I drove to Prospect with a list that would have looked strange to anyone expecting me to leave the mountain.<\/p>\n
There were no traveling trunks on it.<\/p>\n
No fare for a stagecoach.<\/p>\n
No instructions for selling Jericho.<\/p>\n
I needed tools.<\/p>\n
I needed food.<\/p>\n
And I needed enough materials to close the opening Elias had found beneath the ridge.<\/p>\n
The town was twelve miles downhill.<\/p>\n
The road was rough, but the weather had held long enough for the wagon to pass.<\/p>\n
Jericho pulled steadily.<\/p>\n
I let him choose his footing where the ground became uneven.<\/p>\n
The closer we came to Prospect, the more the air seemed to carry the gray dust of the mine.<\/p>\n
The stamp mill could be heard before I reached the main street.<\/p>\n
Its repeated pounding had become part of life there.<\/p>\n
People depended on that sound for their wages.<\/p>\n
I had once been glad to hear it.<\/p>\n
After Elias died, I could not hear it without thinking about the company that had sent him into the mountains.<\/p>\n
Now the same company wanted our home.<\/p>\n
I passed the office where Finch had told me to collect the fifty dollars.<\/p>\n
I did not stop.<\/p>\n
I knew they would expect me to sign the release.<\/p>\n
I had already decided against it.<\/p>\n
Instead, I drove to Abernathy's general store.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy had known Elias for years.<\/p>\n
He was in his sixties, with a worn face and hands marked by the work of handling tools, sacks, and supplies.<\/p>\n
He was not a man who spoke unnecessarily.<\/p>\n
That suited me.<\/p>\n
He came out from behind the counter when I entered.<\/p>\n
"Mrs. Thorne."<\/p>\n
"Good morning, Mr. Abernathy."<\/p>\n
He looked at me for a moment.<\/p>\n
"I heard someone from Sterling paid you a visit."<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
His expression changed slightly.<\/p>\n
"I'm sorry."<\/p>\n
There was nothing useful I could say to that.<\/p>\n
He had known Elias.<\/p>\n
He had seen how much work we put into our place.<\/p>\n
And he knew what the company was capable of demanding.<\/p>\n
I took my list from my coat.<\/p>\n
"I need some things, if you have them."<\/p>\n
He put on his spectacles.<\/p>\n
Then he began reading.<\/p>\n
The first item was a heavy shovel.<\/p>\n
Not the light one I already owned.<\/p>\n
I needed something that could endure digging through hard earth mixed with stone.<\/p>\n
The price was three dollars and fifty cents.<\/p>\n
Next came a pickaxe with a hickory handle.<\/p>\n
Two dollars and seventy-five cents.<\/p>\n
Then a six-pound sledgehammer.<\/p>\n
Four dollars.<\/p>\n
I had hesitated over that hammer while making the list.<\/p>\n
It was heavy.<\/p>\n
My arms would tire quickly using it.<\/p>\n
But there were jobs in the shelter that nothing smaller would manage.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy continued reading.<\/p>\n
One hundred feet of hemp rope.<\/p>\n
A box of ten-penny nails.<\/p>\n
Two sets of strong iron hinges.<\/p>\n
A square of milled tin, four feet by four feet.<\/p>\n
One large canvas tarp suitable for covering an ore wagon.<\/p>\n
He looked up.<\/p>\n
"Quite a bit of work planned?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
He waited.<\/p>\n
I offered no explanation.<\/p>\n
I did not yet know whether the shelter would work.<\/p>\n
And I did not want word of its location traveling through Prospect before I had secured it.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy returned to the list.<\/p>\n
The remaining items were food.<\/p>\n
One hundred pounds of flour.<\/p>\n
Fifty pounds of beans.<\/p>\n
Twenty pounds of salt pork.<\/p>\n
Ten pounds of lard.<\/p>\n
Salt.<\/p>\n
Coffee.<\/p>\n
Enough staples to give me a chance if the roads closed.<\/p>\n
I knew the quantities looked excessive for a woman who was supposedly preparing to move away.<\/p>\n
But I could not risk being unable to obtain food in January.<\/p>\n
The mountains would not allow another trip simply because my supplies ran low.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy folded the list.<\/p>\n
"I believe I have everything."<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
