When they'd first come to Grantville from the west, Claudette Green had asked very similar questions in the Red Cross office. Now, the questions were about the recent trip Yitzach and Moische had taken west to the cattle market in Neustadt, and Yossie's trip north the week before.
For the next half hour, Bernadette took careful notes while the three of them described their trips. Bernadette's questions focused on three things. She wanted to know the names of villages, the quality of the roads and paths they had followed, and most of all, she wanted to know about troop movements.
The discussion of the road west from Badenberg to the Werra valley got into such detail that Moische excused himself to get his little book of notes. "It sounds like you're trying to make a map," Moische said, as he came back.
"Aye," John said, and then spoke quickly with Bernadette. "The Americans," he said, after she answered, "they have maps that show all the world. The problem is, the maps show roads from the year 2000, not today. They need to put the roads of today on their maps."
"Can we see these maps?" Moische asked.
John and Bernadette conferred briefly, and then Bernadette answered. "Yes, at City Hall."
After Yossie had finished describing his trip north, John spoke for Bernadette. "Our official work is done. Bernadette wants to know, Isaac and Moses, are you going on another trip?"
"Yes," Moische said. "The market is good. Tip's Tavern will buy all the wine we can get."
"Herr Mobley has a list of idle pastures around Grantville," Yitzach said. "If we can bring cattle, he will find buyers for them."
John conferred briefly with Bernadette and then turned to Yossie. "Joseph, how is work at the mine?"
"Good," Yossie said, wondering how to explain what he was doing. "We are building an electric coal saw. It uses a washing machine motor."
The saw had been suggested by the chief miner, Ken Hobbs, and Gayle Mason, the mine electrician, had done all the electrical work. Most of the machine, though, was made of iron, and most of that had been cut and shaped in the Murphy's run forge.
"What is a coal saw?" John asked.
"It is a big saw for cutting under the coal in the mine," Yossie said. "It cuts a yard deep, so that the coal above can be broken down."
"Does it work?" John asked, after translating for Bernadette.
"Almost," Yossie said. "We tried it Friday, but we need to make changes."
Bernadette and John conferred before John asked a very odd question. "Do you like your job, working at the mine?"
Yossie was not sure how to answer. "Why?" he finally asked.
"Because there is another job. The Americans say it may be more important. They want a print shop. You were a printer?"
Yossie nodded. The Americans never seemed to grasp the fine distinctions between being a printer and merely working in a print shop.
"If you want to be a printer again, you should talk to Herr Kindred."
Bernadette handed Yossie a slip of paper with the name "Kindred" printed on it in block letters and a number. "Telephone," she said. "Paulette will help. John, we must go. Joseph, Isaac, Moses, good bye."
As John got up, he smiled. "She promised me, we eat dinner at her brother's house."
8th of Av, 5391 ( August 6, 1631 )
Wednesday morning, as Yossie rode the bus up Murphy's Run, his eyes were on the new railroad tracks parallel to the road. The salvaged rails came to an end about a mile from the mine, but Yossie could see progress almost every day. He still found it amazing that the Ring of Fire contained enough iron rail to build the new railroad.
When Yossie arrived at the forge, the hearth was cold. Thomas and Karl were already there, but nobody had started the fire. "We'll be going away somewhere," Karl said, in answer to Yossie's question. "That American, Herr Koch, said so. Some kind of emergency."
Yossie was curious, but also worried by the news. Tomorrow was the ninth of Av. From sunset to dusk, over twenty-four hours, every Jew was expected to abstain from all food and drink in memory of the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Yossie didn't want to risk missing the last meal before the fast.
Soon after Fritz arrived, a large pickup truck pulled to a stop by the forge. Ron Koch and Gayle Mason got out, along with two other Americans, Jimmy and Orval. After a brief flurry of activity collecting tools from the mine shop and forge, they all loaded into the truck. Yossie and Fritz ended up sitting on tool chests in back, next to the large round tank that held the truck's fuel, something the Americans called natural gas.
The truck took them into Grantville and then south on a gravel road up a small valley and over a ridge. As they came to the top, the view ahead was dominated by the dark face of the cliffs that marked the border of the Ring of Fire.
The height of the cliffs varied immensely. The peaks and valleys of the Thüringerwald outside the Ring of Fire didn't line up with the ridges of the Allegheny Plateau inside. On the south side of the Ring, the hills outside were far higher, and one of them completely blocked the valley ahead of them.
Downhill toward the cliff, Yossie saw water. With no exit, whatever stream flowed in the valley now fed a growing pond against the foot of the cliff.
The road came down almost to water level and then paralleled the shore of the new pond. As they approached the cliff face, Yossie noticed several huge boulders that had fallen nearby. One was at least the size of a house.
