Summary: I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my palms as the ground reeled beneath me like the deck of a ship in a summer squall. A trickle of dust and small stones rained down as the walls of the Ophir Mine creaked and groaned like an animal in its death throes. A WHIB for the episode “The Philip Diedesheimer Story”.<\/p>\n
Rating: K+<\/p>\n
Word Count: 755<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my palms as the ground reeled beneath me like the deck of a ship in a summer squall. A trickle of dust and small stones rained down as the walls of the Ophir Mine creaked and groaned like an animal in its death throes. The lantern hanging from a peg near the opening of the lift flickered in a sudden breeze from the quaking stone, threatening to go out. If it did, I would be left in darkness \u2013 terrible, suffocating darkness.<\/p>\n
My breath came in tearing gasps. Sweat dribbled down my brow, stinging my eyes as it made its way down my face to soak into my already wet shirt.<\/p>\n
I needed out.<\/p>\n
I needed air.<\/p>\n
A hand touched my shoulder and I swallowed back a startled yelp as I whirled around. It was only Gil Fenton, and he looked even more weary than I felt. \u201cSorry, I didn\u2019t mean to scare you,\u201d he said, a rueful smile tugging at the corners of his lips. A slightly hysterical laugh burbled out of me, and the smile slipped from his face only to be replaced by lines of worry. \u201cYou all right, Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs fine as a man can be in a death trap like this,\u201d I forced the words through the tightness in my throat, and gestured around me at the cavern that had mercifully stopped shaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh,\u201d Gil rubbed a grimy hand across his forehead, leaving a streak of dirt on his sweat-dampened skin. \u201cYou didn\u2019t have to wait for me, you know,\u201d he said as we made our way over to the lift.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, well, I didn\u2019t want to leave you down here by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaning over, he rang the bell, and the metal cage slowly began its long ascent towards the surface. My anxiety lessened a bit, but I knew that I wouldn\u2019t fully relax until I was back on solid ground once more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you do it, Gil? How do you make yourself come down here day in and day out when you could die at any moment?\u201d I blurted. Instantly, my cheeks reddened as I realized what I had just said.<\/p>\n
He glanced my way, a knowing look in his blue eyes. \u201cYou don\u2019t like small spaces, do you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not so much that, it\u2019s being under ground. I\u2019m ashamed to say it, but I\u2019ve always been somewhat afraid of mines and caves, anyplace where there\u2019s miles of rock between me and the sky. Foolish, isn\u2019t it?\u201d I gave him a half-hearted grin.<\/p>\n
He shook his head. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s foolish; everyone\u2019s afraid of something. But to answer your question: a miner\u2019s life is never easy, and you\u2019re right, you can die down here at any time. I\u2019ve just gotten used to it I guess. Ever since I was a kid, I\u2019ve been digging around in one mine or another, and I don\u2019t give it much thought anymore. As my father used to say, \u201cSon, your time is gonna come just like it does for all men, and there\u2019s no use worrying about it until it does\u2026,\u201d\u201d he trailed off. Despair etched wrinkles into his brow as the day\u2019s events finally began to sink in.<\/p>\n
Hours of searching, hoping, digging \u2013 digging through rock, dirt, and broken timber \u2013 had all been for naught. We\u2019d unearthed the remains of five men trapped in the cave-in. A handful more were still missing; somehow I knew in my heart that they would never be found, not alive at any rate.<\/p>\n
I wanted to comfort him, but there was nothing I could say to ease his sorrow. Gil had known those men and they were more than just workers to him. He had toiled beside them and joked with them. He had rejoiced with them and cried with them. They were his friends, closer than brothers. Nothing would take away the hurt of their loss.<\/p>\n
The rest of the ride up was made in silence.<\/p>\n
With another rumble, the lift vomited us out into the open air and I sucked in a deep breath, my first in longer than I could remember. However, it gave me no relief. As Helene rushed to Gil\u2019s side, I noticed them. Ten women were waiting a few yards away. They were longing for word about their husbands. Ten widows. Ten families broken who would never be the same again and for what? All because of one lousy silver mine. It was a bitter pill to swallow.<\/p>\n
~Finis<\/p>\n
Author Note:<\/p>\n
This scene would take place between the one where Adam and Gil go down into the mine, and when we see them come back up after the first collapse in the Ohpir Mine.<\/p>\n
I wrote this for a writing challenge on Bonanza Boomers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summary: I dug my fingernails into the flesh of my palms as the ground reeled beneath me like the deck of a ship in a summer squall. A trickle of dust and small stones rained down as the walls of the Ophir Mine creaked and groaned like an animal in its death throes. A WHIB for the episode “The Philip Diedesheimer Story”.<\/p>\n
Rating: K+<\/p>\n
Word Count: 755<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":14761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1005,61,8],"tags":[1312],"class_list":["post-60892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adam-cartwright","category-missing-scene","category-short-stories","tag-the-philip-diedesheimer-story","wpcat-1005-id","wpcat-61-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Unbenannt-1.jpg?fit=223%2C298&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}