He did not ask whether I had found a new house.<\/p>\n
He did not ask where I intended to sleep.<\/p>\n
He began gathering supplies.<\/p>\n
While he worked, I examined the shelves.<\/p>\n
I had stood in that store beside Elias many times.<\/p>\n
We had purchased nails for the cabin.<\/p>\n
Flour for winter.<\/p>\n
Lamp oil.<\/p>\n
Coffee.<\/p>\n
Elias often came in with a list of materials for his surveying work.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Mr. Abernathy would ask about the rocks he had been examining.<\/p>\n
The two men could speak for half an hour about something I could barely distinguish from an ordinary hillside.<\/p>\n
I missed those conversations.<\/p>\n
I missed standing beside my husband and knowing we would return home together.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy carried the tools out to the wagon.<\/p>\n
I helped load the sacks.<\/p>\n
The flour alone took effort to lift.<\/p>\n
The beans came next.<\/p>\n
We placed the food where it would stay dry under the canvas.<\/p>\n
He checked the figures in his ledger.<\/p>\n
The total was sixty-seven dollars and forty cents.<\/p>\n
I had entered the store with one hundred and twelve dollars in savings.<\/p>\n
That purchase would leave me with less than forty-five dollars.<\/p>\n
I took the money from my purse.<\/p>\n
I counted it carefully.<\/p>\n
Every coin mattered now.<\/p>\n
When I handed him the amount, he did not look surprised by how long I took.<\/p>\n
He simply counted it and marked the transaction.<\/p>\n
I felt the loss of that money immediately.<\/p>\n
If the shelter failed, I would have very little left.<\/p>\n
I could no longer afford a journey to Denver without selling possessions.<\/p>\n
And I had no reason to believe the company would change its mind.<\/p>\n
But money kept in a box would not protect me from a blizzard.<\/p>\n
Food might.<\/p>\n
A door might.<\/p>\n
A properly enclosed shelter might.<\/p>\n
I helped secure the last sack.<\/p>\n
Then Mr. Abernathy disappeared into the rear of the store.<\/p>\n
I assumed he had gone to put away his ledger.<\/p>\n
Instead, he returned carrying a narrow wooden box and a small keg.<\/p>\n
He set both items in the wagon.<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
"Those aren't mine."<\/p>\n
He rested one hand on the wagon side.<\/p>\n
"Elias still had some credit here."<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
"I don't remember an account."<\/p>\n
"He did business with me for years. There was something left."<\/p>\n
He pushed the box closer.<\/p>\n
Inside were fifty cartridges for Elias's Winchester rifle.<\/p>\n
I had kept the rifle after his death.<\/p>\n
I knew how to use it.<\/p>\n
Elias had insisted that living in such isolated country required that knowledge.<\/p>\n
The ammunition was valuable.<\/p>\n
And in winter, it could mean the difference between obtaining food and going hungry.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at the keg.<\/p>\n
Its markings identified the contents.<\/p>\n
Blasting powder.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five pounds.<\/p>\n
I had seen Elias use such materials in his work.<\/p>\n
He understood the danger and treated them carefully.<\/p>\n
I knew enough to respect the risks.<\/p>\n
I also knew that the mountain shelter had a problem I might not solve with a hammer alone.<\/p>\n
The stove required a chimney.<\/p>\n
And stone stood between the chamber and the open air.<\/p>\n
I looked at Mr. Abernathy.<\/p>\n
"This is too much."<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Your husband paid his way here."<\/p>\n
I wanted to protest.<\/p>\n
But he had already decided what he intended to do.<\/p>\n
He did not offer pity.<\/p>\n
He did not tell me how difficult my situation must be.<\/p>\n
He simply gave me things that might prove useful.<\/p>\n
That was harder to accept than sympathy.<\/p>\n
I had spent six months learning to manage without help.<\/p>\n
Part of me believed that accepting anything would make me dependent.<\/p>\n
Looking back, I can see how foolish that was.<\/p>\n
A person could do the work herself and still accept the kindness of someone who wanted her to survive.<\/p>\n
