Short stories

Miner Story

As usual after my week of work in the mine I went to the office to get paid for my job.
The secretary counted my hours before giving me the purse that was containing my pay.
I wasn't paid really much for the hard work I was doing. We all are. We are dying in those dark tunnels to just get out the few amounts of black coal that was in there.
On my way home I went to the bakery to get some bread as asked by the first one of the family to get back home.
Françoise , the daughter of the baker, asked me if I would take it as usual and I agreed. Françoise was a good girl, she had everything for her. She was such a clever young woman, she had sneaky clever eyes which could read you like an open book. I hope she will find someone she deserves.
I barely had enough to pay her by luck.
We did some small talk, I was worried for her father who couldn't stop coughing, we were able to hear him from here while he was, I think, in his bed upstairs. I saw very well that she was more worried for her father than myself, poor her she loves her dad more than anything on earth. She told me that her mother was out trying to get some medicinal herbs because they don't have enough to pay the doctor this month with all the work they have done to renovate the shop. Joseph worked at the mine for the last decade to get more money to pay for renovations.
Poor him he gave his soul and body for his wife and children to live properly without being able to live like this with them.
I asked Françoise to tell her dad to get better and told her to be careful before leaving. I saw her growing and she was like my own daughter.
The moment I got out from the bakery I saw my eight years old son Emile basically running to our house but at the moment he saw me getting out of the shop he changed his direction to get to me. He told me breathlessly and with a wave of panic in his eye that a crumble had just happened in the mine and his mom was caught in the wrong side of the tunnel.
Francoise saw that my son was in panic and understood that something was wrong with my wife and offered to take care of him while I got back to mine. I accepted and ran to the mine.
Once I got there the director came to me with a sad expression on his face. I understood but didn't want to believe it until I saw her. It took two days until her broken body was taken out from the rocks.