Rapture's Rendezvous (45 page)

“What did you hear, darling?” he said, glancing an already knowing look toward the men, glowering.

“Not only is there going to be a fence around the coal mine, but machine guns mounted, as well,” she blurted. “And then no one is to be allowed to be on the streets of Hawkinsville after dark. Anyone who disobeys will be killed. And all firearms are to be surrendered to Nathan's representatives.”

Michael's arms went limp. He moved from Maria, running his fingers through the thickness of his hair. “God. It's even worse than I ever imagined,” he grumbled. “Machine guns? He is a madman. What will be next?”

“No one is safe, Michael,” Maria cried, going to cling to him once again.

“Maria, you know you shouldn't have put yourself in any more danger by coming here,” he said, suddenly clutching onto her shoulders, shaking her a bit. “What if Hawkins or his men had seen you coming here?”

“I have a gun … in … my purse.” she stammered, lifting the purse, showing him.

Michael's face paled. “A gun? Where did you get a gun, Maria?”

“Alberto. He gave it to me last night. He said I needed it for protection.”

“But sometimes a gun is more harm. If you should pull it to shoot it and became too afraid to do so, it could be taken from you and used on you,” he stormed. He released Maria and began to pace the floor angrily. “This is becoming way out of hand. I never intended you to get so involved.”

“If Nathan “

“Yes, if Nathan hadn't forced your hand in marriage, you would be free,” Michael further stormed, throwing his hands up into the air in despair. “But he did. You are. Now what?”

“What can I do. Michael?” Maria asked softly, lowering her eyes.

“You must return to Hawkins's house. Stay low. Don't interfere. And above all, don't antagonize him. Lord knows what he might pull with you. Force you to do.”

Maria's face turned crimson. God. If Michael knew what Nathan
had
already done. But she couldn't tell. She could never tell anyone what she had been forced to do. “Then I should return to his house?” she blurted, eyes wavering as she sought out Michael as he continued to pace the room in long, angry strides.

“Yes. I have much to figure out, Maria,” he said. “And if you just keep a low profile, surely Nathan will leave you out of this mess.” He went to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “You must listen to me. You have to go back to him. To stay with me
or
your brother and father is much too dangerous at this point. If Nathan wants a war, he will have a war.”

“What … do you mean . . . Michael?”

“Like I said, I have that to figure out. But he's gone a bit too far this time. Machine guns? Ha. They won't even keep me from my duties.”

Maria's gaze went to Ruby. Maria paled, now remembering Nathan's threats against Ruby. “Ruby, there is something you need to know,” she whispered. “Nathan has made threats against you. He has told his men to make sure you close this house down until this all is over, or he … he .. . will see to it . . . that you . . . are injured in a terrible . . . way. . . .”

Ruby's hands went to her hips. “Just let him try to force me into anything,” she shouted. “My Clarence was outdone by Hawkins and his men once. They even tried a second time. But by God, no more. Clarence is bitter enough to shoot all the damn bastards who try to step on our property. And I have enough guns to pass around to my girls to complete the job. Just let him try.”

Maria smiled awkwardly. “I just felt … I should warn you. . . .” she murmured.

“And now that you have, darling,” Michael said thickly, “please go back to Hawkins's house. If you need to, just stay in your room.-Feign illness. That way he won't even touch you.”

Maria's eyes lowered. “Okay, Michael. Whatever you say,” she whispered. Then her eyes shot quickly upward. “But how will I know what's happening? I don't think Nathan would even approve of my returning to see my Papa.”

“I will get word to you. One way or the other,” Michael said, guiding her to the door. He pulled her into his arms and gave her a long, lingering kiss, then
opened the door and said, “Now. Go on. Everything will be all right. You'll see. Good will prevail. It always does.”

“I truly hope so, Michael,” Maria said, then moved on down the steps, and through the tall Indian grasses, feeling a heaviness of her heart that she felt might never lift. .. .

For one week now a giant searchlight and its unearthly beam had scanned the wooded area sur-rounding Nathan Hawkins's coal mine, turning night and day. Maria stood at her bedroom window, glad that daybreak had finally come, wondering when the strained silence between Michael and Nathan and his union men would be broken.

