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The worst part ismy journal, I don’t brush his teeth anymore or lay out his clothes I cook for him, so he won’t starve, but that’s all

What bothers me most is the suspicion that it wasn’t just once that he read my journal but ood hiding spot So far, the loose floorboard under my dresser seems the best place I don’t think he can possibly find it, but still I keep picturing him with the little leather-bound book open over his knees

Yesterday at breakfast, I finally came out with it

"Blum, you are a bastard and a dickhead!" (Those were the only words I could find) "After all I’ve done for you, you creep into my room and look in my journal What kind ofhis head, didn’t answer Not that I really expected hi hih, he’s ined But if I left, where would I go? I still have my job at Camp White Rock and I could h money to afford it

On the other hand, I have become fond of the farm at the end of Wild Rose Road, the daffodils, the brook, the oak in front just budding out This is our second spring here and the early crops have already been sowed And then there’s the chickens, only six of them, but they all have names, Mary, Martha, Madeline, Molly, Maria, and Minny Minny’s the littlest, a red Bantas What would I do with them if I left?

I suppose I could tell Blum to leave Tell him to wrap his few clothes in a bundle, tie them to a stick, and hit the road like a hobo, but then I’d be here alone That would not be a good idea, not with the hoh-looking fellows came to the door and the hair onfor handouts, but it turns out I rong

"Would you like to buy so off his dirty cap His hands are almost black and there’s soot on his nose They lead a jackass loaded with burlap bags of the black gold "Two bits a bag; burns nice and hot"

"Where’d you get it?"

"We dug it ourselves We’re no thieves if that’s what you’re thinking"

"You dug it? I thought all the mines had closed in Union County"

"They did MacIntosh Consolidated went bust five years ago Horse Shoe barred the gates and evicted us fro shacks this Deces to the people, sa about when she toldhis coalthe jackass growls "It will be cold again this winter, and you’ll be sorry if you pass this up If you don’t want it, someone else will Mrs Hester, the s yesterday and Mr Maddock took three today"

I’ coal,’ froers over in Pennsylvania? I read how out-of-workpits on the hillsides and how the cops arrested some two hundred ht! Pardon , but Sheriff Hardman calls it sensible We have wives and kids to feed Do you want soood, but technically the fuel is stolen On the other hand, Mr MacIntosh, the coal baron, died by his own hand at the beginning of the Depression and his , Katherine, and her little boy iven up on Appalachia Now the coal is just sitting there and thefrom the earth, same as Dr Blum and I

I make a snap decision It’s not cold now, but it will be this winter "I’ll take the rest of what you’ve got, all four bags and I’ll take more if you’re ever up this way"