An Overprotective Mother

Cling to the Lord

"Cling to the Lord thy God." The preacher stood at the pulpit, his words trailing off as he stared out at the sea of faces. Eight hours had passed and not a single man had made it out of the mine yet.

We were all gathered at the church, waiting for news, cooking, praying, caring for children, anything to keep busy, to keep from screaming.

Last night, 138 men had become trapped down in the mine after an explosion. Ten more had gone down into the pits, hoping to find survivors when a second explosion occurred. We were all but out of hope at that point. Rescue efforts had been called off and now, we could only wait, hoping some of them, any of them, might make it to the surface.

"We can't lose hope, folks. We just can't. The Lord will provide." Tania turned away, for the first time in her life she didn't believe those words. She felt guilty for her lack of faith but her father was trapped down there.

She didn't even know whether he was dead and beyond the nightmare of being trapped underground, free of any pain he might be enduring, or if he was alive, running out of time. Black damp was surely settling in, they all knew that, she'd heard the men talking about it. At least, they'd whispered, it will take them quickly and end their suffering.

Tania wasn't numb with shock yet, but she wished she was because all she could think about was all of those men trapped below, either suffocating to death or facing a long, much more terrible death. A death of starvation if they could find water. A death of thirst if they could not get even that small comfort. She knew some would die from the terrible injuries that came with a mine explosion and for the first time in her life she had to consider which was the best way to go.

She wondered if she was in shock after all, thinking such things, but she couldn't stop herself. She wrung her right hand over her left, and found herself praying to her husband. He didn't even know that there'd been a disaster yet, didn't know that her father might be below her feet somewhere, dying.

His daddy worked in a different mine, on a different shift, but hers was below. And he was too far away to give her comfort.

She smothered a sob but knew she wouldn't be blamed if she let it go. Women and children all around her were doing the same thing.

She looked around at the gathered people, all operations still suspended. She saw men frustrated at being told they could do nothing and bristling to ignore those orders. She saw a clear division in the women. One group sat on one side of the room, their men safe beside them. On the other side of the room were the stricken women and children left clinging to vain hope.

Grief, sharp and overwhelming, swam over Tania, making her knees weak. She clutched at the back of a pew for a moment before she did her best to run out of the doors. She was going to bill, she thought as something swelled beyond endurance in her chest. She was going to scream like an insane fool.

She took deep breaths, her eyes hopping from one place to the next, looking for a way to make this Hell end. The church was less than 50 feet from the mine and she stared at it, at the dark open face, as deep, tearing sobs tore out of her chest. Standing against the porch rail, she let the grief pour out of her.

"Daddy, no! Please, Daddy. Don't leave me!" She wailed the words out, as a prayer, as an order, as a hope that he would hear her and come back to her.

But nothing happened and she collapsed alone on the porch, her sobs trailing off to mewls of pain as she lay alone, nobody there to comfort her.

Her father, the only one that could protect her from her mother, the only parent she had known loved her, the man that filled her heart with love as he taught her about roots and herbs, about life in the mountains, and as he told her stories of their ancestors, was abandoned at the bottom of a mine!

Pain gripped her, unlike anything she had ever known, and stole her voice away. She couldn't even sob now the pain was so deep. She reached out to the mine, unable to think now, not even sure if the pain was real or just her grief. Please give him back, she begged that black hole.

At that moment she saw the figure of a man emerge from the mine, a tall man, and then another, and then more.

As the pain overwhelmed her and shock finally took over, Tania stared; her father's face swimming before her eyes. Was he real or was this some new torture?

The world went black.