"Thank you," I said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy nodded.<\/p>\n
"Take care of yourself up there."<\/p>\n
I looked toward the mountains beyond the town.<\/p>\n
"I intend to."<\/p>\n
He gave Jericho a brief pat and stepped away.<\/p>\n
I climbed onto the wagon.<\/p>\n
Then I drove back toward the ridge.<\/p>\n
I did not look toward the company office.<\/p>\n
The money I had refused was still there.<\/p>\n
Fifty dollars in exchange for a signature.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abernathy had given me something better without asking me to sign anything.<\/p>\n
I reached the cabin before dark.<\/p>\n
I unloaded the food first.<\/p>\n
Then I carried the tools inside.<\/p>\n
The keg went into a safe, dry place, away from the stove.<\/p>\n
I laid the cartridges beside Elias's rifle.<\/p>\n
For a while I stood there looking at the supplies.<\/p>\n
They represented almost everything I had.<\/p>\n
My savings had become sacks, iron, rope, and canvas.<\/p>\n
None of them could be returned easily.<\/p>\n
I had made my choice.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I began moving what I could toward the hidden chamber.<\/p>\n
I made the trip with Jericho, carrying the shovel, pickaxe, and smaller supplies.<\/p>\n
I left the heavier things for later.<\/p>\n
The trail was difficult enough without overloading him.<\/p>\n
At the rockfall, I stood in front of the narrow entrance.<\/p>\n
I imagined trying to move a cast-iron stove through it.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at the loose stones blocking the way.<\/p>\n
The first job was obvious.<\/p>\n
I had to make a doorway.<\/p>\n
I began with the shovel.<\/p>\n
When the ground resisted, I used the pickaxe.<\/p>\n
When a stone could not be lifted, I worked it loose from underneath.<\/p>\n
I carried the smaller rocks aside.<\/p>\n
The larger ones remained where I could use them to conceal the entrance from above.<\/p>\n
I worked until my shoulders ached.<\/p>\n
Then I worked longer.<\/p>\n
I stopped only when the light began to fade.<\/p>\n
The following day, I returned.<\/p>\n
And the day after that.<\/p>\n
The opening slowly became wider.<\/p>\n
The space that had forced me to crawl was beginning to allow me to stand.<\/p>\n
It looked less like an animal burrow.<\/p>\n
More like an entrance someone had made deliberately.<\/p>\n
That worried me.<\/p>\n
The entrance needed to be usable.<\/p>\n
But it could not become obvious to anyone passing through the draw.<\/p>\n
So I preserved the larger boulders that screened it.<\/p>\n
I cleared enough for access without stripping away the cover Elias had described.<\/p>\n
On the fourth day of that work, I stood upright in the opening.<\/p>\n
I could carry tools through without crawling.<\/p>\n
It was a small improvement.<\/p>\n
But every part of the work depended on it.<\/p>\n
I walked inside and set down the shovel.<\/p>\n
The chamber was still cold.<\/p>\n
Still empty.<\/p>\n
Still unfinished.<\/p>\n
Yet it had begun to feel less like a place I had discovered and more like a place I was making.<\/p>\n
I returned to the cabin that evening with aching hands.<\/p>\n
I washed them in water warmed on the stove.<\/p>\n
The skin across my palms had opened in several places.<\/p>\n
I wrapped the worst spots with clean cloth.<\/p>\n
Then I sat at our pine table and examined Elias's drawing again.<\/p>\n
I marked the position of the doorway.<\/p>\n
The planned wall.<\/p>\n
The stove.<\/p>\n
The small window.<\/p>\n
I had paid for the materials.<\/p>\n
I had improved the entrance.<\/p>\n
And there was no longer any way to pretend I could simply pack a bag and choose another life.<\/p>\n
I was going to build beneath the mountain.<\/p>\n
Whether I had enough strength remained to be seen.<\/p>\n
I drove to Prospect with a list that would have looked strange to anyone expecting me to leave the mountain. There were no traveling trunks on it. No fare for … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17682,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17662\/revisions\/17682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}