Free Muckers by Sandra Neil Wallace Page A

O’Sullivan
    P.S. I will try and write as soon as I reach my destination. That’s a promise!
    Don’t do it
, I tell myself.
Get all weepy and sentimental. It won’t bring Bobby back, will it?
    Maw starts getting restless and reaches for the doors that lead to the balcony. She’s never done that before. “You want to go out?” I ask. She keeps reaching, so I take her outside. It’s a beautiful night. Not dark and murky at all, like it was in the Pacific. You could pluck any star you want from the sky. And Maw wants to see it.
    “We won the game, Maw.” I lean over and whisper it in her ear. “I threw a pass that was nearly as far as Bobby’s.”
    I rest my cheek against hers and look out at the sky. You can see everything from up here. We’re at the highest point before the mountain goes vertical. The hillside below iscovered with light and it’s blinking. And I can’t tell which houses are Mexican or Irish or Slav—they’re all blended together, forming a single glow.
    On nights like these I feel like I can fight the sadness by throwing farther and running harder. That I can actually beat the odds. We’ve already got one game down—why can’t we take the rest of them?
    I know this place is the opposite of Rapunzel’s castle. That no one’s clamoring to get up here and that the chances of leaving are slim. But if an awful event brought Maw here, then why couldn’t a happy one bring her back home? Something so important it would make her decide that it’s worth it to come back. To take that chance.
    Maw reaches out again the way she did before and I give her my hand, but that’s not what she wants. She wants the letter.
    I miss him, too.
    Soon the glow over Hatley begins to fade as the town goes to sleep, like candles getting blown out on a birthday cake.
    And in a few hours it’ll be Bobby’s birthday. He would have been twenty-six.
    I hand Maw his letter. It’s all I can give her. Someday it might be something more. They say the Yavapai Cup weighs twenty pounds and that it bestows great things on anyone who wins it. If we do, they’ll be cheering so loud in this part of the state Maw won’t have a choice but to come around and see what all the fuss is about. Then I can finally bring her home.
    WEEKEND EDITION
    MUCKERS WIN PIGSKIN OPENER, 14–7. RECAP, P.2
    Miners Request Raise
    Hoping to secure the raise they’ve been trying to put through since April 1945, the Brotherhood of Hatley-Cottonville Miners & Smelter Workers has petitioned for a pay increase of 40 cents a day for all workers at the Eureka Copper mine and smelter.
    When asked about the threat of a strike if the request was not met, Dell Bruzzi, spokesman for the Brotherhood, said that as of yet there is no plan to do so. He said the facts show the inflation of prices in this locality after every past raise was greater than the increase in wages. If the trend continues, Bruzzi said, the Brotherhood may find no other alternative than to take constructive action.
    SOCIAL NEWS & ARRESTS
    —Mrs. Faye Cosgrove (nee Miller) and her little son are houseguests of Faye’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Miller. Faye is back from Grasshopper Flats to manage her father’s furniture store since he took ill last month.
    —Mrs. Reginald Hollingworth entertained the Women’s Garden Club with a bridge party at her Magnolia Street home on Company Ridge. Bouquets of white asters decorated the tables, and glace cupcakes were enjoyed by all. High was won by Eulene Vance,second high by Hilda Booth, and low, Wanda Menary.
    —Featured guest speaker at the Elks fund-raiser will be Hatley High English teacher Luther B. Sims Jr. , who has prepared a speech entitled “Creeping Communism in Your Community.”
    Draft Registration for All 18-Year-Olds Monday at Cottonville High. Draft Call Still Set at 19 .

Chapter 6
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
    SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
    5:47 A.M .
    POP ’ S SURPRISED WHEN I WALK into the kitchen this early in the morning the day after a