Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: HARMONY (11/03/22)
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TITLE: Mineshaft mayhem | Previous Challenge Entry
By Corinne Smelker
11/09/22 -
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“Mom!” I yelled from the kitchen. “Come quick.”
My mother, hanging washing outside, came to the back door.
“What’s up?”
“What mine was dad going to today?”
“I think it was the one near us, the Doornkop one. Why?”
I turned the radio up just in time for her to hear the news announcer repeat the breaking news.
Mom bolted through the back door into the living room and grabbed the telephone. I could see her hands shaking uncontrollably as she dialed a number.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she muttered.
My brother, Andrew, hearing the commotion from the living room, emerged from his bedroom. “What’s up?”
I briefly told him but never took my gaze from my mother’s panicked face.
She slammed down the phone. “It’s engaged. Michelle, you try. I am going to see Piet next door; maybe we can borrow his car since dad has ours.”
“What do I ask if I get through?”
“Just ask where your father is. And if anyone is hurt.”
She took off down our long driveway to the neighboring farm. I knew it would take her at least 10 minutes to get to Piet’s house; it was no use trying to call him; he had no phone.
I rang the number for the mine, but it was still engaged. I hung up and tried again, and then again, and again. On what seemed like the twentieth time, I heard the phone ringing. It was picked up almost immediately.
“Doornkop Mines, this is William. Who is this?”
“My name is Michelle, and my father is Alex Wilson….”
“Michelle, your father is ok….”
I interrupted, “Can I talk to him?”
“Well, he is safe, but he is stuck.”
“Stuck? What do you mean, stuck?”
Andrew drew close to me, and I held the receiver away from my ear so he could also hear. “Is he underground? How many others are there with him? What about…”
The questions tumbled out, but William stopped me. “No, he’s not underground. No one is. All the employees were in the shaft lift when the collapse happened. We are in contact with them all and are working on getting the lift operational so we can bring them all up. Everyone, including your dad, is safe. Now, please let me take some more calls. As you can imagine, other people are trying to make sure their family member is safe.”
I hung up and instantaneously burst into tears. When we emigrated from England, I knew it was because my father was bringing technology to the mines and installing computer systems. Still, I never imagined it meant he was going down into the actual mine shafts.
Andrew and I waited on the front verandah for our mother. Within a few minutes, she and Piet drove up in his farm bakkie. She tumbled out and ran towards us. “Any news?”
“He’s safe,” I said and recounted what William had told me.
“Oh. Thank God,” she began to cry in much the same way I had a few minutes prior.
At that moment, the phone rang. Mom rushed inside. “Wilson Residence, Janet speaking. Uh-huh? Yeah. Ok. Thanks.” She hung up and turned towards us.
“He’s out. They’re all shaken up, but they are not hurt. The mine owners are on hand to talk to them and get reports. I want you two to stay here. Piet and I will go and fetch him.”
To this day, I am not sure how the emotional reunion played out with my parents or with any of the other families. But I do know that within six weeks of this ordeal, my father no longer worked for Harmony Mines, the primary owners of Doornkop; instead, he worked for a construction company, implementing computer systems from the safety of an office.
Sometimes though, as we drove past Harmony Mine’s Headquarters, I swore I saw wistfulness in his eyes and a longing to be back in the action of pioneering computer systems several hundred metres underground.
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This is a true story. My father was in the mines in 1977 when there was a collapse.
Harmony Mines, Doornkop
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