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The Ocean of Dark Dust
The year was 1948, recovering from the the war, Poland was slowly regaining its strength. Living under the shadow of a mountain, a small mining town speckled with four room cottages for those who lived in the tiny village. Each cottage had a cobblestone foundation built with dark logs laid atop one another. You were able to walk to almost anywhere in the village. Throughout the village you could view the few citizens busily walking from place to place and other people riding bicycles through the town. Choices for work in this town were limited, you could be a merchant selling homemade goods to local villagers, or you could be a farmer gathering not much of anything for your family, but then you could choose to be a miner and work long days digging coal for big corporations. After a hard day of work the miners would gather around the old camp fire and tell their stories.
Sweat running down his thin but defined arms, moving his pick axe behind his back, then swinging toward the gray stone speckled with the small black coal that laid before him.
“Yuri,” Dike yelled to him in mid swing, “get over here.” Yuri the thin five foot eleven man, with his pick axe in hand, jogged over to Dike to see what he was babbling about.
“Dike what is it,” Yuri continued, “I was just in the middle of mining up some nice coal, and you know the boss...”
“Enough about the boss, Yuri, you have to check this out,” Dike int interrupted, “so I was mining, right, and then I came upon this dirt.”
“Big deal Dike,” Yuri implied, “we find dirt all the time.”
“No Yuri listen,” Dike argued, “this might be what you’ve been looking for all this time.”
“Are you talking about the diamonds,” Yuri questioned with a twinkle in his eye.
“Yeah, you see I was digging and I came upon this dirt and it had all of these pieces of broken glass and cans.”
“So,” Yuri asked.
“Don’t you see this could be signs of an older mine or something,” Dike explained pointing to the side of the tunnel where the dirt stood.
“Okay, so it might be something or it might not but let’s get a shovel and see what’s up,” Yuri inquired leaning against a large smooth gray rock.
“Hey Remi,” Dike called covered in dark dust.
“Yeah what,” Remi squealed.
“You got a shovel,” Dike yelled to Remi.
“Sure, but..,” Remi screamed back his face turning red.
“Just get over here,” Dike exasperated. Remi the tiniest miner came walking over through the dark tunnel with lantern in hand and dragging his rusting shovel along.
“This better be something good or I’m gonna tell the boss,” Remi blurted out beginning to get irritate.
“Trust me it’ll be good,” Yuri encouraged with a wink. Yuri snatched the old shovel out of Remi’s hands. Yuri grasped the shovel and began to scoop out the dirt from the side of the wet tunnel wall. Little by little Yuri scooped out chunks of the brown moist dirt with rusty cans and pieces of glass scattered through it. After five minutes of continuous work, hands moist with perspiration, Yuri found, what he thought, he was looking for. Tenderly Yuri took out a rotting wooden box with rough iron braces covering it. On the front of this box was an old metal lock that required a key, that had probably rusted away with time. Not finding the key any where near Yuri slowly broke off bits of dirty rotten wood from the old box. Dike and Remi peeked over Yuri’s shoulders to take a look at what laid inside.
Laying in the small box was a tattered pale yellow map obviously written in pen and ink. The layout of the map looked much like the mines they dug in today except with more passages and tunnels leading deeper into the mines. Remi’s eyes lit up when he saw the map for he had been forced into the mining business by his father. You see Remi never really wanted to mine, he wanted to explore the cold desolate Russian tundra mapping it out for the explores that followed his path. Instead of following his dream Remi was stuck in this mine out of his father’s will.
“This looks like a map of the old mines,” Remi said starring at the old map, “See the date on it, it says 1915, that’s three years before the wars started.”
“Eh maybe,” Yuri questioned with his head setting on shovel, “this mine use to be used for something else like diamonds or something.”
“I don’t know,” Dike said looking up, “but maybe Solak can tell us a thing or two. His father did run this mine back in the day. Maybe he’s got a story or two.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Yuri agreed with a smile on his face. Solak being back on the bright surface was a world away. Yuri, Dike, and Remi gathered the dark coal they had mined up and tossed it piece by piece into the four foot long mine cart. Together Dike and Yuri pushed the mine cart down the slender rails. Following them Remi trudged along carefully holding the aged map.
Slowly they made their way down the tunnel lit up by the orange warm glow the lanterns. Trudging along, the air light around the group, they pushed the mine cart into the one of the old caged in elevators. Soon the the group rose into the bright light of the smooth surface, their eyes refocusing to the bright sunlight. At the end of the elevator shaft was Solak, the five foot nine man had his hands on his hips awaiting the group.