Maria hadn't seen Michael nor her Papa and Alberto for these many nights and days, since Nathan had ordered the electric light wires be strung to his coal mine. He had decided to go all out where the protection of his mine was concerned, having then placed the searchlight halfway up the mine's tipple.

The beams from the searchlight hadn't only penetrated the tall Indian grasses in the distance, but also the hearts of all the coal miners, having planted the seed of fear too deeply for the words-of Alberto or Michael to permeate. The beams had shown the true force with which Nathan had chosen to act.

Everyone now knew that Nathan Hawkins meant business, that in no way would he permit the United Mine Workers of America to have any say in the operation of the mine that he had opened with his own hard-earned money those many years ago. The mine
was Nathan Hawkins's. The workers .. . were .. . also his. They had been bought and paid for. None had a choice to leave or stay. No one even spoke of such things anymore.

Sighing resolutely, Maria went to her bed and threw herself atop it. She had done as Michael had suggested. She had feigned illness. Even Mama Pearl had believed her. Maria's stomach seemed to splash continuously with chicken soup and beef broth. She burrowed her head into a pillow, wondering just how much longer she could stand it. There seemed to be so many ways of being a prisoner in America, and she had found .. . them … all.. ..

Even Ruby's words had been in vain. Even she had bowed down to Nathan's representatives, having no choice but to do so when they had surrounded her house with guns shining threateningly from the holsters hanging from around their hips.

Who could fight the machine guns at die coal mines and the hordes of gun-slinging men hired by Nathan Hawkins? It seemed that all was lost. Michael? Maria worried about Michael all hours of the day and night.

The sound of a loud explosion erupting from somewhere in the distance rocked the bed beneath Maria, making her jump with a start. She rose from the bed and rushed to her window, seeing a darkness rising into the sky. Her heartbeat faltered. What had that noise been? Why was the sky… darkening… ? Then she gasped, putting her hands to her throat. The coal mine,” she mumbled. “Oh, no. It can't be….”

She turned when Mama Pearl rushed into the room, gasping for breath. “Come quick, Maria,” she said. “It seems something terrible has happened at the coal
mine. I'm sure there … has .. . been an explosion.”

Maria's insides became a mass of trembles. She rushed to her closet and chose a black serge skirt and white shirtwaist, slipped into her shoes and then rushed down the staircase, not stopping to wait for Mama Pearl. All Maria could think about was the welfare of Alberto and her Papa.
Oh God,
she prayed silently,
Please don't let anything have happened to them.

Moving on outside, she peered into the distance and felt a bitterness rising into her throat. She could see the rolling clouds of black billowing upward from the area of the mine. She covered her ears when the mine's whistle began to blow in sharp, short whistles. “It
was
the mine,” she screamed, moving down the front steps, running down the road, then on through the Indian grass. “Michael warned that there would be an explosion. God, he was right,” she murmured, breathing hard.

Fearing the worst, Maria ran until her legs ached and her head throbbed. And when she got to the fence that surrounded the mine, she stopped and clung to it, chewing nervously her lower lip. All the area around the entrance to the mine was a mass of confusion. The mine continued to belch black smoke, and bodies were being carried from the dark pit of the earth.

Maria continued to look anxiously around her, trying to see the familiar faces of Alberto and Papa. Then when the crowd of women and children from Hawkinsville arrived to stand beside her at the locked fence, loud waitings and cries from the women tore at Maria's heart. She went to the main gate and joined the others in tugging and pulling at the chain that looped
through and around the holes of the fence, where a lock secured its ends together.

“It's no use,” Maria cried. “Our men are locked in as we arc locked out.” Then her cries became muffled.by her hand covering her mouth as she watched Alberto move from the crowd of men who had been busying themselves with carrying the wounded and dead from the mine. He was a mass of black. She could hardly even see his eyes through the black of his face. But the closer he came to her the more clearly she could see the streaks of wetness on his face where his tears were making a path through the black on his cheeks. When he caught sight of Maria, his shoulders sagged heavily and he began to shake his head slowly back and forth.

