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My name's Cora, Cora Hickam. My cousins are Homer and Jim but Homer and I are as close as twins. I stay over at his house because my father is an abusive drunk while my mother is dead. She died from an oil leak in the building where she worked. That was five years ago. My Uncle John and Aunt Elsie always take care of me if I come in their house in the middle of the night, beaten. They always treated me as if I was their daughter.

Jim wasn't the best guy around. He was smart and played football but he was never really nice to Homer. Even though we were cousins, we never really talked but on occasions, he would help me when I needed help after getting beat. Homer and I shared the same friends, again like I said; we were as close as twins. Our friends were Sherman O'Dell, who we just called O'Dell, and Roy Lee Cooke.

We were in high school, our junior years. Roy Lee and I have been dating since we were in seventh grade. The four of us have been best friends ever since we were little kids. We've always stuck together but we've also had our arguments. O'Dell and Roy Lee knew nothing about me getting beat by my dad. We all live in a small town, Coalwood, West Virginia. It seemed like everybody knew everybody.

I spent the night at my cousin's house and waited for Roy Lee and O'Dell to come pick us up. Homer wanted to try out for football. We tried to talk him out of it but he was insistent that he tried out. We knew we couldn't change his mind once he's committed. Homer and I were sitting on the porch waiting for our ride.

Homer was always trying to get me to tell the boys about my dad but I wouldn't give in. Right now, that was exactly what he was doing. "Come on, Cora. They deserve to know. Especially Roy Lee."

"Homer, do you have any idea of how mad he would be? He would go after my dad and try to beat him to a pulp. Besides, Roy Lee gets beat too by his step-dad. That's enough stress as it is. He ain't got to worry about me."

It looked like Homer was about to say something else but he was cut off with someone honking their horn. I look towards the road and see Roy Lee and O'Dell waiting in the car. I smile and hop in, Homer hopping in behind me. "Let's go, Roy Lee. It's almost nine."

I saw O'Dell turn up the radio and heard Jailhouse Rock by Elvis. It was one of my favorite songs. I was behind the driver who happened to be Roy Lee. I sat up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, making him smile. "Sure are in a hurry to get yourself killed."

"No kiddin. There are easier ways to commit suicide, Homer." O'Dell puts in.

"Would you just step on it, Roy Lee?" Homer asks, impatiently.

"…I am steppin on it." He shoots back, making everyone laugh.

The rest of the ride, we were giving Homer a hard time about football and listening to music. We dropped him off at the football field and then we went to get something to eat. O'Dell went inside the restaurant to order our food while Roy Lee and I stayed in the car.

He automatically turns around to face me, giving me a smile. "You miss me?"

I smile and lean forward to kiss him. I was about to pull back but he ran his fingers through my hair. He deepened the kiss and tried to hop in the back with me but he stopped and pulled away. I give him a confused look and he turns to me, looking embarrassed. I look over the seat and saw his foot got tangled in the seatbelt.

I laughed out loud and helped him get untangled. We both start laughing when he finally sits next to me. He stare in each other's eyes and lean in. Right before we meet in the middle, he whispers, "I love you."

I smile and respond, "I love you, too."

Roy Lee smiled and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. We continue kissing until a door opens, both of us pulling away, looking who it was. O'Dell climbed in the passenger seat and turned to us with a smile. "You want me to drive so you two can continue?"

"Like I'd ever let you drive my car." Roy Lee jokes, climbing back in the front seat.

O'Dell and Homer always joke and make fun of us when they catch us together but we all think it's funny and we all joke about it. We went back to the high school to pick up Homer. The boys stayed in the car while I got out and waited for my cousin by the doors.

He came out of the locker room, glaring at the floor, stomping my way. I lay a hand on his shoulder as he was just about to pass me. "Homer, are you ok?"

He shrugged my hand off and kept walking. "I'm fine."

I knew then, that he didn't make the team. We walked back to the car and hopped in. Roy Lee kept turning to key but the engine wouldn't go. Everybody in the car groaned and Homer and Roy Lee get out to push while O'Dell and I hop in the front seats. I was getting bored so I turned on the radio and bobbed my head to the beat.

The windows were down and I heard Homer complain, "Why should the damn jocks be the only ones to gettin scholarships?"

"They're also the only ones who get the girls. This burns my ass." Roy Lee added. "Well, on second thought…not all the girls."

"Oh, shut up. That's my cousin." Homer laughs.

We walked into a building that helped repair the car/the building that worked with metal and talked to one of the workers who was a good friend of ours, Ike Bykovsky. He picked up a newspaper after he gave us a drink. "What do you kids think of this? Isn't that something?"

I looked at it and it said 'Soviet Union Launches First Earth Satellite'. I'll admit, it interested me a bit, but I know that not many others would be. I'm different like that, liking different things. I was different because a lot of things. For example; I'm the only girl who wears jeans, tennis shoes, and t-shirts. I hate skirts and heels. You would have to put a gun to my head to get me in a skirt and heels.

