Chapter 1

I've been a coal miner for the last thirty years. At fifty-one years old, I've seen it all, or at least an awful lot of it. I worked in the deep mine for twenty years until one day I was trapped in a collapsed mine. After that, I went into strip mining. It was also the end of my marriage of seventeen years. I've been divorced for the last nine years. If it weren't for being trapped in the mine, I never would have known about Brenda cheating on me. I'll tell you a little about it later.

Right now, I want to talk about these idiot college kids that have nothing better to do than to picket our facility. They do it every year to honor Earth Day. We can expect them to start their picketing about a week before Earth Day and be there until the weekend after it ends. They really have no idea what they are doing or why they're doing it. They feel it has something to do with protecting the minerals in the earth.

I headed up to my truck as they were yelling at us miners, calling us all types of obscene names. We're all used to it and don't pay a lot of attention. Some of the younger miners always want to go and argue with the students. We older guys know better. Confrontation is not what our corporations want. They know it will just draw more negativity and the reporters will start showing up. As long as we leave the students be, the less chance of a confrontation with them.

We, that's a few of my miner friends and I, headed over to the local pub for a few beers like we do most nights after work. It's just good to unwind for an hour or so after a hard day's work, and believe me mining is hard work.

We always get into discussions about political issues or things like this Earth Day crap. Don't get me wrong here; we want a nice decent clean earth as much as the next guy does. It's just that we don't think a lot of the young people understand exactly how things work. Them standing out there with a picket sign isn't going to close the whole mining industry and if it ever did, our world would cease to exist like it does today. Talking about third world countries, we'd be a fourth world country.

One of my friends, Mike, wanted to lighten up the conversation so he told us about one of the e-mails he got the day before. It was about what some of the words women use really mean. He pulled the e-mail out of his pocket and began reading it to us.

Here's what Mike told us: It was titled 'Nine Words Women Use'.

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don 't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say, 'you're welcome' ... that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F@!K YOU!

(9) Don't worry about it: I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

We all laughed. The married guys said they lived with the language daily. I was remembering back to when I was married to Brenda. I'd have to say that his word explanations were pretty much on the mark.

After another beer, we all headed to our respective homes. Of course, I headed to my apartment where I've lived for the last nine years. I was used to living alone. Every once in a while I'd go visit one of my daughters. They were both married now and I was a grandpa three times now. Cheryl, my oldest had two kids, and Sue, my youngest had a son.

I guess it's about time to tell you about my mining accident and my cheating wife. I'll go back to when we met. It was quite a few years back. I had just turned twenty-one and a friend of mine said he was going to take me to a wild party for my birthday. Every weekend some of the colleges throw parties. They wanted you to be a student and my friend Jerry was. I had just started working in the deep mine but I was the same age as a lot of the students.

I have to say that this was one wild party. Drinking and loud music were everywhere. I saw a few people smoking a little weed. I tried it once and didn't like it. It gave me a headache. Anyway, the more people drank, the louder and more obnoxious they became. The girls were doing these sexy dances and the guys were doing their best to get some free feels.

As the night rolled on there were a number of couples going to different rooms. I figured it was to have sex. A few did it right there in front of everyone. I was standing there watching a girl giving this guy a blowjob when I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Hi! Are you Rob?" It was a nice looking woman that I had watched getting felt up a little earlier.

"Yes, I'm Rob. What can I do for you?" I smiled.

"Your friend Jerry told me it's your twenty-first birthday today. Is that true?"

"As a matter of fact it is; and who might you be?" I asked.

"I'm Brenda. I'm a senior here at State. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday."

She leaned over and kissed me. It was then I felt her tongue pressing against my lips and opened my mouth. By instinct, I reached around and put my hands on her ass, and pulled her into me. She was kissing me harder and I was pulling her against my increasing hard-on.

"Come with me, Rob," she said.

I didn't say a word as she took me by the hand and we went upstairs into someone's room. She locked the door, came back, and kissed me again. I reached between us and undid her belt, and unzipped her jeans. I turned her around with her back to me and slid my hand down her tummy and inside of her panties. I continued over a trimmed bush and sank my fingers over a moist pussy. She was lightly moaning.

