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Chapter 1
PROLOGUE INITIATION
CHAPTER ONE-June 22, 1911
On the day King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, Billy Williams went down the pit in Aberowen, South Wales
The twenty-second of June, 1911, was Billy's thirteenth birthday He oken by his father Da's technique for waking people was more effective than it was kind He patted Billy's cheek, in a regular rhythm, firmly and insistently Billy was in a deep sleep, and for a second he tried to ignore it, but the patting went on relentlessly Mory; but then he reet up, and he opened his eyes and sat upright with a jerk
"Four o'clock," Da said, then he left the roo on the wooden staircase as he went down
Today Billy would begin his working life by beco an apprentice collier, as e He wished he felt more like a miner But he was determined not to make a fool of himself David Crampton had cried on his first day down the pit, and they still called hih he enty-five and the star of the town's rugby team
It was the day after h the s beside him Graot up; he said old people did not sleep much
Billy got out of bed He earing only his underdrawers In cold weather he wore his shirt to bed, but Britain was enjoying a hot suhts were mild He pulled the pot from under the bed and took off the lid
There was no change in the size of his penis, which he called his peter It was still the childish stub it had always been He had hoped it ht before his birthday, or perhaps that hesomewhere near it, but he was disappointed His best friend, Tommy Griffiths, who had been born on the same day, was different: he had a cracked voice and a dark fuzz on his upper lip, and his peter was like a
As Billy was using the pot, he looked out of theAll he could see was the slag heap, a slate-gray s, waste from the coal mine, mostly shale and sandstone This was how the world appeared on the second day of Creation, Billy thought, before God said: "Let the earth bring forth grass " A gentle breeze wafted fine black dust off the slag onto the rows of houses
Inside the room there was even less to look at This was the back bedroole bed, a chest of drawers, and Gramper's old trunk On the as an embroidered sampler that read:
BELIEVE ON THE
LORD JESUS CHRIST
AND THOU SHALT