A rain of dust settled over the blackened beams that lay in piles on the muddy flooring. When they looked up a feathery rain made them close their eyes and rub their noses. The collapse had deafened them, so they didn’t hear each other—didn’t hear Tyler say, “Houston, we have a problem.” Or Edna’s cry, “Where are you, Tyler?” Or Diana’s scream. They reached out, squeezed an arm, a shoulder, found each other and crept deeper into the mine shaft. Tyler had wet himself and now the damp blue jeans rubbed his legs, so he walked like Festus on Gunsmoke, after he’d been riding all day, helping Matthew bring in some troublemakers. When the rumbling had faded away into the distance, like thunder does after a storm, he heard his mother’s voice, higher than usual, like the whine of trucks when the two of them drove down the other side of Kingdom Come Parkway, into Letcher County. If there was a whine and then no whine it might mean the brakes had failed and you’d better get out of the way.
Once the rumbled had died and she’d pulled him close, she said, “I think we’re okay. I think the collapse was back by the entrance. My daddy’s going to kill me. I can’t believe I brought a stranger here and my own son. I ought to be put in a psychiatric unit.”
Diana with the yellow hair and the orange streak said, “It was my idea. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. It was stupid to leave my camera.”
“Maybe there’ll be some good shots along the way outta here.”
“The danger’s over, don’t you think? Oh, shit. Ouch. Watch it, there’s something sticking up. Can you shine that over here?”
“It’s just a support beam. Look ahead, there’s a bunch of them. Can you see?”
“I see dead people,” Tyler said, watching as Edna played the light over a pile of what looked like bodies. They were stiff from lying there for almost a century, and the miners had ignored them and eventually they got covered with old containers, empty lunch bags, dead batteries.
“Can we get around them?”
“Let’s hold hands. Here, Tyler, you in the middle.”
“You know, they do kind of look like bodies piled up here.” Edna stopped and shone the light over the beams, catching a glint here and there, off a belt buckle and pair of glasses.
~~~~
The wet part was so cold he felt as if someone were rubbing an ice cube up and down his legs, and the jeans made a “thwick thwick” sound that he was surprised no one else could hear. He didn’t have to think about running into something anymore. Edna kept sweeping the beam of the flashlight in front of them. It was all the same. Piles of dead people that were support beams. When they stopped to take a break, Tyler put his tongue against one of the beams—how dirty could it be?—and sucked quietly until his tongue was wet.
“How long do you think it’s been?”
“Since we sat down?”
“No, since the crash.”
“I can’t tell anymore. Feels like six hours.”
“What’s Tyler doing?”
“He’s asleep.”
“I feel awake . . . wide awake. I don't remember ever feelin' this awake.”
Edna nudged Diana with her elbow. “That’s from Thelma and Louise. He says it every night when I’m trying to get him to go to bed.”
“I’ve never known anybody who only talked in movie lines. Tyler, what’s your favorite movie?”
“You’re not going to get an answer to that.”
“Does he have favorite movies? Do you think he cares if I ask?”
“He’s used to people talking about him, right Tyler?”
"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well, who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here.”
“Which one is that?”
“Taxi Driver. With Robert DeNiro. His grandma has a collection. He watches them after school. He’s got this amazing memory where he can repeat anything someone said, even weeks later.”
“I have a memory like a sieve, Tyler, so you’re lucky you can remember things so well. It must make it easy to take tests.”
“Trouble is he doesn’t bother reading, just listens. I can’t get him to read.”
“Wait a sec. Did you hear that? It was sort of a whispering sound, like someone opened a door way down the line and the breeze is just getting to us. Do you think they know we’re here?”
“Mines make strange sounds.”
Diana yelled but her voice just bounced down the long hall behind them and came slithering back, all wet. He wished she’d stop. She whispered, “Something has to make those sounds.”
“True, but it doesn’t need to be human. I wish my cell phone worked down here.”
“Phone home.”
“I guess even if your mom saw we’d left she wouldn’t know where.”
“She’d just roll over and go back to sleep. Figure whatever. I wish we’d thought to bring some water. I ought to have my head examined.”
“I could make love with a Classic Coke.”
“I’m thinking lemonade. On the sour side, but cold. What about you, Tyler?”
“A martini. Shaken, not stirred.”
“You wouldn’t know a martini if it bit you. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t either. I doubt Billy at the Scynus Parrott even knows how to make one. We’d better head on.”
~~~~
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