Maria thrust a doubled fist between her teeth and clamped down. She knew what Alberto was saying without words. “Oh, no,” she moaned, looking on past him at the bodies, wondering. . . which . .. one was that… of her . . . Papa.

When Alberto reached the fence, he reached his fingers through it, covering Maria's. He squeezed and fell into heavy sobs along with her.

“Tell me it isn't so,” Maria whimpered, feeling an emptiness at the pit of her stomach, feeling such a loss without having even seen her Papa yet. She knew that he was gone. She knew that this coal mine had snuffed the breath from his lungs. She knew that she would never be able to hug him to her again.

“Papa … is one … of the fifty. . . .” Alberto said, hanging his head, sobbing still.

“Fifty . .'?” Maria gasped

“After the explosion and after the dust cleared a bit.
there seemed to be bodies all around me,” Alberto said, almost choking on his words. “Papa … ?”

“He was right beside me, Maria,” Alberto said, crying loudly, his body wracked with grief. “Why couldn't it have been me? Why did that earthen wall have to take our Papa from us?”

“An earthen .. . wall. . . ?”

“It fell right on top of him.. . .” Alberto groaned. “When I scraped it free from him, he . . . was … no longer . . . breathing. . . .”

Maria turned her head away and closed her eyes. Her hate for Nathan Hawkins was so great, she knew that she could take her gun and shoot him now. He had just the same as killed her Papa. He had been warned about the mine's being unsafe for workers to be lowered into it. But he hadn't listened. Instead, he had taken the money which could have been used to meet the safety standards and erected a fence … an ungodly searchlight that had frightened the Italian people into utter silence . . . and then machine guns, which were the final threat. She would never forgive him. Never.

Loud shouts brought Maria's head around. She saw the surviving coal miners moving toward the fence with shovels in their hands and hate in their eyes. When Alberto pulled free from Maria and began to move toward the men with cleanched fists, Maria yelled after him. “Alberto. No,” she screamed. “Please. No violence now. Remember poor Papa. .. .”

But it was of no use. Alberto picked up a pickaxe and joined the men at bashing in the fence until it was lying in a mangled heap at everyone's feet. “We should've
done that long ago,” Alberto shouted, raising a doubled fist into the air. “Death to the prisoner ways of life. Birth to the United Mine Workers of America. If we had joined earlier, none of this would have happened. . ..”

The loud rat-a-lat of the machine guns filled the air. causing everyone to run in panic.

“Alberto,” Maria screamed, covering her mouth with her hands. She began to run toward the crowd, seeing Alberto falling to the ground. When she reached him, she found him breathing anxiously with his arms covering his face.

“Are you all right?” she shouted, looking frantically around her, seeing that the crowd had quickly dispersed and had disappeared from sight except for the women and children who had moved to sit beside the dead and mourn for their loved ones.

‘Yes, I'm all right,” Alberto grumbled. ‘The bastards weren't aiming at us. They were aiming in the other direction. But they accomplished what they set out to do. They scared the hell out of us all.”

“Maybe next time they
will
mean business, Alberto,” Maria said, reaching for him, urging him upward. “Please don't be so foolish. Please. Right now we must think of Papa. We must think of his . .. burial.. ..”

“I know,” Alberto grumbled, rising, brushing at his clothes. His eyes grew heavy as he looked toward the stretched-out bodies. “Come on, Maria. I'll take you to Papa….”

The fifty pine caskets were lined up in a row at a clearing that was shadowed by the huge image of the
coal mine's tipple. The wind whipped Maria's black skirt around her, and her black veil that hung in gathers across her face wasn't enough to hide her deep mourning for her Papa who was one among the fifty who were being buried this day.

Sniffing into a white, lacy handkerchief, she looked around her, hoping to see Michael standing somewhere away from the crowd. She hadn't seen him since this tragedy. But she knew that Nathan -Hawkins had even succeeded at putting a fear into Michael. Nathan had added more men to his armed menagerie. The streets of Hawkinsville were silent except for the low chatter of the gun-toting men who stood at each street corner, watching for any suspicious moves around them.