Jim slouched on the floor by the stove, blue eyes watching the flames flicker behind the grate. He clasped and unclasped the fringes of the blanket he had wrapped around his shoulders, twisting and threading the coarse material between his fingers. Thoughts smoldered like the coals behind the grate, preoccupied with something but settled on nothing. His skin burned with the warmth of the fire, until his eyes watered and he buried his face in the folds of the blanket. Faintly he heard his mother in the background, conversing with Mr. Riley as supper prepared in the kitchen. The aroma of sizzling meat in a pan teased his senses amidst the white noise of voices. Poquito laid a frail, timid hand on Jim's shoulder and the world shattered; Jim jerked his head up to blink at Poquito with wide eyes, who looked taken aback.
"Hola, Jimmy…" Poquito said to Jim with a trembling voice, hands behind his back and rocking back and forth. "Are you crying?"
Jim was just about to answer when the Inn door flung open and Leland stepped unto the threshold, bringing with him a wash of rain that cascaded across the wooden floor. He quickly shut the door, but the damage was done. There was a momentary silence as they all took in Leland's bedraggled appearance; he was drenched from cap to boot, and the faint, watery smudges of coal could be seen on his face and clothes. He slouched with the weight of weariness on his shoulders, and thick bags were under his eyes as he returned the uncomfortable stares. The tension stretched for a moment…
"Daddy!" Jim called with a sort of swollen joy, and he scrambled off the floor and ran to Leland, arms upheld. Everyone breathed again.
Leland gave Jim a weak smile at his eager face, but looked past him to glance at the Rileys and Sarah. Sarah was hovering over the table where Riley sat, seemingly in shock; but she snapped out of her trance, dodging the table and crossing the room to Leland.
"Leland Hawkins, you're soaked!" she wailed, aware she was voicing the obvious. Before he could get a word in she was tugging the sopping cap and jacket off of him, nonchalantly throwing them on the coat rack. She shooed at him with her hands. "Go upstairs and change before you catch pneumonia or some other ungodly disease! Good heavens…"
Leland held up his palms in front of him. "Yes, of course, Sarah, I was just about…" He trailed off as he jerked away and began to trudge up the stairs. Jim dropped his arms and stood for a moment, crestfallen; then he slunk back to the stove and collapsed onto his spot with a little sigh.
Mr. Hawkins tramped back down the stairs not long later, relatively dry, hair slicked back and sporting a new jacket and breeches. The haggard look was gone, but the change of clothes didn't bring about a change of heart; the lines under his eyes still sat chiseled on his face. By this time supper was just being set around a table, crammed with a couple extra chairs for the company. Jim was hunched over in his chair, only half listening to Poquito telling him a story of his previous hometown.
"… And there were buildings, Jimmy, tall skyscrapers that climbed high into the etherium, and little boxeses with moving pictures in 'em…" Mr. Riley was listening to listening and chiming in with a "Sí, yes" every so often, large ears flitting back and forth in delight. He turned to look at Leland as he came down the stairs and, raising his hackles into a smile, rose to meet him.
"Ah, Mr. Hawkins, at last! If I may speaks so, you are looking much drier," Mr. Riley said, extending a calloused paw.
Leland shook the hand with a friendly smile, wincing a bit at Carlito's strong grip. "Why thank you, sir, and welcome to Benbow. I see you've already met my wife and son…?"
"Yes, sir! Delightful, the both of them. Your Jimmy has been kind enough to gives us a good look about the town, we feels quite welcomed." And he introduced himself and his son still preoccupied in speaking to Jim, who had sparked a bit at hearing mention of pirates ("Sí!" Poquito was saying. "Big nasty pirates, with great ugly faces and missing tooths…"). The adults waited for Sarah before sitting down, Mr. Riley and Mr. Hawkins conversing animatedly on various topics, from politics to finance.
"Claro, Mr. Hawkins," Carlito was saying. "Sarah tells me you works in the mines here in Benbow… how does that goes?"
"Well, to tell the truth, it's debilitating… the rain water tends to collect and flood the lower levels sometimes, we've been using this clunky sort of machine to pump out the water… the industry's been taking a hit lately, demand's not high enough, and the mines are being scraped raw with no one buyin'…"
"And the mines are owned by this Doppler family, is it not? Aren't they concerned?"
"The Dopplers? Those fools don't know a thing about mining, nor is the concern of the workforce taken into consideration… meaning no offense, of course. Now that Delbert, he's a good man, he just needs to get his head out of those books and look out the window. Society gap, you see… there are the have and the have-nots and there's nothin' in between, and ignorance either way. And about consideration… why, just last week one of our men was caught in a cave-in, and what did they do? Booted 'im! No concern he was crippled. And the working conditions… the fever's spreading, you can see it."
"Daddy, are you going to be booted?" Jim spoke up, the first time he had uttered a word the entire meal.
"Of course not, Jim," Leland replied rather curtly. "And don't interrupt, this is an adult conversation."
Jim blinked. "But Dad, I'm almost eight years old… I'm old enough…" he said quietly, but no one was listening. He hung his head and poked at his food bitterly with his fork. Poquito refused to meet Jim's eyes, and said nothing more of pirates or picture boxes the rest of the night.