Diamonds in the Rough Read online

  He guides me along the path, Hannah repeated to herself. Surely even the pastor himself plays his part in God’s instruction to me. It could hardly be clearer!

  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.”

  The way will be dangerous, of course. But the Lord himself reassures me to go onward despite my fear. And I will, Lord, I promise that I will!

  The men took up their shovels and began filling in the hole, little-by-little covering Roth over.

  “For I know that Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”

  It’s okay, Mr. Roth, Hannah silently prayed, knowing somehow that her old friend could hear her, the last traces of this mortal plane he’d ever know. He is with us, He comforts us.

  “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”

  “I’m going to find that diamond mine someday, Mr. Roth,” Hannah quietly vowed, “in your name and in your honor. It was your fate to find it, and you will, and the whole world will know it was you. You’ll rest in peace, Mr. Roth, and so with they … all of them. I promise you, Mr. Roth.”

  “Thou anoinst’ my head with oil,” the pastor went on, his words ringing in Hannah’s ear, “and my cup runneth over.”

  I will find that mine, Hannah told herself, even the Lord Himself agrees, He anoints my head with oil! And the mine will make us rich and settle the family problems too, no more worry for Daddy about the railroads, no more fights over the dinner table. We’ll share it, just like you said, we’ll share it all. Our cups will runneth over, and over and over and over!

  “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

  Adrienne gave Hannah a little squeeze, pulling her daughter close. And Hannah did not resist her. She knew she’d need her mother’s love and support for what was to come, that nobody in the Alexander family would stand a chance if they didn’t stick close together and cling with loving might for any last shred of warmth which might sustain them.

  Winter was coming.

  The community muttered a sad, communal, “Amen.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The autumn came on strong, with powerful winds that made the household chores difficult. Even so, Hannah was out there with Adrienne wrestling the sheets and shirts onto the clothes lines. The wind pushed against them, and to Hannah they looked like ghosts tethered to a vine, struggling to escape, reaching out with arms that were fluid upon the wind, waggling and waving and desperate for release.

  One day while pulling the clothes down from the line, something in the field behind their house caught Hannah’s eye. It was a figure, she believed, tall and lean like a man. But he stood out from his surroundings with a vague glow.

  Hannah shook her head and looked again, seeing nothing where the figure had been standing. Must be my imagination, Hannah told herself, thinking too much about Mr. Roth and his diamond mine. How am I ever going to find it?

  But as Hannah went on about the task of pulling the shirts down to the basket to fold them, the figure flashed again, still in the field but closer than before. It was close enough this time that Hannah could definitely tell it was a human, and she recognized the face.

  Old man Samuel Roth.

  Hannah dropped her clean, dried laundry onto the muddy ground and stared at the figure waving to her to join him, a mischievous smile on his glowing face.

  “Hannah, be careful!” Adrienne rushed toward her to pick up the laundry. “Look what you’ve done! These are all soiled, they all have to be done over again.” Adrienne stopped gathering the clothes to take a closer look at her daughter. “Honey? What is it? What’s wrong, Hannah?”

  But Hannah didn’t answer, she couldn’t. The figure was gone again, but it had seemed so real that Hannah couldn’t chalk it up to her imagination.

  It was real, Hannah told herself. It was Mr. Roth, wanting me to go with him somewhere. To the afterlife? No, Hannah knew, and she didn’t have to guess much further at the real answer. To the lost diamond mine.

  *

  That night Hannah sat up in her bed, peering out the window. If the spirit of Mr. Roth is lost or in pain or restless, he’ll never find peace with God. I can’t let that happen. And if he is restless and wants my help, he’ll come to me again, I know he will. He will tonight, I know it.

  An hour or so went by, and Hannah’s bedroom door creaked open. Adrienne stuck her head into the room. “Can’t sleep, honey?” Hannah shook her head and Adrienne stepped in quietly and sat next to her on the bed. She whispered into Hannah’s ear, “I know you miss your friend. And that’s okay, Hannah, it really is, happens to all of us. But he’s with God now, he’s in a better place.”

