully, it’d been a really healing friendship for me, considering everything. Jamie had also told me he’d come out to his parents right before he left for college and it had not gone well. He wasn’t sure he was going to be welcomed back into his parents’ lives. He already had a job waiting for him back at the mine, though, so he’d have to have at least some interaction with his father. And at least he hadn’t been cut off financially. But he’d stayed away during the summers like me and graduated a little earlier as well. Funny how different our lives were and yet how similar our hearts felt. “You should get to know him, Mar,” I said. “He’s a really nice guy. I know it seems kinda weird with the history between our parents, but he’s never judged me by that, and I don’t judge him by it either. Seriously, he’s had things rough in his own way.”
She gave a non-committal shrug. My eyes shifted away as my mind insisted on returning to the imagined picture of Kyland with coal dust on his face.
When I looked back at Marlo, she was watching me knowingly. My sister had always had me pegged. Some things never changed. “So,” she said brightly, patting me on the knee, “tell me more about this school you’re building.”
I took a deep breath and forced a smile. Marlo and I had talked as often as possible—I’d even shipped her a cell phone that she could load with minutes so I could get ahold of her when I wanted or needed to. Unfortunately, she didn’t always keep it full, and if she was at the trailer, there was no reception anyway. If she was at Al’s, we could only talk for a few minutes before someone, usually Al, was yelling at her to get back to work. So we still had a lot to catch up on.
“It’s going to be right on the edge of town where Zippy’s Ice Cream Parlor used to be before the mine cave-in.”
“Isn’t the library on that lot?”
I nodded, melancholy moving through me. That small building—practically a shed really—had been my sanctuary at one point…and the place where I’d received my very first kiss…the place where—
I cut those thoughts short, focusing back on Marlo. “The building is going to be torn down to make room for the school, but I’ll pack the books up.” I took a deep breath. “Anyway, I’ve already started spending the money from the grants. I have a construction crew lined up. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m excited about it. And it’s going to make such a difference for the kids who live on this mountain and the ones who still live in Dennville.”
“That’s for sure. I can’t even imagine what it would have been like not having to walk six miles to school every morning and then back home again.”
I nodded. I knew a lot of the kids on the mountain didn’t make the effort most of the time—hence the never-ending cycle of illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness. But I was hoping to change some of that. At least for a few—hell, even for one.
