Chapter Four
Deep Hedges
In the 1940s, mining was big in Hot Springs, and a narrow brown road coiled around the mountain at the back of the hollah behind my Grandmother Ella’s house. Coming down the mountain, a truck carrying dynamite exploded one Saturday afternoon, sending out a concussion wave that disintegrated windows, pushed houses off foundations, and toppled my grandmother’s refrigerator onto my aunt Gracie, who was sitting at the kitchen table. Gracie was eight at the time. Since everyone affected by the blast was poor, the mining company never even admitted that the truck had blown up and did nothing to help anyone who suffered injury or lost property. Aunt Gracie would have back problems the rest of her life and finally had to have major surgery for it in her late fifties.
Gr