  “I guess,” was all Hannah managed to say.

  Adrienne pulled her close, the smell of her bath salts still fresh on her skin from the day before. “Listen, honey, I know it’s hard to understand, it’s even harder to explain, but … everybody has to die. It’s part of God’s plan. It’s not even a bad thing, because it’s God’s way of bringing us to Him, and being with God is always a good thing.”

  But what if we can’t get to God? Hannah wanted to ask but didn’t. She already knew the answer.

  Her mom went on. “And it can feel like we’re apart from that person that we’ll never see them again. But we’re not really apart from them, because they’re always with us, for as long as we remember them, for as long as they’re watching over us. And when it’s our turn to go be with God, and if they believed, then we will be together, just as close as ever. Okay?”

  Hannah nodded and let her mother give her a little kiss on the forehead before stepping out of the room. No sense in trying to explain it to Mother, Hannah realized. I don’t want to frighten or upset her, not with the way things are now.

  But I will find that mine and save this family and Mr. Roth’s soul and those other poor souls, no matter what it takes.

  *

  It was what looked to be the last nice day of autumn. The sky was clear blue, cardinals lingering in the bare branches of the sycamore branches. With her father minding the workshop in hopes of a passing customer and her mother cutting the grass in the front, Hannah knew she had to seize what was probably going to be her last opportunity for months to find that diamond mine.

  She remembered where the figure of Mr. Roth had been heading when he waved her over, even if it had only been a figment of her imagination; into the mountains beyond the fields behind their property. It was at least an hour’s walk to the foot of the mountains, but Hannah reasoned that might be just enough distance to discourage locals from exploring it themselves.

  Maybe the mine is closer to the foot of the mountains that I thought, Hannah reasoned. Makes sense. They were digging down, to an underground spring, so that would be closer to the base of the mountains than the peaks.

  With that and a satchel of hard tack and a canteen of fresh water, ten-year-old Hannah Alexander headed out to find her destiny.

  An hour or so after setting out, Hannah reached the foot of the mountainside, a slow ascent into the crags and crevices of a million untold stories, lives lost, scores unsettled. Hannah turned back to see her little town in the distance, a spread of fields separating her from everything she knew and loved in this world.

  Hannah turned and, with a deep and determined breath, took one step up onto a rock and then back down, slowly climbing higher, almost imperceptible.

  Hannah’s imagination echoed with the terrors of the woods; cougar and bear and snakes of all sorts, huge birds of prey that could fall straight down onto their victims, sometimes carrying away young deer, even human children.

  No, Hannah told herself, recalling the words of the psalm she’d only heard a few weeks before. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil….

  Twigs broke around her, little sounds shot up the crevice of her spine. Hannah stopped and glanced around
, seeing nothing and nobody in those thickening woods around her. The slope gave way to clusters of pine and hemlock, disguising her, isolating her.

  Thou preparest a meal before me in the presence of mine enemies … but, Hannah had to wonder, what if I’m the meal!

  No, don’t think about that, Hannah told herself. Instead, she focused on images of her father, smiling and proud, her mother bedecked in the best finery, tailors from New York and Chicago competing to call her their patron. She thought about Mr. Roth, looking down from heaven with a tranquil smile, the dancing spirits of the slaves at last free to rejoice, cut loose from the bondage that held them so many years after their terrible and untimely deaths.

  The minutes crept on until Hannah lost track of how long she’d been walking up that hill, but the ground got steadily sharper, rocks harder and more plentiful beneath her increasingly slippery feet, forest floor thick with a carpet of rotting leaves and twigs, bugs both dead and living.

  The roar of the bear cut through Hannah like a butcher’s blade, her whole being suddenly frozen and trembling as if the sound and volume of the beast’s cry would be enough to kill her on the spot.

