Episode 22: Paper, Ink and Sorrow

Blurb
We journey back in time to the end of the 19th Century in Combe County, North Carolina so that we can gain proper perspective on where that incident with the local magistrate and the Railroad Man sprung from.

Content Warnings

 * Institutional Racism/Brutality
 * Violent work related death

Plot Synopsis
In Combe County, North Carolina in 1881, Gerald Brotherton is the youngest appointee to the state prison board. Gerry, as he is known, is charged with overseeing the board’s partnership with the railroad companies regarding the construction of the Swannanoa Tunnel. The governor is involved in the project and Gerry’s father, a close associate, helped make certain Gerry was elevated to the position in which he finds himself. He’s tasked with overseeing the use of state prisoners as free labor for the project.

Most of the prisoners are not held for violent crimes, but Gerry happily tells reporters that all of them have earned their sentences, and insists that there is no prejudice involved in spite of how few of the prisoners are white. He learned his hard-nosed attitude toward lawbreakers from his father Wayne, a judge and former Confederate soldier who regularly sent black prisoners to years of hard labor under the guise of helping them reform themselves.

Men are dying on the project, at a higher rate than expected, but Gerry is told not to ask questions. He begins to have dreams about the finished tunnel, about the ground shaking as the darkness takes the shape of the hundreds of men killed in the work.

In early March, Gerry waits at the tunnel site for a man from the railroad to come for an inspection. Gerry is unsure which one one of the men he is used to seeing will be coming, and is surprised to find himself faced with a stranger who seems to know who has died, and when, and where they are buried.

The bearded man wears a bespoke charcoal suit and speaks with a strange lack of accent. He introduces himself only as being “from the railroad.” Gerry attempts to deny the number of deaths, but the man knows exactly how many have died on the project. He seems to take pleasure in the way the men are being fed to the process indiscriminately.

At the entrance to the tunnel, much to Gerry’s confusion, the man tastes the dirt before stating how many men will yet die before the tunnel is finished. Inside, Gerry panics at the idea of being within the mountain. Expecting to see the men from his dreams, he suddenly finds himself being pulled aside and onto the ground.

The man from the railroad offers his hand. Gerry realizes he just saved him from a falling rock from the roof of the tunnel, the two men who had been standing beside him crushed beneath it. He tries to tell the man he owes him his life, but the man simply says he owes him, and to leave it at that.

Back in Asheville, Gerry wakes the next day fearful that the man will tell someone about the number of deaths. Someone knocks on his door, and he goes to answer it to find a telegram being delivered. It says very little, just that the man from the railroad is pleased with Gerry’s progress, and that he will be in touch soon.