Silence of the Mines

On a brisk summer evening, the citizens of the quaint town of Galena, Illinois was coming home to find their families doing their normal routines around the house. The wife in the kitchen making dinner for her husband who just got home from a long day at the mines. The small kiddos at the table doing homework and complaining about how little Bobby down the street wouldn't share the ball during recess. The routine that had been instilled in households throughout generations dating all the way back to the towns grand opening of the mines in the 40s. But it wasn't until that doorbell rang at the five households and the cops telling the wives that their husbands had been involved in a collapse that wasn't only going to shake the foundation of the town but the very foundation of the universe in unprecedented ways. Galena, Illinois has never been the town where scandalous gossip roamed the streets and courtyards of the neighborhood. Life was simple. Life was predictable. Life in Galena, Illinois was never out of the ordinary.