Coal River Read Free Page A

you.”
    “Hello, Uncle,” she said. She clenched her jaw and turned her cheek to let him hug her.
    “My God, woman,” he hissed in her ear. “Where is your mourning veil? Have you no decency?”
    She drew away and gripped the edge of her handbag, twisting the drawstring between her fingers. “I removed my veil on the ride here,” she said. “It was too cumbersome to wear the entire trip.”
    “Well, now that you’ve arrived,” Uncle Otis said, forcing a smile, “you must put it back on before riding through town.”
    She shrugged. “I’m afraid that’s impossible,” she said. “The train was unearthly hot, and when I opened a window, the veil was sucked right out.”
    Uncle Otis frowned. “I don’t have time for this right now,” he said. “I’ve got my hands full with these miners. Take her up to the house, Percy, then come back for me. Tell your mother to get her settled in.”
    “Yes, sir,” Percy said.
    Uncle Otis started to move away, then stopped and turned to face Percy again. “Take the side roads,” he said under his breath.
    Behind him, a group of miners broke through the police line and rushed across the platform, shouting obscenities at the incoming immigrants. The police charged forward and pulled them back a second time. Uncle Otis stormed toward the commotion, arms flailing. A shot rang out and Percy grabbed Emma’s arm, urging her through a door and across the station.
    On the other side of the train depot, the dirt road was filled with horses, buggies, pedestrians, wagons, and bicycles. A yellow Tin Lizzie sat at the edge of a plank sidewalk, its high, white wheels stained gray, its gold head lanterns and low windshield coated with a fine, black powder. Like everything else—the surrounding buildings, the windows, the sidewalks, the store canopies, the telephone poles, the ground—the car was shrouded with coal dust. Percy opened the passenger door and helped Emma climb into the vehicle. She wrestled the black sea of her skirt into the car and settled it around her feet, then sat in the front seat and looked around.
    A few yards away on the opposite side of the thoroughfare, a young boy in an oversized cap and frayed jacket sat slumped against a telephone pole covered with sooty flyers, his empty stare locked on the passing people and horse-drawn wagons. His face was puffy and pale, his sunken eyes the color of silver. His hair was dark and thick, like Albert’s, and his left leg was withered and encased in a metal brace. His tattered boots and the ends of his crutches hung over the edge of the sidewalk, sticking out into the road.
    Behind him, two older boys sat smoking cigarettes on a wooden box, their backs to the street. A policeman marched across the road and kicked the end of the boy’s crutches, shouting and pointing at him to move back. The boy struggled to stand while the policeman waited for him to obey. Emma started to climb out of the car to go over and help, but before she could get out, the older boys pulled him to his feet, and the three of them wandered away.
    Percy lifted her suitcase into the backseat, then climbed in the driver’s side and started the engine. He took off his top hat, stretched a pair of goggles over his eyes, and put on a driving cap.
    “Ready?”
    She nodded, one fist over the knot in her stomach. Percy pulled the vehicle away from the sidewalk and steered it along the busy road, swerving around wheel ruts, honking at slow horses and wayward children. On the plank sidewalks, women stopped to watch them pass, whispering behind gloved hands. Policemen patrolled every other block, strolling the sidewalks and streets with rifles strapped to their shoulders. A few raised hands in greeting. Others walked with their heads down, spitting tobacco juice on the ground or smoking cigarettes.
    Emma didn’t recall the streets being filled with police the last time she was here. She thought about asking Percy why there were so many, but the engine was