Magic in the Mountains

Chapter 1

     Time seemed to stand still when Sadie Mae was with her father. It was a magical time. A time where she felt that she was on top of the world. A time where she seemed invincible due to the constant protection he gave her.
     Her father, Randy McDaniel, was always the type of father that understood the mantra "Early bird gets the worm," or "Hard work pays off." Randy was a family man, but he knew what was necessary to keep food on the table for those that he loved.
     Sadie Mae and her father had the relationship that many children her age envied. Growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia, it was typical for many children to not have close relationships with their fathers due to the fact that they were always working grueling hours in the coal mines. These back-breaking jobs were dangerous, and many children Sadie's age had grown up in single parent households because of the dangers of mining coal.
     Mine collapses, Black Lung, and numerous other risks were always evident with this job, but Sadie viewed her father as a super hero. A man that was large in stature and the strongest person she had ever met. He would throw her over his shoulder as she would scream with excitement and yell, "Gotta sack of taters here! Anyone want any taters? Come get 'em!"
     Randy knew the score. He understood what needed to be done daily so he could return home to Sadie and her mother, Charlene. He understood that he was a microcosm of a bigger corporation that was for two things: coal and money. He understood that he was dispensable, and he saw what this job was doing to his health and his time with family. He had questioned leaving the small hollers and hills of Coalwood, but it was a way of life.
     For generations, his family was raised in those hollers. Just up the road, his mother, Eliza Mae, had raised him alongside her husband, Olin, who had passed away from complications of cancer from the exact coal mine Randy was employed. Sadie and her grandmother, Eliza had a bond just as strong, if not stronger, than her and her father's. It was important to Randy to see to it that Sadie be raised, just as he was, in the same woods swimming in the same creeks, picking blueberries from the same patches, hunting mushrooms with the same old skill sets that were passed down through generations while learning it all through her granny.
     "Delivery for Ms. Sadie Mae!" Randy stuck his head through the passenger's side window and handed her a cold Yoo-hoo and a Little Debbie Cake. It was an old pastime for the two of them. Anytime they went on their Sunday evening drive, they ended it with a sweet, savory treat.
     That old farm truck had seen a lot throughout the years. Every dent and scratch had its own story to tell whether it be where her father had hit a deer on his drive home from the mine or when Sadie Mae decided to get behind the wheel on her daddy's lap and accidentally pushed the gas instead of the brake and hit a tree. If only that truck could talk. It had truly seen it all. It was the same truck Sadie was brought home in from the hospital. The same truck her grandfather and her father would take hunting. There was one thing for certain, the priceless memories made in that truck would last a lifetime.

     "Daddy, do you have to go to work tomorrow?" This was a question that was asked every Sunday evening just as they rounded the bend toward the house.

     "Honey, you know what the answer is to that question. You know daddy has to work tomorrow."

     "Can't you take a day off? You haven't had a day off since you smashed your hand in the machinery at the mine."

     "Baby, listen, Daddy will be home before you know it as soon as that last whistle sounds. It'll be just like any other day. I'll come through that screen door, and you'll be my sack of taters before ya know it."

     They sat in the driveway for a moment. Randy looked over at his daughter with chocolate icing on her face. There were tears welling up in her eyes.

     "I hate your job. I hate when you aren't home. Momma don't like it neither. I hate eatin' dinner without you. I hate going to sleep without you givin' me a kiss goodnight. I just wish, for one day, we could spend a day together doin' fun stuff like skipping rocks in the creek, takin' Tucker on walks and playin' fetch with him in the meadow, or even just sittin' on the front porch swing listening to our favorite songs on the radio."

     Sadie Mae always made this argument until her face turned blue, and every Sunday, Randy's heart was broken with these words.

     "I'm sorry, Sadie." It was all he could say. It was all he had said for years since Sadie was old enough to understand that he wasn't home much. Randy was truly conflicted with this. It was heartbreaking to see her so upset, but he knew that there was only one way to get food on the table.

     Charlene stood in the doorway looking at the two of them in the front seat of Randy's old beat up Chevy. The porch light was on, and the sky along the hills was kissed with a bright pink hue. "Pink sky at night, sailor's delight," Randy said, as he kissed Sadie on the head and they headed in for dinner.