“Where have you men been,” he yelled a whiff of onion coming from his mouth, “You’ll are five minutes behind schedule and you missed you’re lunch break. Ya’ll lucky that the other miners didn’t take all of the five elevators or you guys would have been stuck in the dark mines for a week.”
“But Solak, it’s not that dark down there,” Dike argued.
“Enough from you Dike,” Solak yelled back spit flying from his mouth.
“Actually enough from you Solak,” the boss said smoothly, “get back to work.” With that the boss walked back into his shack making plans for the next day of mining.
“Sorry about that guys,” Solak apologized his face pink from yelling, “I just put on an act for the boss... I’m trying to get a promotion.”
“It’s fine,” Yuri remarked grudgingly.
Yuri explained to Solak why exactly they were late. Telling him of what Dike found and how they slowly dug out the dirt to find a old map. Solak told Yuri and the others that his father told him stories of a grand cavern with diamonds sparkling from the stalactites. Solak expected that the cavern was lost with time for during the war all able body men were enlisted into the army. After the first war men tried to find the map and cavern again although most of the original miners had died or retired. Another war arose, soon after, Solak joined to continue his father’s legacy he explained.
After, Solak was finished with his grand story, Yuri said, “The best time to go on the hunt for diamonds will probably be near the end of the week. The big truck will be here to pick up the coal, so no one will miss us.” They all agreed on the end of the week to be the day for the big dig. Throughout the week the men prepared themselves for the journey into the mines. Dike told locals at the bar of how the map was found, although he made sure not to reveal any large details. Solak gathered his father’s old mining supplies to use on the dig. Remi spent hour after hour studying the aged map to make sure that he would know every little detail. Yuri sat awaiting the big day where his dreams would come true and told his wife of how they would be rich.
Then finally the morning of the excavation came.
Yuri jumped out of bed, eager to start the next day of mining. In the hopes to find diamonds, Yuri swung his pick over his slender shoulder, tied his lunch bag to his belt, and ran down the roads of the small town and up the trail to the edge of the mountain where the mines were. As he expected no one was at the mining camp yet. Yuri waited, hiding behind the boss’s shack and saw the miners come one by one. Dike, Solak, and Remi soon joined Yuri behind the meager shack.
“Hey Solak,” Dike whispered in a hush, “where’s the big truck, the corporation’s supposed to be sending?”
“Yesterday the boss told me that the truck should be coming around 9:00 A.M,” Solak stated looking up at Dike.
Remi, studying the map, looked over at the brass watch watch on his wrist, “Well it’s 9:16 right now,” Remi blurted out, eyes fixed on the old map.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve being sitting around here for two hours and I’m ready to get a move on,” Yuri said sternly over the other three.
“Yep, let’s go,” remarked the rest of the group. With that, the group stated to walk toward the mine elevators. Each one of the men took a separate elevator to insure the other miners wouldn’t be able to catch up with them. Hundreds of feet the men went, down into the earth.
“Woah,” Remi said stopping his elevator, “everybody stop this is the level we need to be at.” The four miners filed out of their elevators into the dark ibis that was the mine. With their lanterns in hand, they started down the tunnel of the old mine.
“I think that we should light the lanterns on the wall as we walk,” Solak stated staring at the old glass and iron mechanisms hanging from the gray rock wall. The other men agreed with his idea and they started lighting the lamps. On the went through the maze of tunnels of the old mine.
“Hey,” Yuri called pointing up ahead, “look there’s a cavern up there, is that the one Remi?”
“No, I don’t think so, according to the map we’re coming up on a cavern, but it’s only marked with a black blob with eight sicks coming out of it,” Remi pointed out studying the map.
“Hmm,” Dike bellowed pointing at the map, “that kind of looks like spider.” A large dark 20 pound spider jumped down on Dike’s back. Dike shook the spider off his back. With that the men knew what to do. They took out their pickaxes and began aggressively swinging them at the spider. The spider jumped from side to side dodging the swing of the pickaxes towards the ground. The four miners swung their pickaxes on all four sides of spider and the spider jumped up onto the ceiling. Yuri threw his lantern up at the ceiling, it cracked an the contraption burst into flames. In this action the spider caught fire and scampered down the tunnel. The light of the flaming spider when on into the darkness of what seemed oblivion.
