The Iron Mountain Review Vol. XXXII

54 Robert Gipe and Higher Ground Company

[ Laughs quietly and gets back on his machine ] You boys, you’ll do well to lie there and figure out how to kiss and make up. *** Scene Four: Black Damp To be split into individual and small group voices .

CHORUS A: Stink damp. CHORUS B: Black damp.

MIKE: We all stopped at lunchtime, got together, and we were talking like we always did. Somebody was missing a sandwich, and nobody would fess up to having eaten it. My wife, she knows about that business, and she packs me a lot in my bucket, so I usually have a sandwich I can give somebody. It was that liver loaf and cheese, and I caught some guff about the liver loaf, but I like it fine. It don’t get

CHORUS A: White damp. CHORUS B: Fire damp. CHORUS C: Stink damp. CHORUS D: Black damp. CHORUS A: White damp is carbon monoxide. CHORUS B: Fire damp is methane. CHORUS C: Stink damp is hydrogen sulfide.

stolen like ham or roast beef. CHORUS D: White damp. CHORUS A: Fire damp. CHORUS B: Stink damp. CHORUS C: Black damp.

MIKE: When we were back at the face after lunch, I was cutting coal, and it was too soft. Felt too soft. The machine was eating it too fast. And I told my friends, “This is awful soft coal.”

CHORUS D: Black damp is nitrogen and carbon dioxide. ALL: Damp is from dampf , the German word for vapors. MIKE: It was just a regular normal day. Got up and fooled around the house a little while. I worked third shift, so I did a little yard work that day. Always laid down for about an hour before I’d go to work. Got up. Got ready. My wife kissed me. Told me she loved me. Told me she’d see me in the morning.

CHORUS A: White damp. CHORUS B: Fire damp. CHORUS C: Stink damp. CHORUS D: Black damp.

CHORUS B: White damp. CHORUS C: Fire damp. CHORUS D: Stink damp. CHORUS A: Black damp.

MIKE: Then the biting edge of that machine went through the wall. Went right through to an old abandoned mine that wasn’t in the right place on the map.

CHORUS D: White damp. CHORUS A: Fire damp. CHORUS B: Stink damp. CHORUS C: Black damp.

MIKE: Got to work. Outside, you put your lights and stuff on, boots and everything. Jump around, play . . . . Now, this is bigger than it sounds like. Your life can depend on your co-workers underground, and that horsing around, well, that horsing around can save you. We started the shift, everything was fine, we went in and started the man trip, went down to the coal face and started working; everything was going good all day.

MIKE: The air that was coming out of it. It felt like it was a big ocean of water coming through on us. You could take a breath, but you got no oxygen, so you might as well have been breathing water. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

CHORUS C: White damp. CHORUS D: Fire damp.

CHORUS C: White damp. CHORUS D: Fire damp.

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