Fanfare for the Common Man (standard:other, 0 words)
Author: The Dark Master	Added: Jun 14 2001	Views/Reads: 3101/2074	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
One day that changed everything for a Romanian coal miner.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

of dirt that dotted the landscape like shallow graves in a Titan's 
cemetery.  Nicolae closed his eyes, trying to steady his thoughts.  
After all, it was only human to hate someone. 

A few moments later, the bus pulled into the yard of the industrial
complex.  Nicolae got off the bus and joined up with Ion and some of 
his other buddies.  Then together, the mass of men moved towards the 
Company office, stamped their time cards, and then filed off to the 
elevator entrance.  A squeal of metal increasing in intensity sounded 
the approach of the elevator and seconds later, a steel cage rose to 
the surface.  The front metal grid slid open and a group of twenty men 
walked out, their red, irritated eyes forming a stark contrast with 
their black, coal dust coated faces and bodies.  Part of the night 
shift, Nicolae thought, before he, Ion, and eighteen others packed into 
the cage and began their descent into the bowels of the Earth.  The men 
donned their helmets and watched the rock faces around them streaming 
upward.  Minutes later, the car stopped twenty-five hundred feet below 
the surface of the Earth.  Twenty-five hundred feet below Brasov, 
twenty-five hundred feet below Elena, thought Nicolae.  The metal gate 
opened and the men spanned out, weaving past heavy iron railcars and 
machinery on the way to their posts. 

Nicolae and Ion learned that they would be working on the North Seam
today, in the farthest reaches of the mine.  They would be teamed up 
with Leon Szvenk's group on this one.  Great, just great, thought 
Nicolae.  Eugen was in Szvensk's group.  Nicolae and Ion trudged down 
the rock hallways, past men furiously removing chunks of the rock face 
with their jackhammers and hydraulic tools.  It took what seemed like 
hours for the two men to reach their post.  The thought of having to 
work side by side with this man infuriated Nicolae.  He picked up his 
jackhammer, turned on the compressed air flow, and began to attack the 
rock face with a vengeance, grinding his teeth angrily. 

Eugen showed up with the rest of Szensk's crew a half an hour later and
purposefully set to work right beside Nicolae.  Both men wore earplugs 
to protect themselves from the painful din of the machinery, but they 
could mentally hear the silent curses that were being thrown between 
them.  Work went on and the crews filled the motorized iron railcars 
high with anthracite.  The filled cars would disappear only to be 
replaced by an unending stream of empty ones.  A fog of coal dust hung 
in the shaft, waiting to settle on the ground or deep in the men's 
lungs.  A water cannon was brought in and the walls were washed clean, 
the chunks of coal that hadn't been gathered, now flowing down the 
shaft to be pumped to the surface and processed.  At 11:30 a.m., a bell 
sounded, its harsh call echoing down the busy shafts.  Nicolae tipped 
his hat up and washed off his face with a hose.  The cold water felt so 
good against his sweltering brow.  He wiped his wet face with his hand 
and looked at it; his ungloved hand was now dripping with foul black 
water.  From deep inside his jacket, Nicolae removed his handkerchief 
and blew his nose.  A layer of ebony mucous covered the cloth and the 
man folded it up and put it back inside his jacket.  Eugen approached 
him. "So Antenescu, here we are again.  Let me ask you, why do you 
think your wife was interested in me," Eugen questioned coyly. 
"Prick...," said Nicolae as he shifted his gaze from his rival to the 
sandwich in metal lunchbox. "Come on, sometimes we just have to accept 
the fact that women make the wrong decisions in their choice of 
husbands," chuckled Eugen. Nicolae's hand groped for the sharp chisel 
next to him and could feel the hard composite grip in his rough hands.  
Nicolae smiled to himself and thought about how good it would feel to 
slam the sharp mining utensil deep into Eugen's skull, to see the look 
of shock register on his adversary's face as the blade tunneled deep 
into his cerebral cortex. 

