Jeannie Leigh

January 27, 2016

“You’re a sissy!” called Eddie as he gave Willie a shove.

“I am NOT” replied Willie as he dusted dirt from the seat of his pants.

“Then why won’t you go in the Ice Mine with me this afternoon?” Eddie shouted.

“My Grandma says it ain’t smart, ‘n I’m not s’posed to go that far away from home.”

The hot early June morning sun bore heavily on the two young boys as they stood in the school playground. Eddie, the larger of the two, sweated as he mimicked his smaller class mate.  “My Grandma says it ain’t smart!” he taunted Willie.

“How will your Grandma know?  We can skip school this afternoon , go the mine and be home by supper time, just like we was comin’ home from school”, he said.

Willie scuffed the toe of his boot in the dust as he considered Eddie’s idea. “It was true, this was the last week of school and what kind of trouble could he get into if he and Eddie slipped out at lunch time?  Miss Young wouldn’t be too angry, would she?” he thought.

Eddie leaned closer and sang, “Willie is a fraidy-cat, Willie is a fraidy-cat, Willie is a fraidy-cat”.  Giving Willie another shove Eddie turned his back and joined some of the older boys on the playground.

Willie’s thoughts were distracted as morning classes resumed.  By lunch time, his courage built, he told Eddie he would go to the Ice Mine….but only to peek inside.  It was too dangerous to actually go in.

Warm gentle breezes sang in the trees as the boys descended the steep slope to the canyon floor.  Wildflowers swayed and beetles chirped mating songs.  Willie and Eddie were silent.

As they approached the old mine the air chilled.  Hidden among the tall pines they found the north slope entrance to the Ice Mine. Narrow steel tracks led from the entrance to the grey granite dump.  An old rusted ore car lay on its side. Overhead, a raven circled, perhaps curious to know why two young boys were near her nest.

“The mine is so full of snow and ice, I can’t see nothin’”, Willy said.

“Course not”, replied Eddie,” that’s why I brung candles an’ matches, so’s we can see inside”.

“I already told you, I ain’t goin’ inside”, said Willie as he climbed up the steep drift of ice covered snow and felt the frigid air coming from the portal.

Eddie pushed ahead of Willie without a word, and slipped into the dark hole in the mountain side.

Willy heard water dripping inside the cavern.  Wind blew softly through the pines.  The raven called.  Eddie was silent.

“Eddie, are you okay?” Willie yelled through the narrow space between the mine ceiling and the top of the snow drift.  Silence was his answer.

Scrambling over the top of the drift Willie slipped inside.

“Boo!” Eddie yelled as he stood up from his shadowy hiding place.

“Don’t do that!” Willie replied.

Eddie handed Willie a candle and struck a match to light it.

“Let’s explore”, he said.

“I don’t think we should be here“, Willie replied.

As they crept along the steel tracks, cold water seeped into their leather boots and the air smelled wet and dank.

Soon Willie’s fears were overcome with curiosity as their candle light sparkled off crystals embedded in the rock wall.  Stepping over fallen chunks of rock, they made their way further and further into the mine.  This was a new world.

Wonder replaced their sense of time.

First Eddies, then Willies candle sputtered and went out.  They were engulfed in total darkness.  Water dripped. There was no other sound.

“Eddie, what are we gonna do?” Willie asked

Earlier that day, as Eddie bullied Willie on the playground, Willie’s sister, Lizzie overheard his plan to visit the mine.  When Willie and Eddie were missing from school that afternoon she told their teacher, Miss Young, who alerted the nearest neighbor, Brad Thorne. He enlisted the help of older boys in the school. Together they set out with lanterns, shovels, and ropes and hurried down the steep slope toward the Ice Mine.

First Eddie whimpered, then he began to cry.

Willie suggested they hold hands and feel their way back toward the entrance….but which way did they come?

“Let’s try to remember, “Willie said. “ Didn’t we pass a shovel leaning against the wall awhile back? “

Eddie sniffled and said he thought they had.

“Let’s go one way & then the other ‘til we find it” Willie said.

Together the two cold frightened boys felt their way along the wet slippery wall.

Water dripped. Touch was their only contact.  They crept one direction, then turned and went the other way.  Eddie cried softly.  Willie tried to console him.

All was quiet except for water dripping.

Courage dimmed.  Willie thought they might never be found.  No one knew where they were.  “What would Grandma do without his help?” he thought. “What would Lizzie and his brother Ben do without him?”

Beyond the drip of the water, there was a small sound.  “What was that?” Willie thought.  “It wasn’t Eddie’s blubbering…it was a distant sound. “

“There it was again”, only a little louder.  Willie shushed Eddie and they listened.

Again, there was the sound.  It was someone calling.

“We’re here!” They shouted in unison.  Their voices echoed from the rock walls.

A faint shaft of light showed in the tunnel.  The shovel stood against the wall straight ahead.

“We’re Here!” again they called as they hurried their pace, splashing through the cold water on the mine floor.

Around a bend in the tunnel they collided with Mr. Thorne and Max, their friend from school.

“Whoa!” they said as the two boys embraced their rescuers. “Are you guys okay?”

Shivering from cold and fright, they were hustled out of the mine into the warm June evening.  Wrapped in blankets and loving arms, the boys made their way back up the mountain toward their homes.

Willie, still damp from his mining exploration struggled with the door latch to the cabin.  It was supper time. He didn’t know what his family would say but he was too tired to care.  As he stepped into the kitchen, his family cheered and formed a group hug around him.

While supper was dished from the big black wood stove, Grandma asked Willie if he learned a lesson that day.

“Bullies ain’t as tough as they think they are”, Willie replied.