4
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Say, what does she think she is? a poet?"
"And she talks about the coal. Says it oughta be red, and let people
see how they get it with blood."
"Quit your woman's blabbin'," said Jim Holbrook, irritated suddenly.
"I'm goin'
now."
Morning sounds. Scrunch of boots. The tinkle of his pail, s\vinging.
Shouted greetings to fellow workers across the street.
Her mother turn-
ing down the yellow light and creaking into bed. All the sounds of the
morning weaving over the memory of the whistle like flowers growing
lovely over a hideous corpse. Mazie slept again.
Mrs. Holbrook lay in the posture of sleep. Thoughts, like worms,
crept within her. Of Marie Kvaternick, of Chris's dreams for the boys.
Of the paralysing moment when the iron throat of the whistle shrieked
forth its announcement of death, and women poured from every house to
run for the tipple.
Of her kids. Mazie, \Vill, Ben, the baby.
Mazie,
for ali her six and a half years was like a woman sometimes.
It's living
like this does it, she thought, makes 'em old before their time. Thoughts
of the last accident writhed in her blood. There were whispered rumors
that the new fire boss, the super's nephew, never made the trips to see if
there was gas. Didn't the men care? They never let on. The whistle.
In her a deep man's voice suddenly arose, moaning over and over, "Gawd,
Gawd, Gawd."
The sun sent its grimy light thru the window of the three room
wooden shack, twitching over ~lazie's face, filtering across to where
Anna Holbrook bent over the washtub.
Mazie awoke suddenly, the baby
was crying. She stumbled over to the wooden box that held it, warming
the infant to her body. Then she dressed, changed the baby's diaper with
one of the· old flower sacks her mother used for the purpose and went
into the kitchen.
"~Ia, what's there to eat?"
"Coffee.
It's on the stove. \Vake Will and Ben and don't bother
me. I got washing to do."
Later.
"Ma?"
"Yes?"
"What's an edication?"
"An edjiccation?" Mrs. Holbrook arose from amidst the shifting
vapors of the washtub, and with the suds dripping from her red hands,
walked over and stood impressively over Mazie.
"An edjiccation is what
you kids are going to get. It means your hands stay white, and you read
books, and work in an office. Now, get the kids and scat. But don't go
too far, or I'll knock your block off."