"Let 'em have outer space." Roy Lee said. "We got rock n roll."

He left and so did O'Dell. Homer and I stayed inside, looking at the newspaper. The manager shouted to the boys, "I'm with you. We've got enough to worry about down here." He went back to normal inside voice. "Homer, your dad say anything about and layoffs?"

"No."

"Did they pull any more pillars?"

"He didn't say."

"Does he talk at all?"

"Yeah, he talks." I snap, dragging my cousin out the door with me.

We heard a big explosion near the coalmine and ran to see what happened. There was already a big crowd forming around somebody on the floor when we got there. I looked to see a guy who had a bandage around his head and Uncle John was trying to wake him up.

"Come on, Jensen. Come on back." He started slapping the man on the face, gently.

The man woke up and started looking around. "What happened?"

One of Uncle John's co-workers spoke up. "Whole damn mountain 'bout fell on your head. And John here, he saved your life."

"That's my dad." Homer says proudly.

"I want you outta this mine. Don't come back, you stupid son-of-a-bitch. Didn't I tell you to watch the roof? Now we all could've been killed cause you didn't have the sense to look up!" Uncle John shouts.

"That's my dad." Homer says, disappointed.

Uncle John called Homer over so I turned around to give them their talk time and I pulled the other two boys alone with me. We stopped at the bottom of the hill and waited for Homer to follow us. I decided to ask them what they thought about the whole Sputnik thing. "Hey, guys. What do you think of the whole outer space thing?"

"That it's stupid and pointless." O'Dell answered.

"I think it's a waste of time. Ain't nobody got time for that kind of shit." Roy Lee says.

I roll my eyes at the two. They obviously thought that the world was mining coal but they were wrong. It was mainly Coalwood that took care of the mining which also helped make steel. Homer finally came back, looking mad. I knew it had something to do with mining coal. He never want to be a coal miner but there wasn't much else that he could do in this town.

I spent the night over at their house, not wanting to see how drunk my dad got. The next day, we were all in Miss Riley's class, listening to the radio. "It's the radio signal transmitted by the Soviet Sputnik. Listen for the sound which forevermore separates the old from the new."

Then we hear nothing but a noise that sounds almost like a cricket. It didn't sound like anything really, but sound waves going up and down. I let out a tiny smile but that quickly went away when I heard Roy Lee, next to me, almost sounds pissed. "That's it? That's the Sputnik?"

"That's Sputnik." Miss Riley confirms with a smile.

"Big deal." O'Dell says, trying not to laugh.

"Big deal?!" The school nerd, Quentin Wilson shouts. "What you fail to grasp is that the sound you're hearin is being transmitted by an object, that is traveling at 18,000 miles per hour, 559 miles high, and orbiting the Earth—"

"Shut up!" Roy Lee yells, chuckling a ball of paper at Quentin, O'Dell does the same.

"Boys, not in my class!" Miss Riley shouts. "Now Quentin's right, y'all. Sputnik is a milestone in history. Things'll never be the same again. What do you think of that, Homer?"

My attention is quickly turned to my cousin and find him staring at a girl in our class, Dorothy Platt. He jumps when he hears his name. "Well, yes, ma'am. Uh I, uh—"

"Cat got our tongue? We were talking about bein in orbit hundreds of miles away from Earth. You know anything about that?"

Homer tries to not smile but his plan doesn't work. The whole class is in a fit of giggles except me. "No, ma'am."

"I got my eye on you, boy. Now who can tell me why Sputnik is so important?" Miss Riley asks the class.

Before I know it, it's nighttime and everyone was outside, waiting to see the shuttle, pass through the sky. I was inside while the boys were outside. I hear the door slam closed and lots of shuffling going on in the living room. I made my way to that room but then I hear Homer shout, "Hey, is anybody in the house?"

I was confused as to why he asked that. I didn't answer and when I was just around the corner, about to make my presence known, I heard Homer again. "Alright, see nobody's here. Now, come on, tell us!"

"No way! You'll be pissed!" Roy Lee snaps.

"I'll be pissed if it's about Cora." Homer explains.

"Exactly! It is about Cora!"

"I swear, Roy Lee, if you're cheatin on her—"

"Hold on! I've liked your cousin ever since we were kids and that whole time, I have never once looked at another girl! So you don't have to be jumping to conclusions!"

"Guys, calm down. I don't think we want any objects broken in the house and we certainly don't want people outside to hear us. Come on, Roy Lee. You let something slip now you have to tell us. We're your best buds, it's only fair." O'Dell interrupts.

I hear Roy Lee sigh and everyone else calming down. "Alright, but you have to swear that you're not gonna ring my neck."

"Alright, I swear." Homer says, quietly.

"You both know that I love her, right?" They must have nodded because he continued. "Well, you also know that we've been datin since we were in seventh grade. To be honest, I've never felt like this before. I really think that she's the one. She understands me, she's tough, strong, smart, and beautiful. She's everything I look for in a girl, she's perfect. I really think that Cora is the one that I'm gonna marry someday."