It was only after the truck stopped that he saw their destination. The structure that stood close in the shadow of the cliff was a miniature version of the hoists that stood over the two entrances to the Murphy's Run Mine. Where the cage of the main hoist at Murphy's Run might have held the truck he'd been riding, this one was hardly large enough for two men.
Ron Koch gathered them around. "Amalgamated Number Eighteen was a mine south of Grantville. The main entrance was outside the Ring of Fire, but part of it is under this valley. This shaft was used for air, to pump out water and for emergency escape.
"Now, this is our only entrance to Number Eighteen. After the Ring of Fire, there was no electricity for the pumps. When we discovered that this entrance was inside the Ring of Fire, the shaft was already flooded. Yesterday, we fixed the electricity.
"The lake is rising, and it will flood this area by winter. We want to take everything we can get before that happens. Our job today, if we can do it, is to start pulling out one water pump. The other pump will keep us dry while we work."
"Did they drown down there when it flooded?" Karl asked.
"No," Ron said. "The part of that mine under us here was all mined out and the Ring of Fire was on a Sunday. There shouldn't be any bodies down there, and ghosts are unlikely. This shaft is here because it's a low spot in the mine, the water runs here so the pumps are here."
There were two pumps. At first, Yossie thought the pumps were the man sized machines standing at the base of the hoist. As they set to work, he learned that they were just the electric motors that worked the pumps. They were nothing but large versions of the washing machine motor Yossie had already worked with. Each sat atop a vertical pipe larger than his thigh that ran down the shaft.
Gayle and Jimmy removed the wires connected to one motor. While they did that, the others rigged a chain hoist to the tower over the mine shaft and took the sides off of the hoist cage. By noon, they'd undone the bolts holding the motor to its foundation and loaded the motor and its cast-iron mount in the back of the pick-up truck.
Yossie and the others ate their noon meal while they waited for the truck to return. The four men from the forge sat together on a grassy bank looking out at the lake that was slowly rising in the valley.
"What I don't understand is, how do the motors pull the pump rod up and down," Thomas said, after washing down a mouthful.
"It's not push-pull rod," Fritz said. "It goes round and round."
"How d'ye know that?" Karl asked, between bites.
"The motor goes round like the washing machine motor, only
bigger."
"Then why is the shaft right down the middle of the pump pipe?" Thomas asked.
Yossie listened with interest to their speculation. Fritz had arrived at the forge with the reputation of being able to fix anything, and Yossie could see how he'd earned it. He seemed to grasp how things worked more quickly than most people, and when he guessed, he was usually right.
By the time Yossie walked away to say the grace after meals, the conversation had turned to the stability of the cliffs that loomed above them. The fact that some huge blocks of stone had fallen was clear proof that other blocks could follow.
When Yossie returned, he found Thomas, Karl and Fritz looking his way. "What were y'doin up in th'woods?" Karl asked. "Ya always go way after we eat. At the forge, an now here."
Yossie hesitated for a moment, and then decided that he had little to lose by telling the truth. "I was bentsching, praying."
"You're a Jew, not a priest," Karl said. "Whatcha praying for?"
All three of them knew he was a Jew. He'd found that out shortly after his trip north with Thomas. Karl and Fritz had guessed the truth shortly after they came to the forge, but had said nothing until Thomas mentioned it.
When he finally answered, he spoke very carefully. "Jews pray a short prayer before each meal and a long prayer after."
"Then how come ya go away for the one and not the other?"
"The short prayer I can just say. The long one, I have to read from a book."
"I don't see no book," Karl said.
Yossie hesitantly pulled his bentscher from his pocket. The slim little volume was worn from years of daily use. Yakov had given him the book as a bar mitzvah gift when he turned thirteen.
Karl took the book and opened it, upside down, and squinted at it. "I can't read this," he said handing it to Fritz.
"You don't know how to read," Fritz said, taking the book. "These are Jewish letters."
Thomas was looking over his shoulder. "They're not any letters I've seen." He looked up at Yossie with a puzzled expression.
"Like Fritz said, it's written in Jewish letters," Yossie said. "Can I have my book back?"
"Give Joseph his book," Ron Koch said, taking all of them by surprise. "Joseph, are you Jewish?"
"Yes," he said.
"Are they giving you trouble because of it?"
"Not really," he said.
"Good," Ron said. "Let's get to work then. We just turned on the other pump. We'll follow the water down, taking out sections of pipe while the falling water pulls fresh air into the hole."
The hoist cage was tiny, hardly large enough for two men. Yossie and his companions eyed it suspiciously.
"You're little. We'll go down first," Ron said. It took Yossie a moment to realize that Ron was speaking to him.
After they got into the hoist, Ron rapped twice on the frame with a wrench. Immediately, the cage began to drop into the shaft. Almost at once, Ron rapped again, and they stopped.