“That was pretty tough,” expressed Yuri, a light sweat forming at his chin, “Now which way Remi.”
“Unngh,” Remi blurted out, “I think I got bit by the spider.”
“Ah shoot,” Solak ranted, yelling up at the ceiling, “what the heck do yah think you’re doin’
getn’ bit by a spider Remi.”
“Hey it’s not his fault,” Dike spat at Solak, pushing him to the ground.
“Whoa guys, there’s no need to fight, in the position we’re in now gives us no reason to go back, we gotta keep going, we just need to find a way to get Remi off his feet,” Yuri commanded, equalizing the temper of the group.
“On the map it says there’s some sort of mine cart track near here,” Remi scampered out. The men agreed that the mine cart track route was by far the best route to the diamonds they could take. Dike carried Remi to the mine cart track. Once they finally got to the mine cart tunnel, Dike stuck Remi in the one old mine cart waiting for them. Dike pushed Remi along in the cart, Yuri took the map in his hand, standing at the front pointing out the way, and behind the other three, Solak went about lighting the lantern line. The glow of the warm lantern light filled the tunnels with a feeling of home.
The old supports of the tunnels were over their heads and on either sides of the, the rotting bits of wood were about to their last use. As the men continued down the mine cart trail, they cam upon a collapse in the tunnel. Boulders, pebbles, and dirt covered the entrance to the next league of their path.
“Well,” Dike called, “I say it’s time to eat lunch.”
“Good idea Dike,” Yuri agreed, “it’ll give us time to think of what to do.”
“This is no time to eat,” Solak cried out over the rest, “we’re so close, what are you guys miners or dukes, we’ve been braving these tunnels for hours and you just want to eat lunch and think things through....”
“Solak it’s best to think before you act, to avoid causing in major problems for the rest of us,” Yuri interrupted Solak.
“Well,” Solak aggressively said pulling out a grenade, “I was in the army and I’m not going to take your crap, I’ll tell you what. Solak pulled the pin of the grenade. Time seemed to slow down as the grenade hit the pile of rocks. Solak ran down the tunnel, getting away from the blast to come. In there effort Yuri and Dike heaved Remi out the mine cart and pushed the cart itself over the grenade. The grenade burst, sending chunks of metal and rock all around them. Luckily Dike and Yuri were ducking over Remi. When they got up and looked around they noticed something odd. There was a single light coming down on them. The three miners looked up and saw thousands of stalactites hanging from the ceiling of cavern.
On second look, they noticed the hundreds of glinting diamonds on each stalactites. In there eye they could see the hundreds of thousands of bits of diamonds hanging from the ceiling.
“This is it,” Yuri exclaimed, “we finally found it.”
“More like I found it,” Solak called out on the top of a mound of dirt, gun in his hand, “I’ve found the diamonds and all this is for me.”
“Not if I have something to say about,” Dike yelled, rushing toward Solak with his pick. Solak shot Dike in the shoulder.
“What would you do that for?” Dike screamed up at Solak.
“Well, you see when I was in the army I stole away as much war equipment as possible. With all that stuff I had been planning away to get back on the miners who were arrogant enough to lead me into an unknown place to the others,” Solak explained to Dike.
Yuri scanned the room for someway to stop Solak. He spotted Solak’s bag by where the explosion went off. He reached in and found another grenade, Yuri pulled the pin and heaved it at Solak.
“Nice try,” with that Solak heaved the grenade the toward the ceiling of the cavern. The grenade blew up in mid-air, taking out the stalactites. A shower of dark dust flood over Solak. Solak was swallowed by the dust, drowning in the ocean of it. His vision darkened as became one with the ocean of dark dust.
“Well that’s that then,” Yuri expressed wiping off his hands.
“Let’s get out of here Yuri,” Remi said holding his stomach.
“Yeah let’s go home,” Dike agreed clinging onto his shoulder. The three miners climbed up the mound of dust and dirt, collecting some surfaced diamonds on their way up. At the top the looked up at the huge hole with orange sunlight glistening through. Yuri climbed up on the side of the hole to go and get help. When he returned, he brought the boss with him.
“Well boys,” the boss expressed after the miners were out of the hole, “you finally found your way out of a dead end job. For yourselves and the rest of the miners who live here. After we dig out these diamonds, we’re set for life.”
“Sounds good boss,” Dike coughed out, “I can’t wait to get to the bar and tell all my drinking buds about what happened today.” Set for life sounded good to the men. And it truly was for them, their families, and their lives.
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