I was as hard as a rock now pushing up against her ass. I pulled my hand out of her panties and started removing my jeans. At the same time, she stripped down to her bra and panties, a matching pink set.

I had my shirt, shoes and pants off as she turned and got on her knees in front of me. She pulled my briefs down over my hard-on and down my legs. I quickly kicked them off as she grabbed hold of my cock and slipped it between her lips.

What can I say? Getting a blowjob from a good-looking woman was great. She was two years older than me, I found out later. After I came, she told me it was my turn to do her. She lay across the bed and I put my head between her legs. I did my best as she held my head into place. I licked, sucked and tongued her as best I could. She was getting wetter and wetter. She released my head and got up in the middle of the bed.

I mounted her and we began a sexual marathon, for me at least. I must have come four times over the next two hours. We rested a while and then I went looking for my buddy Jerry who was passed out in the living room with his face buried between a brunette's legs.

Brenda, my newfound friend, helped me get Jerry up and out to our car. Luckily, because of all the sex I had, I didn't drink much. I kissed Brenda goodbye and told her I would love to see her again sometime. She told me she usually went to the parties and would keep her eye out for me.

I drove over to Jerry's dorm and helped him in. We both crashed until the following morning. I spent the night in dreamland thinking about Brenda. It was the best sex that I had in my life; at least to that date.

The next morning I thanked Jerry for inviting me along. He told me I could come anytime I wanted. He would let me know when there was a party. I'd have to pay my own way from now on, he laughed.

I asked him about Brenda and he told me she was a really fun girl. They were friends but that he never made it with her. She usually preferred the seniors or at least older guys. She asked him who I was when we had arrived, and when he told her it was my birthday; she took it from there.

I had to work the mines most weekends so I wasn't able to go with Jerry very often. I did get a Saturday off and went my second time. Of course, I looked for Brenda. I saw her sitting on a guy's lap and got just a bit depressed until she looked up and saw me. She got off his lap and came over, and laid a hell of a kiss on me.

"Welcome back, Rob. I looked for you every week but I figured it was just a one-time thing with you. I asked Jerry about you and he told me you were a coal miner; is that true?"

"Yep! I'm in the deep mines and work the late shift. I finally got a weekend off and I had to see you again. You've been on my mind ever since we met."

"Same here," said Brenda.

We spent the night together and had sex the whole night this time. I've been with a few women in my life, but none can even come close to what Brenda and I had together. She did things to me that I only thought happened in movies.

Was it possible to fall in love with someone because of the sex? I never felt this way about any women before. I did make it back to one more party before she graduated. We told each other that maybe we could keep in touch. I found out that she was from a town only twenty-five miles from where I lived. I got her phone number and told her we could see each other once in awhile. She told me she would like that.

I was back working, then on my next Saturday off after her graduation from college I called Brenda. She said she was happy to hear from me and we set up a date. She told me all about herself.

She was twenty-four years old and was now a secretary for a large firm in her town. She was living with her parents but was getting her own apartment very soon. She graduated from high school and went to State College. She said she has had boyfriends in the past but for some reason wasn't ready to settle down.

We had been dating about six months. I talked to her at least every other day and tried to see her at least twice a week. Once she got her apartment, we spent a lot of our free time in her bed. I hadn't been with another woman since we had been seeing each other. She told me she turned down dates and that I was the only one she wanted to be with.

I knew I was falling in love with her. She was in my thoughts every single day. I wanted to ask her to marry me but I was somewhat afraid of her past. I knew she lived a wild life during her college years. Hell, I was part of it. One day after we went to a movie and ended up in bed, she asked me what was the matter. She said she knew something was bothering me.

"Brenda, I'm in love with you but..."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" she interrupted me. "You see, I'm in love with you too. I have been for quite sometime. So, what's the problem?"

"Honey, it's your past. I know you been with a lot of other guys and..."

"What? And you haven't been with other women? I haven't had sex with any man since we've been together. I sowed my oats, just like you did. It's the twenty-first century. Men and women are supposed to be equal; or don't you feel that way?"

"No, I mean yes, hell I mean no. Damn it. Brenda, I can forget your past as long as it stays your past. I have no desire for any other women. You're the one I want to be with."