Two black iron pipes ran down the side of the shaft. The pipe below the motor that was still working hummed quietly, the other was silent. The hoist held them level with a joint in the pipes, and after they'd unbolted the joint, they chained the pipe to the side of the hoist.
"You signal to go up," Ron said. "Rap on the hoist frame up high where the cable is attached. One rap means stop. Two raps mean down, three mean up. Use your wrench."
They lifted the pipe section the short distance to the surface, and as soon as the crew on the surface had the pipe chained to their small hoist, Yossie and Ron went down to get another pipe segment.
While they worked, Yossie considered Ron's reaction to the discovery that he was Jewish. It appeared that the only thing that concerned him was that it might be disruptive.
When Bernadette Adducci had told her parents that their tenants were Jewish, their reaction had been more complex. Part of the problem was undoubtedly one of communication, but there was also no doubt that Paulette and her husband Randolph were of different opinions.
Randolph had grumbled, and several times, Yossie had heard him arguing with his wife about "damned Jews." He'd returned to the unpleasant attitude that he'd shown during the first week of their stay with the Adduccis, only then, the complaint had been "damned foreigners." Sometimes, though, it was obvious that Randolph's real complaint was about the chronic pain in his feet, not the people around him.
Paulette had said little, but over the next few days, she'd quietly come into each of their bedrooms and taken down the crucifixes. At times, it seemed that she was trying to ask more questions, but they had too little language in common to discuss anything subtle.
After Ron and Yossie had removed the first few pipe segments, the routine settled in. The later pipe segments were longer and heavier than the first one, but the work was the same. The drive shaft running down the center of the pipes was segmented like the pipe itself, and they had to be careful, with each pipe segment, to make sure that they lifted the drive shaft segment with the pipe that enclosed it.
While they worked, Ron asked Yossie about his work. Ron had been highly critical of the coal saw project at first, but after two complete rebuilds, the saw worked well. Yossie had gone down into the mine several times to work the saw, and he had some ideas for improving it.
When they were well down the shaft, Ron surprised Yossie with a question. "You are a Jew. The others are Christians. Is this going to make trouble?"
"I don't think so," Yossie said. He paused to loosen a bolt. Ron's concern was unexpected, and he wasn't sure how to answer. "They known I'm a Jew. They've known for three weeks."
"How have they reacted?" Ron asked.
Yossie wasn't sure what Ron wanted. "Saxons like Thomas have never met a Jew before. The Bavarians, well, they've seen Jews, but they know very little. They get curious sometimes."
"So they are not a threat to you?" Ron asked, while the two of them wrapped a safety chain around the pipe segment.
Yossie finished attaching the chain before he answered. On the one hand, Christians were always a potential threat, but he certainly couldn't say that to a Christian. On the other hand, the Americans seemed serious about their rules forbidding religious discrimination.
"They are members of the miners guild now," Yossie said. "As long as the UMWA rules hold, there is no threat."
14th of Elul, 5391 ( September 11, 1631 )
Yossie thought about what he had seen on the Adduccis' television the night before. The show had begun with Rivkah Abrabanel, who the Americans called Becky. She had told them news, both news of Grantville and of the larger world, and then she'd introduced a movie, The General.
The movie had been good, but the real novelty was seeing Rivkah up close. She was the second most powerful person in Grantville, speaking from the television as if she was in the same room. Yossie wondered what the television would show next.
"Hey Joe," Woolly Snider called, interrupting Yossie's thoughts. "That room'll be done next week. You sure your friend is coming?"
"The Lord willing, Shlomo comes in one week," Yossie replied. Moische had gotten a letter before he left on his most recent trip west saying that his cousin would meet him in Neustadt.
"What kinda name's Shlomo?" Wooly asked.
"He was king after David in the Bible," Yossie answered, walking on.
"Solomon?" Wooly asked, and then muttered. "Damned Krauts can't say names right,"
Yossie had heard the phrase "damned Krauts" often enough. He knew what it meant. He also knew that Wooly was a harmless drunk, and that despite his drinking, he'd done quite a bit for Grantville's new residents.
The Adduccis had been among the first Americans to take in boarders after the Ring of Fire, and many others had done so since, but few with the enthusiasm of Wooly Snyder. Where others had rented out idle rooms, Wooly, with the help of his tenants, had built new rooms. True, they were not luxurious, but they were a step up from the barns and tents where some of Grantville's new residents lived.
Yakov was waiting for him at the house. "Join me for the afternoon prayer," he said, handing Yossie a prayerbook. "When we finish I want to talk."
Yossie and Yakov stood together on the porch facing east, swaying with the rhythm of the liturgy. It was still a novelty for Yossie to be able to pray openly where Christians might see.
"So," Yakov said, as he closed his siddur. "How is your type cutting?"
Yossie pulled the small roll of cloth from his lunch pail. It held the punches he'd taken to the forge to harden and temper. "Miniscule b and d," Yossie said. "They are also p and q."