WHERE THE MOUNTAINS PIERCE THE SKY

The winters were cold and dreary, the snow piled up so high the children could not go to school. The wind rolled down the valleys, moaning with sounds like a funeral dirge. Then it would rage and scream, the sounds echoing up and down the valleys.

The passing of winter and the beginning of spring brought torrential rains. When the rains finally ceased, and the floodwaters had receded within the normal riverbanks, peace seemed to fill the valleys once again.

Patches of green began to appear on the hillsides. The women and the children began their annual spring invasion of the mountainside in search of fresh greens, sheep sorrel, poke, and wild mustard. How good they would taste after the winter diet of dried food!

The day came at last when all the mothers agreed that the sun had warmed the earth enough for the children to shed their shoes and stockings! Oh, happy day! The children felt free at last, released from the constricting shoes that had seemed to grow smaller during the winter. The shoes were carefully cleaned and put away for winter. They were never thrown away. They would fit somebody. Some of the children never knew whose shoes they were wearing, they didn’t know and they didn’t care. They had shoes. That was all that mattered.

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Joyful laughter resounding up and down the valley was suddenly silenced by the blowing of the dreaded “whistle.” The shrieking blast coming from the steam house, three sharp blasts, followed by a lengthy whine, then three more blasts, continually, over and over meant only thing. There was trouble at Mine #3. The alarm was loud enough to reach every mine up and down the valley. Work in all the mines ceased immediately, the miners all rushed to the stricken mine.

The miners came with picks and shovels, ready to enter the mine to help rescue their comrades and friends. Word was released that there had been a cave-in deep within the mine, where, no one at this time knew for sure, but there should be some definite word soon.

As Ellie stood on her porch looking toward the mine, she saw a lone woman walking slowly up the road toward the mine entrance. She could not identify the woman, her head was covered with a dark colored shawl. Then there was another, and another. She turned her head down toward town, sucking in her breath in astonishment. Every woman’s head was covered with a dark shawl. The older girls also had a shawl covering their heads. Many women were cradling small children in their arms. Ellie turned and entered her house, going straight to an old wooden trunk in a back room. She opened the trunk and started searching through the contents.

“I know there is one in here somewhere that will do. I know it. I just know it,” she whispered to herself, “somewhere.”

Ah, there it was. “I knew it, I just knew it,” she exalted, as she threw it over her head.

The crowd of grieving wives, mothers, sisters and daughters had grown when she returned to the porch. She called to Pat and instructed him to bring several buckets of water to the kitchen then bring lots of coal while she stirred up the dying embers in the stove.

After struggling with the water buckets and the coal scuttle, Pat asked, “What are we doing, Mommie?”

“We are going to make lots of coffee for the rescue workers. They’ll be needing some soon. Now run and get Mrs. Gosnell to come and help me make it, will you please, son? Hurry!”

“Mrs. Gosnell is not home. I seen her on the hill with some women,” replied Pat softly seeking not to distract his mother.

“You ‘saw’ her, Pat,” Ellie said without thinking, just reverting again to being a teacher.

“Yes ma’am, that’s what I said. Why do they all have black on their heads, Mommie?”

“I don’t know, son. Perhaps a long ago custom that they remember. I’ve never experienced anything like this before, but I’m prepared. See what I found in the old trunk? I’ll put it on when I go out. Now, Pat, will you try to find some help?” Ellie said aloud, but silently she thought, “Pat has been playing with the children living in the #6 Hollow again.”

“All right, Mommie, I’ll hurry. Daddy’s in there somewhere, isn’t he, Mommie?” Pat didn’t wait for an answer, he already knew the answer. He sped away.