" ... and you're the only one I want to be with. We can make this work. I love you, Robert Mathais, and only you."

Shortly after our little talk, we got married. Everything was great. She went off the pill and within the next four years, we had our two beautiful daughters.

Brenda worked part-time after the birth of the girls. She was a great mother and wife. I continued to work at the mines and my spare time was devoted to my family. We had a lot of family time while the girls were growing up. Of course, a couple of evenings a week Brenda and I had our own fun. We enjoyed our private sex life to the fullest. That was until the girls started high school and Brenda decided to go back to work full time.

I worked the late shift in the deep mines and Brenda worked the day shift at her office job. One of us was always there for the girls but we didn't get to spend much time together. When we were home together, the girls were usually around. We did a lot of kissing and hugging but our sexual togetherness was less than once a month.

To make matters even worse. I was put on a seven to seven shift. I started at seven in the evening till seven in the morning. I also had to work every other Saturday. The money was good but my love life wasn't doing so well. I knew that Brenda wasn't as lovable as she once was either. I figured her work was getting to her too and I didn't want to upset her.

I know she had been going out with her girlfriends more often. I could hardly blame her. Joyce and Ellen were both married also so I didn't think any hanky-panky was going on.

One Saturday evening as I was leaving for work, I kissed the girls goodnight and told them I would see them in the morning. Brenda was getting dressed to go have a couple of drinks with her girlfriends. She had on her matching black panties and bra; she looked sexy sitting there. She told me she would probably be home by eleven. She just needed to get out for a little while. I kissed her goodbye and headed out the door.

There were eight of us guys working this one area of the mine together. We were down in the mine maybe two hours when we heard a sudden roar and a huge cloud of black smoke. An area of the mine had collapsed and we were trapped. The only lights that we had were those on our helmets. We were scared shitless. We looked at each other and I could see a few of the guys were hurt. It was hard to see how bad.

I went to try to stand and fell back down. Either my leg was badly bruised or broken. It hurt like hell. We were stuck in a small area of about eight feet by eight feet. We had our water bucket but we didn't have any food. We did our best to try to assess our condition. Three of us were hurt. Four others said they thought they were okay but scared and pretty shaken up. That's when we saw that Charlie wasn't moving. He was in the door-well when the collapse occurred, and he was struck in the head when one of the rafters fell. We believed he was dead. One of the guys checked for a pulse but there wasn't any.

We knew we had to keep calm and hope that help would soon arrive. Joe, one of the guys, held up our air line, which was severed in the collapse. That meant that we had a very limited amount of air. We spent most of our time just trying to keep calm and wait for help to arrive. We were too far down to be able to work our way out. Besides, we had no idea how bad the mine had collapsed. To the best of our knowledge, we were cut off from the rest of the world.

Let me tell you that your family is the first thing that goes through your mind. Your whole life with them flashes before you. I thought of Brenda and how happy we were when we found out she was pregnant. You think of the times you yelled at your kids and wish you could take them back. Yes, some of us had tears, wondering if we'd ever see our families again.

We were down there about three hours when we heard a noise. Joe thought it might be another collapse. "No, Joe, that's a large drill. My guess is they located us. We just might make it."

The next thing we saw was a large drill coming through an adjacent wall. We could see a large tube being pushed through. We knew someone was going to be pumping air to us. Within another twenty minutes, we could feel the air coming into our porthole of the room. It was another three hours before we were freed from our hole.

The only part of the mine to collapse was the area we were in. They were able to come in the main shaft and build it up, and remove the piles of dirt, rock and coal and make it to us. We were taken out one by one on stretchers. The other two hurt miners were taken up first, followed by Charles who was indeed dead. Then three of the healthy miners were sent up and then Joe told me to go up next and he would come up last. We were the two senior men in our operation.

It was dark except for the lights shining toward the mine entrance. I heard cheering when I was brought up. Everyone's family was there waiting for them. I was taken over to a makeshift dispensary area. My two daughters ran up to me and gave me a big hug. They were both crying. Behind them was my sister, Betty, who brought them to see me. When I asked about Brenda, Betty said they called her cell phone but it was turned off and they didn't know where she was.