Free Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman

I didn’t listen.” She sat up straight and flicked the reins. The horse flinched and started moving, its sides and hindquarters covered in dried sweat. Percy shook his head in frustration, then waved and watched the women make their way down the dusty road.
    Emma gave Percy a quick wave, then turned forward. “What do you mean if something happens?” she said. “What could happen?”
    Aunt Ida made a pshaw motion with one hand. “It’s nothing for you to worry about,” she said. “You heard your uncle and Percy talking. There’s a lot of unrest with the miners these days. As usual, they blame everyone in charge.”
    “But they wouldn’t,” Emma said. “I mean . . . they wouldn’t actually hurt someone, would they?”
    Just then, a group of shouting boys ran across the road in front of the wagon, their worn knickers and scuffed shoes making them look like a band of orphans. One of the boys was using crutches and hopping along on one foot, the empty leg of his trousers tied closed. In what seemed like slow motion, he turned his head toward Aunt Ida and Emma. It was the boy from yesterday, Albert’s twin. Up close, he looked ravaged and childish at the same time, like an ancient, tortured soul trapped inside a young body. He hesitated in the middle of the road and fixed his eyes on Emma. You let your brother die.
    Despite the heat, Emma shivered, unable to pull her eyes from his. How does he know?
    Aunt Ida yanked back on the reins, jerking the horse to a stop. “You good-for-nothin’ boys, watch where you’re going!”
    Albert’s twin dropped his eyes and made his way across the road. Emma slumped in her seat as if released from a trance. She shook her head to clear it. I must be imagining things, she thought. That boy doesn’t know anything about me. It’s just a coincidence that he looks like Albert, nothing more. I need to get ahold of myself before I drive myself mad!
    Aunt Ida snorted in disgust and got the horse moving again, her lips twisted in an angry pucker. Then another boy ran across the road, jumping out of the way at the last second. He laughed and stuck out his tongue, then turned and caught up to his friends.
    “Are they breaker boys?” Emma said.
    “I’m afraid so,” Aunt Ida said.
    “Percy told me what they do and how dangerous it is. Can’t Uncle Otis do something to help them?”
    A dark look passed over Aunt Ida’s face, but she kept her eyes on the road. “I told you before, I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Not talking about something doesn’t make it go away.”
    “Please!” Aunt Ida said. “Stop asking me about them. That’s your last warning!”
    “But it isn’t right!”
    Aunt Ida ignored her and snapped the reins harder. Emma turned in her seat to watch the breaker boys join a gang of older boys in a dusty alley between the tobacco shop and a saloon, flocking around them like playful puppies. The older boys held out cigarettes and chewing tobacco while the younger ones reached into their pockets for change, pushing and shoving to be first in line. After paying the older boys, the younger boys—some as young as six—lit cigarettes and corncob pipes, or shoved chewing tobacco between their gums and cheeks.
    “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Emma said. Suddenly it seemed hard to breath.
    Aunt Ida clucked her tongue. “It’s a shame those miners don’t have better control over their children. They’re like a pack of wild animals if you ask me! But some people are just not meant to be civilized.” She picked up a whip and lashed the horse’s rear end, forcing the already overheated animal to trot faster.

CHAPTER 5
    F ollowing a century-old Coal River tradition, the Fourth of July festivities were held in the village green near the center of town, where Main Street split off Railroad Avenue and Murphy Lane. American flags and colored bunting festooned the Pennsylvania Boarding House and Hotel, Herrick’s Apothecary, Judd’s Blacksmith shop,