Mountains Moved

The Drive Out

“Yeah, so it’s a live gold mine, live meaning they still harvest from it. We are gonna walk in a real, working mine.”

“We getta wear hardhats?”

“Yeah. With lamps.”

“Cool.”

“They prolly let us keep whatever we find. Our own gold.”

“Cool.”

“The mine has been around since the 1800’s. That’s more than 100 years. More than a century.”

“Woah. Cool.”

“Yeah.”

“They take us in mine cars on a mine train, down into the mine. When we get in, then we can mine for like a whole half-hour. Anything we find is ours.”

“Woah.”

“Yeah. Dad said even if we don’t find anything in the mine, we get to go out of the mine on the mine train. Then we come to a vista.”

“What’s a vista?”

“A view.”

The Arrival

“So that’s the entrance to the mine over there.”

“Ok.”

“When we get the tickets, we can get in the mining cars and taken through the mine.”

“Cool.”

“Somewhere along the way in there they will let us harvest our own gold nuggets, if we can find some.”

“Way cool.”

“Gotta be careful though. Gotta wear our hardhats and hold hands. Can’t wander off in a mine shaft.”

“Ok. Ok, cool.”

“Do you know what claustrophobia is?”

“Being a scaredy-cat in the closet.”

“Yes. It’s when you get scared that you can’t get out of the closet.”

“Ok.”

“So in the mine, sometimes people can get claustrophobic. Like in the closet. They want to get out and they get scared cuz they can’t get out.”

“Am I gonna get claustrophobic in the mine?”

“I don’t know but you could. I could also. Either of us could get scared. Just tell me if you are and I’ll tell you if I am.”

“Ok. Then what.”

“Then we get out of the mine.”

“Cool.”

“But that’s plan B. Plan A is to mine gold. Plan B is we get out if we get claustrophobic. So stay close. We get the vista either way, Plan A or Plan B, we get to see the view.

“Ok, good.”

The Tour

“There’s no fucking gold in here.”

“Can’t say ‘fucking’”.

“Whatever. It’s a gift shop. Jars of Fool’s Gold.”

“What’s Fool’s Gold?”

“Part of the tourist trap. I mean the fun.”

“Mom said don’t be mean.”

“I’m just being honest. This is dumb.”

“Fool’s Gold looks real.”

“Because you’re dumb. A fool.”

“Shut up!”

The Vista

“Hold on tight.”

“The tracks end?”

“Hold on, we are heading outside and around a bend. To the vista. That’s mexican for view.”

“Ok, cool. View of what?”

“This.”

“This valley?”

“Didn’t used to be a valley.”

“But those mountains are huge, and there’s a huge hole between them.”

“It used to be a mountain.”

“What.”

“There used to be a mountain there.”

“Where did it go?”

“They mined it. Harvested the resources, like rocks, and demolished what was left.”

“Demolished.”

“Tore down. They tore down a mountain.”

“Like a building?”

“Like a building. But a mountain. A whole mountain.”

“What.”

“Yeah. Fucking crazy.”

“Yeah. Fu-…Fuck...Fuck!”

“A whole fucking mountain.”

The Drive Back

“Colorado is crazy, right? Everything is bigger.”

“Everything except that mountain they knocked down.”

“Demolished. Mined, harvested, and demolished. Whole fucking mountain.”

“Yeah. Demolished. They demolished a mountain.”

“They just want to flatten the whole fucking earth.”

“Fuck.”

"Vista", JHB, Late-20th Century Period