Daddy took me into the pit when I was a boy. We rode a car down then got off and walked along a tunnel. We had lanterns but the light from them didn’t do nothing but make the dark darker. Coal dust swirled and water dripped. Daddy told me about blackdamp and whitedamp—poison gases that’ll kill you after one whiff—and the deeper we went the harder it got for me to breathe.

Daddy dropped a rock into a shaft and told me to listen for it to hit bottom. It never did. I got the notion Daddy was gonna toss me down the hole next. This give me a fright and I run off down the tunnel. I didn’t get far before I tripped and my lantern went out and I fainted dead away. Daddy had to carry me back up top.

On the porch I wasn’t scared at all. I could see in the dark as good as in day. And what I seen was the wop. A beam had fallen and trapped his legs. There was his lantern and there was his lunch pail. The lantern had gone out. He banged his pail against the wall and called for help then lay down and prayed in Italian.

When the dark lifted a figure popped into my head: Number 8 Left Heading. I run in the house to tell Daddy. I told him I seen the wop and told him the figure. He grumped and said he ought to whup me for lying.

What is that? Mama asked. Number 8 Left Heading? It’s a drift in the mine, Daddy said. Mama’s eyes got big. You got to take him to tell someone about this, she said. What am I supposed to say? Daddy asked her. My idiot son had a vision? Twenty-two years old and can’t shave himself? Can’t go to the store without getting lost? That was a lie. I knew the way to the store. And if you don’t say something and that man dies? Mama said.

They fought on it a while longer till Mama put her foot down. If you don’t take him I will, she said. Goddammit, Daddy said and me and him set off for the mine.

Daddy talked to the bossman. He was busy telling crews to search here and search there and busy telling guards to keep the townfolk who came to see the commotion back from the adit. Daddy pulled him aside and said, I’m sorry, and, I know it sounds crazy, and, The wife you understand.