The Giver of Stars(30)

The Kenworth cabin was the neatest, Margery suspected, for twenty miles. There was not a speck of dust or an item out of place, testament to Sophia’s fearsome organizational skills. Margery sat and drank a glass of sarsaparilla, and listened as William told her how the mine had laid him off after his accident. ‘Union tried to stand up for me but since the shootings, well, nobody wants to stick their neck out too far for a black fellow. You know what I’m saying?’

‘They shot two more union men last month.’

‘I heard.’ William shook his head.

‘The Stiller brothers shot the tyres out of three trucks headed out from the tipple. Next time they went into the company store at Friars to organize some of the men, a bunch of thugs trapped them in there and a whole bunch had to come over from Hoffman’s to get them out. He’s sending a warning.’

‘Who?’

‘Van Cleve. You know he’s behind half of this.’

‘Everybody knows,’ said Sophia. ‘Everybody knows what goes on in that place but nobody wants to do nothing.’

The three of them sat in silence for so long that Margery almost forgot why she had come. Finally she put her glass down. ‘This isn’t just a social call,’ she said.

‘You don’t say,’ said Sophia.

‘I don’t know if you heard, but I’ve been setting up a library over at Baileyville. We got four of us librarians – just local girls – and a whole lot of donated books and journals, some on their last legs. Well, we need someone to organize us, and fix up the books, because it turns out you can’t do fifteen hours a day in the saddle and keep the rest of it straight, too.’

Sophia and William looked at each other.

‘I’m not sure what this has to do with us,’ Sophia said.

‘Well, I was wondering if you’d come and organize it for us. We have a budget for five librarians, and there’s a decent wage. Paid for by the WPA, and the money’s good for at least a year.’

Sophia leaned back in her seat.

Margery persisted: ‘I know you loved working at the library at Louisville. And you could be back here in an hour each day. We’d be glad to have you.’

‘It’s a coloured library.’ Sophia’s voice hardened. She folded her hands in her lap. ‘The library at Louisville. It’s for coloured folk. You must be aware of that, Miss Margery. I can’t come work for a white person’s library. Unless you’re actually asking me to ride horses with you and I can sure as anything tell you I’m not going to be doing that.’

‘It’s a travelling library. People don’t come in and out borrowing stuff. We go to them.’

‘So?’

‘So nobody even needs to know you’re there. Look, Miss Sophia, we’re desperate for your help. I need someone I can trust to mend the books, and get us straight, and you are, by anyone’s standards, the finest librarian for three counties.’

‘I’m going to say it again. It’s a white person’s library.’

‘Things are changing.’

‘You tell the men in hoods that when they come knocking at our door.’

‘So what are you doing here?’

‘I’m looking after my brother.’

‘I know that. I’m asking you what you’re doing for money.’

The two siblings exchanged a look.

‘That’s a mighty personal question. Even for you.’

William sighed. ‘We ain’t doing too good. We’re living off what we got saved and what our mama left. But it ain’t much.’

‘William!’ Sophia scolded him.

‘Well, it’s the truth. We know Miss Margery. She knows us.’

‘So you want me to go get my head busted working in a white folks’ library?’

‘I won’t let that happen,’ said Margery, calmly.

It was the first time Sophia did not answer. There were few advantages to being the offspring of Frank O’Hare, but people who had known him understood that if Margery promised something would happen, then in all likelihood, it would. If you had survived a childhood with Frank O’Hare, not much else was going to stand in your way.

‘Oh, and it’s twenty-eight dollars a month,’ said Margery. ‘Same wage as the rest of us.’

Sophia looked at her brother, then down at her lap. Finally she lifted her head.

‘We’ll have to think about it.’

‘Okay.’

Sophia pursed her lips. ‘You still as messy as you was?’

‘Probably a little worse.’

Sophia stood and straightened her skirt. ‘Like I said. We’ll think about it.’

William saw her out. He insisted, raising himself laboriously from his chair while Sophia handed him his crutch. He winced with the effort of shuffling to the door, and Margery tried not to let on that she saw it. They stood at the door and looked out at the relative peace of the creek.

‘You know they’re fixing to take a chunk out of the north side of the ridge?’

‘What?’

‘Big Cole told me. They’re going to blow six holes straight through it. They reckon there’s rich seams in there.’

‘But that part of the mountain is occupied. There’s fourteen, fifteen families just down by the north side alone.’