Clackers

Clackers - Part 4

CHAPTER TEN - DRAFT

Ella set up the meeting for me with Provo, the unofficial leader of the miners at Gallenhurst. I have no idea why they smuggled me into his tiny, dirty cabin on the mine campus. Why not conduct the meeting somewhere else? Did they want to impress me with the skills of the Underground to smuggle people? All my hopes are pegged on this O-30 miner. Looking around Provo's dirt floor cabin I'm not confident this guy is the answer.

I can't sit still, my hands are sweating. This place is barely livable. An overturned box is in the center of the one room cabin with a copy of the Octavo placed precisely in the middle. Where does Provo sleep? The walls are paper thin, lashed together from branches and leaves and castaway plywood. There is a white paste that fills in the gaps. The roof is made of dirt and straw. A heavy smell of wet soil permeates the room.

I look out the window and see six men lifting a stretcher out of the mine shaft. The men are shirtless with grim faces, their t-shirts completely cover a body. They struggle to keep the stretcher upright on the uneven ground. A slight dip causes the load to shift and a hand flops out. The hand is missing the thumb. I press my face to the window and I can see that the thumb is hanging by a single tendon six inches from the hand. There are gray hairs on the back of the hand. The thumb bobs up and down on the tendon. The man had a big nose; the protruding outline clearly visible under the t-shirts. One of the shirtless men realizes the hand has come loose and forces it under the T-shirts.

Provo is holding one end of the stretcher, he talks to the man beside him. That man shifts to take the full load and Provo walks to the cabin. He has a slim build, short dark brown hair and medium height. I pull the dirty gray curtain closed and sit on a wooden chair in front of the table made out of a box. The chair looks like the only piece of furniture that is solid. It has a thick square back and the wooden arms are wide. A wooden bench with three legs is propped up beside the door. Bricks piled on top of one another take the place of the missing leg. A small dented white refrigerator is tucked into a corner; it makes an irregular hum.

Provo enters and sits on the wooden bench, "I saw you looking out the window."

"How did he die?" I say.

"He died mining the red rock to keep you citizens cool up above."

The emotions are raw. This meeting is not getting off to a good start.

Provo says, "You people up above know nothing of what we O-30s endure."

"I'm sorry."
After a few moments Provo speaks, "Taylon was a good man. Seventy-four years old. Had arthritis in those big mitts of his but he mined the red rock good. Sliced himself today. Yaz made him keep working. Near middle of shift he collapsed, probably the heat. Yaz kept us working till shift's end. Didn't want to lose production of thallamite. Just another day in the mines."

I can feel the rage about the death, but also the acceptance that this is something that happens every day.

Provo says, "That's the life for someone who clacks over age thirty. You stay in the mine until you die. Taylon was down there thirty-nine years."

"Can you help me escape Brehn?"

Provo says, "A man has worked his whole life below ground. He's dead and you can't spare him a minute. All you want to know is how you can be saved."

Provo is mocking me but I'm not ashamed. I'm here for me. If Provo can help me, great, if not, I'm going to find someone who can. Getting out of Brehn is the first step to getting home.

Provo looks at me and nods, "We all have our problems. You in no way played a part in Taylon's death. I was shaken by my loss. To answer your question, I can make you disappear."