  Hannah saw the large black bear, mouth agape, head rotating a bit on its massive, fatty shoulders. She stepped backward, eyes fixed on the beast and its on hers as it reared up on its hind legs. The creature’s great black claws reached out from its massive paws, long front arms held out to demonstrate its reach and power, stubby hind legs strong enough to support its incredible weight and power.

  Hannah’s scream was her only answer, high and shrill and surprising them both before her body spun and her legs flew into action, pumping wildly beneath her to carry her through the woods and back to the open field, back to Marion County, back home.

  But the bear growled and huffed behind her, the heavy sound of footfalls coming in fast succession behind her telling Hannah that the bear was charging, fast on her heels and probably getting closer with every step.

  She didn’t dare turn around.

  Hannah ran, legs moving fast, heart beating faster. The trees seemed to be racing by on either side, branches cutting into her arms like spindly fingers trying to grab her and hold her back, pin her down for an easy kill, conspiring with the bear to strike a victory of nature against man, avenging all those trees chopped down, all those animals hunted and slaughtered.

  But she ran past them, her hair almost getting tangled in one branch before she managed to swipe it away and keep running. The bear’s frustrated roar behind her caused an eruption of panic in her, releasing itself as a frightened shriek, no doubt goading the bear on to a more impassioned charge.

  Hannah was moving too quickly to stop, her senses on high alert. And her eyes had no sooner caught a fallen alder right in her path, huge and rotting, then her legs sprang her up and over it. Her left foot banged against the top of the fallen log, almost sending her toppling forward. But Hannah landed solidly with her right foot and ran onward, never losing her footing. The loud thumping of the bear behind her told Hannah it hadn’t been any impediment to it either.

  The only thing separating Hannah from the bear was the cluster of pines and cherry trees around them, too dense for the creature to pick up enough speed to finally close the gap between it and its frightened, ten-year-old prey. So Hannah cut a sharp left and ran straight, and then another hard right. With each turn, the bear let out a frustrated grunt or howl, and Hannah knew she’d found a way to at least keep the creature behind her until she could get back down to the fields. But the fields would be a wide-open path, with nothing to slow the bear down. Hannah knew at once that her strategy had put in on a crash-course with her own death, and it was too late to stop it.

  But the trees gave way to the foot of the mountain, where only a few craggy rocks and lone trees stood between Hannah, the bear, and the broad fields that would finally bring them together.

  Maybe it’s tired out, Hannah hoped as she ran out of the trees and down the foot of the hill to the flat fields in front of her. Maybe it’s so far behind that if I keep running, hard and fast and in a straight line, it’ll give up if it bothers to give chase at all.

  But the bear cried out again, loud and close and still coming, its massive paws wrapping against the dewy ground, pounding harder and faster as it came at her with grim certainty.

  Hannah kept running, heart near to bursting in her chest, head becoming dizzy. Her feet slid on the wet grass but she kept her footing and kept running. If I fall, Hannah warned herself, I’m as good as dead.

  The field opened up around her, revealing her and embracing her, a sanctuary and a graveyard. She ran faster, deeper into it, knowing that whatever her fate was, it lay in front of her and, very possibly, right beneath her feet.

  Her right ankle sank deeper, throwing off her balance. When her ankle jammed in the little hole, her entire body finally falling forward, a hard yank at her muscle wrenching it, twisting her leg and sending her snapping hard to the ground.

  She hit the ground with a hard thud and pulled her leg free. Pain shot up to the bottom of her guts, turning with nausea and terror as she turned to look up at the bear as it closed down upon her.

  Hannah was about to turn and spring upward into another desperate escape, but pain exploded in her ankle and she collapsed once more to the sodden, moldering ground. Behind and above her, the bear was no longer running. It no longer needed to. The chase was over.

  It was time for the kill, the feast.

