Trapper Boy (11 page)

Chapter 27

“C
'mon, JW, it's Saturday. You can take a few hours away from school work,” Mickey said, excitement in his voice.

“I don't have any money to spend on the streetcar. Besides, I got a lot of homework to catch up on,” JW said.

“Patty's uncle's the operator, and he'll let us on for free. Patty already asked him.”

“Are you sure?” The thought of riding on the electric tram from Sydney Mines to North Sydney was pretty exciting. It had been a few years since he'd been on the streetcar with his mother.

The downtown of Sydney Mines would be bustling with activity in a couple of hours, with shoppers picking up their needed supplies. The approaching winter had the potential to be long, hard and cold. Staples like sugar, flour and vegetables that could be stored in root cellars were commodities that would go quickly; hoarded by some and shared by others. JW was glad the majority of potatoes, turnips and carrots from the garden were already packed away in their cellar. He had spent part of his summer weeding, and the harvest had taken days to complete. There were still some potato and turnip plants to be harvested, but his father would do that before the frost came.

“Here it comes, JW!” Mickey shouted. “Hurry.”

The satchel slapped against his side as he hurried to catch Mickey. The streetcar came to a halt, the metal wheels screeching as it stopped. JW noticed there were only a few people on the electric tram, and they were sitting close to the back. He listened as Mickey spoke to the operator.

“Morning, Long Jack. How you feeling?”

“Morning, Mick. Back's a mite stiff first thing in the morning, but least I can walk and sit in this seat a few hours a day. Hoping to get back in later on. Who's that with you?”

“Andy's boy, John Wallace. He's trapping same as me. Patty said we could catch a ride up to North Sydney.”

“Mighty generous of him,” Long Jack said and smiled. “Hop on.”

As JW got on the streetcar, Long Jack told him to say hi to his father. Sitting down beside Mickey, JW said, “I didn't know you knew him.”

“Oh yeah. Long Jack worked down below until a cave-in three months ago. He's about the tallest underground miner I ever saw. Hurt his back in the cave-in. Hard enough to work down there if you're healthy, but with a sore back, it ain't likely he'll ever return.”

JW moved from side to side checking out the stores and buildings on each side of Main Street. The post office was huge, the closest thing he'd ever seen to a castle. The top of the building looked like a defensive wall, with gaps spaced every two to three feet where archers might stand to protect the town from invasion or where guns could be fitted to do the same. He could see the ocean off in the distance and dreamed of being on the water. Smitty had told him of the white sand in Barbados and the deep blue water of the Caribbean Sea. He hoped one day he would see it himself. As he looked out at the Atlantic Ocean, he thought he could see white caps on the dark choppy water.

The town was beginning to come to life, and the horses and wagons slowed the speed of the streetcar. JW saw Beth and her parents in one of the wagons. He leaned his head back and thought about school and the coal mines, but mostly he just thought about Beth.

Chapter 28

JW
threw a crust of bread down the tunnel then let some oats drop near the grease bucket. He watched as the injured rat drew near, its limp not nearly as bad as the previous night.

“Here you go, Lord Tennyson,” JW said, naming the rat after one of his favourite poets. “Eat your fill, but do it quickly, for the pack will soon return.”

“Who are you talking to, JW?”

JW turned and saw that Smitty had arrived with a loaded tram. He hurried to the door. “I'm sorry, Smitty. I didn't hear you. What happened to the bells?”

“I forgot to put them on tonight. But with the squeals from the tram, I didn't think I could sneak up on a dead man,” Smitty said, laughing. “So who were you talking to?”

JW felt his face flush. “I was talking to a rat. I hurt him the other night, so now I feed him. I named him Lord Tennyson,” JW said, becoming more embarrassed as each word left his mouth.

“After Alfred, Lord Tennyson? Why him?”

“Yes. There's a poem I like by him, called ‘Tears, Idle Tears'.”

“That's one of my favourites as well,” Smitty said.

JW nodded politely. He doubted that anyone working in the mine knew poems by Tennyson or anyone else. He was not prepared for what came next.

“
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, / Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, / In looking on the happy autumn-fields, / And thinking of the days that are no more.
” Smitty saw the look of surprise on JW's face. “I can see why you'd like that one. There's another that would fit quite well: ‘Ask Me No More.' There's a couple of lines: ‘
Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! ... Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are sealed
'
.
”

JW listened in amazement then watched as Smitty clucked his tongue and set the horse on its way through the trap door.

Chapter 29

“I
told you about Smitty being from Barbados. Well, I learned last night that his parents were teachers there but decided to bring their family here for a chance at a new life. He was reciting poetry from memory as if he was reading my mind,” JW said.

“What do you mean?” Beth asked.

“Remember the rat, Tennyson, I told you about?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Smitty recited parts of two Tennyson poems that spoke of the rat's and my fate being sealed. And that was what I was thinking at the time.”

“You think that your fate is sealed?”

“Kind of. Tennyson and I are both stuck in the mine, and neither one of us had any say in the matter. Tennyson is stuck because of being born there, and I'm there because of being born into a coal-mining family – our fates are sealed.” He stared at Beth with a look of acceptance in his eyes.

“When you're older, you'll be able to leave,” Beth said, trying to encourage him.

“Perhaps, but if I work in the mine for the next ten or fifteen years, it'll be too late to try to get an education. The pit will be all I know. Smitty's been there since he was sixteen and he's still there.”

