Deeper into the darkness he moved, following the vein of coal. Using his source of light and knowledge it was easy to recognize the different veins; this vein had produced much fine hard coal.
This was a good vein, unlike some which are mixed with earth and run shallow. It’s pure coal, hard, and ready to be used. Occasionally the veins ran together. When a dirty soft coal vein entered the harder coal, the good vein was often ruined. Much work was necessary to separate the two. When the earth-filled soft coal was mixed in excess the hard coal became worthless.
How long had he been in the darkness mining? Time did not matter, getting all the usable coal was of the essence. He knew how difficult it’d be from the start but to retrieve all the good coal was worth it.
The tools he used have been specially built. Knowing exactly what type of tools would be needed in every circumstance, he built them himself. If they broke, he would make another. Sometimes they were as good as the ones before, sometimes not, but it brought him joy if the tool worked better than the last one.
He remembered his son’s death. It happened right here in the darkness, many years ago but seemed like yesterday; no, today. He worked with this thought ever present. He swore to avenge his son’s death one day, the murderers would pay. For today, he would continue to mine in the spirit of his son. Today, always today, he worked; tomorrow was another time.
As he mined, his helpers whisked the extract above for processing. It’d been an efficient system since the beginning but he knew the last good vein was quickly running out and all current operations would soon cease. He’d love to mine all the coal but knew long ago that there would be soft worthless coal in this darkness. The useful coal was what he sought.
Finished with the last of the vein he too headed up and emerged into the bright light to observe the processing. His work was done. Reaching the gate he was filled with love and pride as he watched his son transform the lumps of coal into diamonds using his nail scarred hands.
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Your title caught my eye (my great grandfather was a coal miner.) I had to read this twice, the first time for the information about coal mining, then the second time with my eyes open. Your last sentence was magnificient! Love this!
