CHAPTER 13 HOT TIME NOW!
The months passed and we came through our first winter. It was hard. The springtime made up for it all with the beauty of the woods. Birds were everywhere and Dad was delighted. However, in late May we were trying to do our regular chores but could hardly breathe. Were all the woods on fire?
In the old days our needy neighbors used to set fires so that they could get paid to put them out. Was that the problem now, or was it caused by a cigarette spark from a strip mine?
"Let's evacuate, team." called Dad. "JG, you hold onto Mom, and make it your business to get her safely to the mine. JohnB, take all the bedding you can carry. Sol, you help me with the kitchen stuff. Scopi, let the goats loose and get some water. I guess Caspian will follow us. Rooster, bring some of our schoolbooks and the flashlight. Tonight we‘ll be able to see the fringe of the flame and to find out which way it‘s traveling. Right now, we’d better scram."
The smoke smelled funny, like tar paper or like smoldering slag from the mines. It was freaky. We didn't see any fires nearby, but what we did see made us tremble. In the distance, it looked as if all of Capitol City was ablaze, just like before. We had heard reports of violence and riots on the radio, but we always thought it would be somewhere else.
Our stockpile of food took up most of the space in the mine, but we had eaten a lot of it, as growing boys will. Mom had been teaching us how to forage wild foods, making our supplies last longer. What would we do if we ran out? Being in the middle of my growing streak, I was hungry all the time.
Dad and Sol had remembered to bring the can opener and some spoons. It was a lot like the explosion except this time we could see our danger -- -- smoke. It was a relief to get back into the coolness of the mine and breathe the damp air.
"Look at the rocks scattered around, Dad. They weren't here when we came down to get food yesterday," said Rooster. "Where did they come from?"
"We might have had an earthquake and didn't feel it," said Dad. "Circle some of the rocks up near the mouth of the mine. We'll be wanting to make a cooking fire, if we can."
"Would an earthquake make smoke?" asked Sol. We all stared at him. Could it?
On the fourth day, we heard rain and everything outside began to sizzle. But then the sun came out, and the sky was bright blue behind the breaks in the haze.
"JohnB, please try to work your way uphill and see if the cabin is standing?" asked Dad. "We need to get back home."
"Boys, why don't you go to the river? It'll be cooler. Aren't your fishing poles there? Keep your ears open and your eyes. Don‘t let anyone see you.
When we came back at dusk, JohnB had returned too. Yes, the cabin was saved, but the outhouse had a new "window." The fire had licked up one side before the rain put it out. The clearing of the trees that we had cut around the cabin to give us some sunlight had made a safety zone for the house. Boy, was I glad. Building a new house is work!
We opened two cans of peaches and gave thanks. None of us wanted to spend our last days in the old mine.
"Dad, Dad," said JohnB quietly as he pointed down the hill. "Look, Dad. I believe it's Paul and somebody else. Come look!"
All of us wanted to see, even Caspian, and sure enough it was Paul, in the same denim jacket as before. Would he report us to the police?
Dad had gotten some water boiling on our little fireplace, so he called out, "Paul, here we are. We are in the mine again. Come on up and have a cup of coffee."
Paul smiled and beckoned to his buddy who followed him across the creek and up the bank. They crouched beside the coffee table we had made and Paul spoke, "It's not safe for us to be here. Well, it's not safe for you, either. I thought I might find you here since there's so much smoke. I wanted you to know what happened to me."
We scooted closer to our guests.
"Alter we had that talk, I thought that it was only right for me to tell my cousin Eric here and the others. I caught one of those wild ponies and rode on the gas well trails up to their house. They believed what you said, and we are all hiding out too. We don‘t know exactly where to find everything in the Bible, but we've found enough to know that you were right."
We gasped in astonishment.
"Paul," Dad said warmly, putting an arm around his shoulder, "you have made our day. We did you wrong to think that you wanted out, but everyone has that choice. It was so good of you to come. Is there anything that we have that you need? Where are you living?"
"We know how to survive," Paul grinned. "We Cherokee always have. We're camping out in the mountain, working on a better cabin for next winter. When we find ginseng, we just set down and chew on it. It tastes pretty good, kind of like chocolate. We used to get three hundred dollars a pound for it, but now we can't even sell the stuff -- without the chip."
"Son, it'll probably be about three years, and the worst is still ahead, but then we'll get the big payday. Please pray for us and we will be praying for you"
We all shook hands. Mom gave them each a big jar of peanut butter, then they were gone.
"Dad, we're fugitives in our own country. How did you know whether they were telling the truth, or if they were spying?" I wanted to know.
Dad replied, "It was the fingernails, JG. They are root-diggers, like us."
When Dad began to read to us out of the Bible that night, he knew exactly where it was told that there will be "blood and fire and vapor of smoke" before the end.
"The end of what, Dad?" Sol wanted to know. I was glad he asked.
"Not the end of the world, like turning out the light, but the end of the way things are and have been," said Dad.
"Well, maybe that time is now," mused JohnB. "I’ve never heard of a time in my history books that's like what's going on these days, have you, Dad?"
"There has always been sin, boys, since Cain killed Abel, but there has been a big turning away from God since those scientists thought up evolution. They said that we were the same as animals, and that's about how we've been acting!"
"But what about us, Daddy? What did we do?" Rooster begged, fidgeting around on his rocky perch.
"Mom and I were about like the others, although we still had the idea that God was real, our relatives laughed at us when we said that God was the Creator. We were old-fashioned even when we weren't very old."
"Dad," said Scopi, "you know that night that we visited those girls? When the Holy Spirit came down on me, I just knew that God was the Creator of the universe, and that no amount of so-called evolution was going to change Him. I’m glad that we got away from my school teachers. I think they were brainwashing me."
"Me too," agreed Sol.
Their words helped me. I had always wanted to believe in God, just as He is in the Bible. Why do people have to make it so complicated?
In the night Mom was very restless. In her awkward shape it must have been more than uncomfortable to sleep on the hard floor.
Oh, come all ye young fellas,
So young and so fine;
Seek not your fortune
In the dark, dreary mine.
It’ll form as a habit,
And seep in your soul;
`Till the stream of your blood
Runs as black as the coal.
Where it’s dark as a dungeon
And damp as the dew;
Danger is doubled --
And the pleasures are few.
Where the rain never falls,
And the sun never shines.
It’s dark as a dungeon,
Way down in the mines.
by Merle Travis