Beth looked into JW's eyes and was saddened by the look of resignation. “How is Tennyson's leg?” she asked, trying to lighten the conversation.

“It seems to be healing nicely. He hardly limps at all, but he no longer seems to be part of the pack. I feed him oats when I'm working. I'm surprised someone, or one of the other rats, hasn't killed him. There's no place for weakness in the mine.”

The two began walking faster. “Do you think you'll be able to stay for the whole day today?” Beth asked.

“I gotta try or Mr. Cantwell will think I dropped out of science class and won't let me write my exams.” They continued talking, and thoughts of the coal mines vanished as the schoolhouse came into view.

The morning passed quickly, but as noontime approached, JW felt his eyelids wanting to close. Placing the math book inside his satchel at the end of class, he caught up with Beth.

“I think I have to go. My eyes are closing.”

“You could have a nap here, and I'll wake you after lunch,” Beth suggested.

JW's first thought was to say no, but he decided to give it a try. He laid his head on the desk, and after a few minutes felt sleep overtake him.

Beth stood in the doorway for a moment before pulling the door gently closed behind her. She sat on the stairs leading to the first floor below. She took a sandwich from her lunch box and began eating, planning to spend the next hour keeping watch on the door to the classroom where JW slept.

He awoke with a start, his hands reaching for the rope to open the trap door.

“JW,” Beth said. “It's time to wake up.”

Chapter 30

“J
ohn Wallace! I thought you got lost,” his mother said as he came through the door. “You better hurry off to bed. It's almost four o'clock and you've got a long night ahead of you. Do you want me to wake you early?”

“No, Ma. I better get all the sleep I can. I managed to stay at school for the whole day. I'll tell you about it later,” JW said as he started up the stairs.

He pulled off his clothes and climbed into bed. But the welcoming arms of sleep eluded him, and he tossed and turned side to side. Thoughts of schoolwork and Beth and the dark mines ran through his mind. The daylight outside his window turned to twilight, then darkness. Finally, sleep came.

—

“Wake up, dear. I left you as long as I could. As it is you'll have to eat on the run.”

JW opened his eyes and looked into the face of his mother. “Alright, Ma. What time is it?” Just then the chimes of the clock rang, counting ten strikes of the hammer.

His mother called to him as she started back downstairs. “I'll dish up your meal, so hurry along now.”

JW reluctantly got up from his bed and pulled on his clothes. He splashed some water on his face and hands and trudged down the stairs. He ate the food his mother had dished up and turned down offers from his parents to walk with him. He noticed the coal was in and that a large stack of kindling was piled neatly by the stove. Gulliver seemed to be waiting for him as he stepped into the cool night air.

“C'mon, Gullie. Walk me to work, old boy.”

Gulliver came to his side and wagged his tail and most of the rest of himself as well. JW started on his way down the road when he remembered he hadn't cleaned Lightning's stall. He turned and rushed toward the barn.

“Whoa! Where you heading?” his father called out.

“I forgot to clean the stall, Da.”

“You're the working man right now, so I did it earlier.”

“Sorry, Da. I'll get up earlier next time to get it done before I leave.”

“You don't hafta do that, JW. It's only right that I do it, that way you can get a little more rest. Besides, with me working days, I've time to get the chores done after work. You best get on your way. Have a safe night.”

“Thanks, Da. Goodnight.” He made a mental note to try and do some of the chores, but with schoolwork, the mine and sleep, he didn't have much time left in his day.

Gulliver bounded along beside JW, seemingly oblivious to the turmoil going on in his master's mind. He felt JW first slow down then speed up as they neared, then passed, the graveyard. The lights from the mine's opening cast a dull beam on the road in front of them, and the men's voices could be heard.

“Thanks, Gulliver. You go back now and take care of the folks.” JW bent down and petted Gulliver's head and shoulders, hugging him. “Go home now, boy. Run along.”

Chapter 31

M
ickey climbed into the seat beside JW, and Patty got into the seat behind them. Patty seemed nice enough and was full of stories.

“Red said I can go down again tonight. That way I'll be ready when I start on Wednesday.”

“Did you see any ghosts yet?” JW asked. “Any rats attack you?”

“Whaddaya mean?” Patty asked, his eyes wide with fear.

“You should know. It was you who told me to watch out for the ghosts and rats. Remember the day I was here with my father?”

“Gee, I was only trying to scare you,” Patty said.

“They only come visit you on your first night alone. The ghosts, I mean. The rats are there all the time. But you're lucky, you've been around for a long time, so you won't be afraid when something crawls up through the tracks and grabs you by your leg. Nope, you won't be afraid.” JW saw that Patty looked pretty much the way he had felt when the breaker boys had ridiculed him. He didn't like how he'd felt that day, being teased, so JW said, “Just kidding about the ghosts.”

“Yeah, I knew you was just pulling my leg, right? Right, Mickey, JW was just pulling my leg?”

“Sure he was. There ain't no ghosts down there, at least none I seen, but there are lots and lots of rats. Some big enough to carry off your lunch box,” Mickey said.

“I don't mind the rats. If they bother me, I can just whack 'em with my shovel,” Patty said.

The rake started on its way and a low squeal came out of Patty's mouth. It was not as loud as on his first night, but still too loud. He coughed quickly to cover up the sound, but some of the men heard it and a few chuckles rang out.