Eugen's eyes opened wide in fright as he saw Nicolae grab the chisel,
his knuckles white with pressure.  Eugen snapped to his feet, his ugly 
sneer wiped from his face, replaced with a mask of sheer terror.  It 
was beautiful, thought Nicolae.  The biggest asshole in town would come 
to the end of the line. 

Chisel in hand, Nicolae swung at Eugen.  The fat man ducked and slammed
his fist into Nicolae's stomach.  Nicolae groaned and staggered 
backwards from the force of the blow but regained his feet and advanced 
upon his foe.  It was only he and Eugen now, the rest of the men had 
migrated away to a central area to eat their lunches.  Eugen looked 
stunned.  He was surprised that his lean rival could absorb such a 
blow. "You've dug your own grave, Dzherinscu.  You haven't realized 
that, have you?" Nicolae hissed. 

Eugen's eyes were like small, burning embers and his body trembled with
rage and fright.  His teeth were clenched and his fists were molded 
into tight balls.  He did not reply. "I'm doing both you and this town 
a favor, you rotten bastard," bellowed Nicolae as he raised his weapon 
above his head, preparing to take his revenge.  At the moment that his 
vengeance was to have been carried out, there was a crack, a terrible 
crack, and both men instinctively looked up.  Both sets of eyes 
instantly darted to the wooden support beams above them.  They were 
long overdue for replacement with new hydraulic supports that had been 
installed in many of Romania's mines.  Just as suddenly, the wooden 
supports in the mine shaft gave way and a mountain of rock came 
rumbling down upon them with an ear-splitting crash. 

Something hard and heavy smashed onto Nicolae's helmet, knocking him to
the ground.  Moments later, he regained his feet and looked around, 
dazed.  His hand instinctively went to his helmet lantern to turn on 
the light.  A focused beam of incandescent light cut through the thick 
curtain of dust to reveal a large heap of rubble where Eugen had been 
standing.  He turned around, looked to the other end of the shaft and 
noticed that it was still intact.  His exit would be unhindered. 

Nicolae turned again and looked at the pile of debris.  He could hear a
faint moaning from beneath it.  Eugen, thought Nicolae.  Eugen was 
still down there and alive at that.  The thought that maybe Eugen got 
what was coming to him flashed through his mind.  Nicolae knew that 
Eugen wouldn't last for long without air, and that by the time rescuers 
arrived, it would probably be too late.  Thinking that maybe it was 
best that Nature finish what he had begun, Nicolae turned on his heels 
and began to walk down the path.  He heard the cry again, this time 
much weaker.  Nicolae's throat seemed to constrict and the muscles in 
his neck tensed.  Stopping in his tracks, he slowly turned his head 
back to the rubble.  Could he leave this man to die, to suffer?  What 
would this really accomplish?  Could he live with the knowledge that he 
had dispassionately let a man die when he could have intervened?  What 
would his colleagues think of him? 

Nicolae rushed back to the pile of rubble and furiously began tearing at
the loose rock with his bear hands. "I hate you, I hate you," screamed 
Nicolae as he scrambled to remove the ruins.  His unprotected hands 
began to bleed as they hastily tore at the rocks.  But Nicolae felt no 
pain, being in the grip of a powerful adrenaline rush.  Pulling away 
pounds of rubble seemed no more physically taxing than scooping up sand 
at a playground.  Nicolae could hear the moans getting stronger now and 
heard yells in the distance. "You son of a bitch, why am I doing this," 
cried Nicolae, his face now covered not only with sweat but tears. It 
seemed like an eternity, but Nicolae's hands finally uncovered the 
helmeted head of the man he so hated.  He exposed Eugen's shoulders and 
with a loud grunt, heaved him from the rubble.  He wiped the dust from 
Eugen's face and watched as the wounded man's mouth opened, gasping for 
air.  Eugen opened his eyes and looked upward.  He saw a man kneeling 
over him, a man with bloody, torn hands.  From behind him, Eugen could 
hear booted feet running down the corridor.  He looked up at Nicolae, 
the man whom he had tortured, the man who had almost killed him as 
Nicolae stared downwards at him.  Eugen's mouth moved, but the phrase 
was inaudible.  Words were not needed. 


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