Miners in the Oquirrh Mountains / Lark, Utah

Lark means escapade or adventure, was it or something more?

Daughter of Fay Wray, movie star, most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong and considered by many to be the “first scream queen,” reads from her mother’s journal:

“We pulled into Lark. As we walked through this ghost of a town, it came alive with her description of the miners coming back at night carrying their lanterns and heading to the boarding house. Families going to Sunday church in a “hut-like” structure that became a movie theater Saturday night.” That's where she fell in love with movies. So much of this is beautifully described in her autobiography. 

Lark, founded in 1866, is the main town and center nestled in the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains for forty-five years of practically continuous employment of its inhabitants.

*** 

A tall man of slender build, dressed in jeans, work shirt, and boots, accompanied by a woman walk across the desolate landscape with a view of the Salt Lake City valley. Here and there, irises, daffodils, and even an occasional rose bush are reminders of the people who lived there - women raised their families, and men risked their lives to bring out the ore.

The two people are heading to one of the structures that seem to be rising out of the dirt. The man stops at an opening, takes his backpack off, and scoops the debris away that is blocking the way. He turns the metal knob, and pushes the heavy door that grates on the floor, and opens slowly.

Light filters through the dirty windows, and his companion gazes around the room, time stands still. Desks and papers covered with dust, chairs lying on the floor….

They continue with caution, unknown things crunching under their feet. She picks up a book " an industrial ledger, and carefully, opens the yellowed pages. Written in spidery black ink, dated 1917, names of miners, dates, times, recording their work in the dark tunnels.

The man passes through the room without hesitation to cement stairs; together, they start down the steps to the next level, darker and darker with each step. He takes out a book of matches, strikes one, holds it up to get his bearings, and looks at the form wavering beside him, clutching his other arm.

At the bottom of the stairs, he strikes another match, and confirms they are now in the infirmary: wooden cases with glass fronts, medical instruments, and bed frames. Footsteps fade into darkness, raspy breathing is heard, and a flickering light appears near another flight of stairs.

Where is he taking the woman? Another match reveals the shadows of the third level; she hears the sounds of miners, wet and covered with grime, haggard after working long hours in the mine, coming from the tunnel connecting to the Locker room. 

Sounds of wooden benches scrape as the men take off their clothes, hang them on hooks attached to chains that are pulled up to the high ceiling to dry, and talking in low tones, as the miners move to the showers….

Entering the tunnel, plunged into darkness, the woman stands alone, silence, except for her heart beating “out of her chest…”

Author's Note

Picture, commons.wikimedia.org
Locker room used by miners after a hard day in the mines to shower and change clothes...

Reviews

[Helena]

I enjoyed this well written Flash Fiction Diane. I loved the prologue at the beginning. Wonderfully descriptive and flowing beautifully throughout.

The ending was unexpected and a great finish......but it was not finished, I can only imagine what happened then. Well done!!

Thank you for submitting this to the contest.

Helena