Carol Todd and Jimmy (Slug) DeHaven’s wedding was to be the social event of the year. Carol was one of the prettiest and nicest girls in Coalwood. She had taken a job with the coal company as a stenographer, but she was a lot more than that. She had the responsibility to keep track of all the mine’s records, to write letters for Dad and the other managers when they were too busy to do it themselves (which was nearly all the time), and generally keep all the paperwork flowing for the company the way it was supposed to. Slug DeHaven was something of a homegrown junior engineer. He had survived Dad’s boot camp and then taken a position on Olga Coal’s engineering staff. Everybody in town agreed that it was important to give Carol and Slug a good send-off in life. Dad promised to leave 11 East long enough to go to the wedding. At the direct request of Carol’s mother, Mr. Dubonnet promised to hold off one more day before he took his miners out on strike. It was declared a day of peace, if not rest.