  “Get away from me!” Hannah hollered, grabbing a nearby rock and throwing it at the bear, missing by a wide margin. She looked around with desperate hope, another rock nearby. She grabbed it, tried to aim, and threw again. The rock hit the bear in the face and bounced off, the great beast only shaking its head before taking those last few steps to Hannah’s neck, where its jaws opened up for that fateful snap.

  It blocked out the sun, cloaking Hannah it its merciless shadow, the cloak of death.

  Bang!

  The gunshot was loud, but the bear’s scream was even louder, right into Hannah’s ear. It was hot with the creature’s breath and wet with its spittle, the howl growing from a low pitch to high as it got fainter.

  Hannah rolled out from under the beast to see it falling slowly to its side, eyes round with shock and disbelief, a massive black hole behind one of its eyes trailing a stream of bright red blood. Its tremendous bulk finally succumbed to the pull of gravity as it fell onto its side and came to a terrible rest, chest rising and falling one last time.

  Hannah scrambled back, panting and confused, released from the jaws of certain death as if by a miracle. What was it? Who? Daddy? Must have been! What happened?

  A familiar figure stood a few yards away, her mother, Adrienne, the family percussion rifle still in her arms. Hannah climbed to her knees and scrambled into her mother’s arms, empty as she dropped the weapon to the cold, hard ground at their feet.

  Hannah’s relief poured out of her in waves of breathy sobs, tears rolling down her face, body collapsing in her mother’s embrace.

  *

  After the bear attack, Hannah had told her mother what had drawn her to the mountains and Adrienne had made her swear that she’d never look for the mine again. Hannah had agreed, of course. Not only would her father have been furious to know what she’d done and punish her strictly and sternly, but it was dangerous in the woods and Hannah was lucky to get out of there with her life. To take such a risk for something so outrageous and so unlikely was simply out of the question.

  “If you must die,” her mother had said, “do it for something worthwhile.”

  So Hannah knew it had nothing to do with her when her father came in and slammed the door behind him. “That’s it,” he said, “pack your things, we’re moving!”

  “But Husband,” Adrienne started, “this is our home!”

  “We’ve no home here,” Michael said, the timbre of rum in his voice. He dropped a letter on the kitchen table, thrice folded with what looked to
Hannah like a government stamp of some kind. “From the county, a writ of eminent domain.”

  “But … what does that mean, Michael?”

  “It means the government can seize the land for public good, s’what it means. They already moved in on old man Roth’s land down the road. Now they’ve got their sights on us.”

  Adrienne looked at the document, three pages thick. “But … eminent domain, that’s if there’s a war going on —”

  “There is a war going on, Adrienne, between the haves and the have-nots, same wars there’s always been. And who do you think is the likely winner?”

  Adrienne read through the bottom of the document. “We’ll speak to the commissioner, the man … what’s the name?”

  “Chisholm,” Hannah’s father said, “as if a soulless cretin like that would deserve a name.”

  Hannah repeated the name. Chisholm? That’s the name of the slave master from Mr. Roth’s story about the diamond mine! Cyrus Chisholm! Is that why this man is coming after our land, because the diamond mine really is so nearby?

  Michael went on. “It’s the damned railroads is why,” he said, as if reading his daughter’s mind even while addressing his wife. “They’ll run a whole string o’ lines through Marion County, right through this very spot, and that Chisholm and his government cronies’ll be rolling in it, a king’s treasure and more.”

  Treasure, Hannah repeated silently.

  “So they can just … chase us off like this?”

  “Yes, Adrienne, haven’t you been listening?”

  “But … what about the rest of Marion County, and all of Indiana? Are they simply to move everyone from here to there? Hasn’t anybody any rights?”

  “If they’ve got luck or money, they don’t need any rights! But look at me, in the carriage trade. Old man Roth was living off his last saved pennies. Where the poor live, they can vacate.”

  Adrienne tried to hide the terror in her arching brow, her deepening wrinkles. “But … where should be we go? What are we going to do?”