The Contest

Lesson3_읽기본문.hwp

It was dark in the coal mine where Earl and his father were working. They turned on the light in the headlamps that they were wearing. Earl and his father did not speak to each other. They had not spoken all day. They had not spoken since supper the evening before.

“You’re not going to Detroit,” Earl’s father had said.

“I won’t let you go.”

“I can get a job there,” Earl had said, “Amos told me they’re paying good money.”

“You’re not going to Detroit until I say so ― and that’s not until you’re a man. You’re not a man now! I don’t want to hear anymore about it.”

Earl could understand his father’s anger. Earl’s two older brothers had long ago left that gray, lonely country where there was only enough work to last three or four months of the year.

Earl wanted to leave his home. But he wanted his father’s permission to leave. He did not want to sneak away. He wanted to go like a man. When he left, it would be by the front door.

Now, Earl and his father made their way through the coal mine. The headlamps shone brightly at the beginning of their shift. But before their shift was over, the headlamps would have only a weak glow. Then Earl and his father would have to feel their way along like blind men.

They had been working together ever since Earl was sixteen. Like all of his friends, Earl had quit school as soon as the state law allowed. His father had taught him how to mine coal. The rooms in the mine were very low. They were too low for a man to stand up straight. His father had taught him how to load coal into a car while lying on his side or while kneeling. Earl’s father liked being a miner. As a young man, he had set records for the number of cars he had filled. He had always loaded more cars than anyone else. He was fifty years old now. But he was still very strong and proud of it.

Earl and his father got on their hands and knees. They crawled into the room where they worked. Their picks and shovels stood against the wall, ready to be used.

The two men began to shovel coal into the first car. They always worked at a certain speed. As Earl’s father shoveled the coal, he suddenly changed that speed. He started to shovel the coal very fast ― much faster than ever.

At first Earl didn’t realize that it was a contest. He thought that his father was just taking out his anger on the coal. Earl had to work very fast to keep up with his father. They quickly filled the first car. Then they released the brake and pushed the car. The car moved down the track.

They pulled another empty coal car into the room. They again loaded it very quickly. Then the father shouted for more empty cars.

“Make sure we have plenty of cars!” the father told Otis Eberly, the foreman.

Otis brought them six empty cars and took away the two cars that were filled with coal. When they began shoveling again, the father worked even faster than before.  He smiled. Earl knew then that his father was not angry. He was just trying to show that he was stronger than Earl. He was trying to prove that his son was not a man yet.

Earl began shoveling faster. He and his father rapidly filled the next two cars. Neither of them stopped to take a drink of the water they brought with them. They did not stop to wipe the sweat from their faces. They were loading the coal into the cars as fast as they could.

Earl wished that his father would rest so that he could rest too. But his father did not stop.

“Tired?” Earl’s father asked after a while.

“I’m just getting started,” Earl answered.

“Why are you sweating, then?” asked his father.

“For the same reason you are, I guess.”

His father’s laugh was short and hard. They both kept working at top speed. They were throwing shovel after shovel of coal into the car. Earl’s body ached. His elbows knocked against the hard rock floor until they began to bleed. His mouth was dry. The two men worked on. They did not stop for lunch. Otis kept bringing more empty coal cars. Other miners came to the entrance of the room. They watched Earl and his father.

After a while, Earl began to lose control over his body. His arms began to feel weak. Coal was falling off his shovel before he lifted it over the side of the car. But his father looked as strong as ever.

“He’s going to beat me,” Earl thought.

“He’s going to beat me! And if he does, he knows I won’t leave home. He knows I won’t go because it would look like I was running away.”

So Earl kept going.

“One more shovel,” he said to himself over and over.

“I’ll do one more shovelful before I quit.”

The ones became tens. The tens became hundreds. The hundreds became a thousand. Still his father showed no sign of letting up. Then Earl saw that the pace was slowing. He looked at his father. Earl could see that his father was getting tired. His father was no longer smiling. His mouth was open, and he was gasping for air. He continued to lift his shovel, but each time the shovel held only a few lumps of coal.

Earl shoveled more slowly. He was willing to stop if his father would stop. But his father was not ready to quit. The other miners waited at the entrance to the room.

They watched without speaking. Now Earl and his father were spilling more coal on themselves than into the car. The father’s face showed pain. There was fear there too. He was afraid that Earl would beat him.

Finally, the father’s body would not obey him. His arms could not lift, and his fingers did not close tightly around the shovel handle. The shovel fell out of the father’s hands.

Earl knew then that he could win! He would win if he could put just one more shovelful of coal into the car. He pushed his shovel into the coal. His father and the men watched. Very painfully and slowly, Earl raised the shovel.

Then Earl looked into his father’s eyes. Earl saw something in his father’s eyes. Earl saw that his father was hoping that Earl would not shame him by defeating him in front of the other miners.

Earl lifted his shovel to the top of the car. He held the shovel there for a few seconds. Earl had to make sure his father understood that he was able to empty the shovel into the car. Then Earl let the shovel fall to the ground. Earl and his father fell backward. They rested their heads against the coal. The miners began to move quietly away.

“You can go home,” Otis said to the father and son.

“You’ve loaded enough coal.”

Otis moved off into the darkness. Earl and his father rested on the coal. After a while Earl sat up and drank a little water. Then he passed the bottle to his father. The father poured water on his face. He got up shakily. Then they staggered out of the mine.

The rain had stopped. The sky was gray. Thick clouds hung in the sky. The two men could hear the sound of water from the streams. Earl and his father did not talk until they got to the muddy road. Ahead of them was their house. It was a wooden cabin that badly needed paint. The father slowed down.

“You can go to Detroit,” the father said. Then he asked, “Are you going to see your brothers?”

“I guess so,” Earl answered.

“Tell them to write once in a while. Your mother likes to get letters.”

“I’ll tell them.”

The father went into the yard. Earl followed him. His father waited for a moment at the front door. Then they entered the house together.