THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The Elephant in the Room

The elephant in the room was large and somber. It stood amongst them breathing heavily, stomping its feet from time to time, yet no one chose to look it in the eye.

Eduardo wiped his brow with his red handkerchief. He was hungry; he was weak, but his faith was strong and his belief in his family and his country was solid. He lived each day, each hour, each minute with hope. He firmly believed that if you had no hope, you had nothing. and Edwardo had spent most of his lifetime with nothing. He had determined the day he met Juanita, that he would live each day with hope, with determination, and when necessary, with resolve. He had married his lovely Janita, and they had gone on to raise a family together. His oldest son, his namesake Eduardo Junior, sat beside him now, his back to the wall his head resting gently on his father's shoulder. He was asleep, there was little to do but sleep these days. Sleep and think and of course, pray.

It was day eleven. Eleven days since their world had been disturbed by the sounds of a heavy rumble deep within the mine. They had all paused in their tracks, staring upwards, a look of horror on their faces. The rumble grew louder, and Eduardo, the foreman, shouted for them to take cover in the safe room the company had built for emergencies. He grabbed Eduardo Junior and dragged him to a steel shelf that held some equipment. Throwing the equipment to the side he pushed Junior into the newly made cavity and threw his body on top of his son.

Within moments the reverberating had ended and was followed by the occasional fall of rock. The lights strung across the ceiling of the cavernous space flickered, then were extinguished. In the instant before the lights went out, Eduardo raised his head and quickly scanned the area, seeing his men in various poses throughout the cave.

 When the last rock had settled and with a pounding heart, he questioned, “Junior? Are you all right?” 

“Si Papa.” his son answered, a quiver in his teenage voice.

“Manuel?”

“Si.”

“Mateo?”

“Sebastian?”

Eduardo called out each member of his ten-man crew like a teacher calls the roll call in primary school. He was relieved when he heard a response from each man. “Is anyone hurt?” he questioned further.

There was a silence, and then Manuel Hernández spoke up

“A rock hit my arm, I think… I think it might be broken.”

“I’ll be right there”. Eduardo clambered off Junior after giving him a quick reassuring hug. He switched on the battery-operated headlamp on his safety hat and made his way over to where Manuel lay on the ground, his arm covered with blood and lying at a weird angle. The other men joined him each switching on their headlamp. The room was thick with dust and debris and broken rock littered the ground. Mateo went over to the shelves where the equipment was stored and rummaged through the shelves until he located the first aid kit. He brought it back to where Manuel lay. Bending down opposite Eduardo he said, “I know what to do, I can do this. My mother was a nurse.” He turned to the man beside him, “Hosea, you have blood running down your shirt.”

“No es nada,” said Hosea.

“You may say it is nothing but Mateo willl take a look at it, anyway. Comprender?”

“Si, yes Boss.”

  Eduardo nodded his acceptance of Mateo’s medical skills. He was prepared to help his men in any way he had to, but he was relieved that Mateo knew what to do. Blood and broken bones were not his forte. 

“Sebastian, Cruz, Garcia, Lopez, Gonzalez, come with me, we need to assess the…damage. The rest of you stay here.”

“Si,” they replied and followed Eduardo carefully over to the end of the huge cave. There were thousands of tons of rock blocking the elevator shaft, which they used daily to enter and exit the mine. They faced the rock wall, swinging their heads to let the lights on the safety hats reveal any weakness or opening. There was nothing but solid piles of rock. Eduardo looked at the location of the last rock and did a quick calculation in his head as to figure out how many feet of rock separated them from the entrance to the elevator shaft. He came up with a discouraging answer. TOO MANY.

The room that they were currently in was the emergency room and a storage room just off the entrance to the elevator. They had just started their shift, put their lunch baskets away on the shelves, and gathered their pickaxes and other equipment to start the day’s shift.

Then, just as Eduardo was giving out his instructions for the day. The disaster had struck, sealing their fate.

Once the wounded had been taken care of, they gathered together; and they took stock of their situation. Eduardo knew it was his job as foreman of the crew, to take charge, not only for their safety but for their morale as well. He knew food and water needed to be rationed, only God knew how long they would be down here. He told his men that although it might take a while he was confident that the mining company that they worked for would devise a plan to extract them and bring them safely to the surface. They were not to be discouraged, and he would not allow any negative comments from the group. It was merely a waiting game. He allowed only one headlamp on at a time; the batteries needed to be saved and used only when absolutely necessary. There were several large bottles of water and rough blankets with the emergency supplies. He outlined what he thought would be the game plan of the mine owners based on some of the training he had received as a foreman.

 They had worked the first few days trying to clear the way to the elevator shaft. Soon however they had come across huge rocks that could never be moved by man blocking their way. They had given up on trying to escape that way but they hadn’t given up hope. Eduardo would not let them. Cruz told them the news story of the  2010 Copiapo mining disaster, where thirty-three miners were trapped 2,300 feet underground in a Chilean mine and had been rescued after 69 days. Eduardo knew they were not that deep underground, they were working on the level closest to the surface, a long way yes, but not several miles down like the Chilean accident.

Junior added to the conversation, that he had heard that these miners all made it to the top and were on camera for the whole world to see They became famous, and many did television interviews. The miners had been compensated by the Chilean government and had received over one million dollars each. They each discussed what they would do if they ever received a million dollars.

 Eduard encouraged Gonzales, who was a natural storyteller, to share some of his tales, and Mateo who loved to sing entertained them by singing every song he knew. Sometimes, Eduardo would join in. His voice was rough and raspy, from years of working in the mines where dust was an occupational hazard. Eduardo did not sing because he thought his voice was entertaining, but because he wanted to keep up the morale of his men. They often joined in which distracted them from their woes.

Days passed, and the day ran into the night until it was just one big blur. Eduardo noticed the air was getting thinner, and it was getting harder to breathe. They were becoming oxygen-deprived and hallucinations and delusions were being experienced by all the crew. Eduardo fought hard to control his thoughts but on the rare occasions when a headlamp was on he could see an elephant in the room. This usually followed a pep talk that he gave his men when they wanted to talk about “what if.”

At night when all was quiet and Junior moved restlessly on Eduardo's shoulder, Eduardo wondered if the elephant listened to his thoughts. Thoughts of why he had brought his son to the mines to find work when there were many other jobs available, although none of them paid as much as working the mines did, but there was always the risk factor involved.

The next day, they heard a noise and before long a long drill broke through the roof of the cave. They cheered loudly and Eduardo took off his red handkerchief and tied it to the drill bit as a signal to those above that they were alive. Several hours later a gush of oxygen awoke the sleepy miners, and they breathed deeply. The next day water cascaded down the hole and they turned on their headlamps and raced to find containers to hold the water. Later that day a long metal cylinder was lowered down the borehole. It contained gallopinto, a mixture of rice and beans. It was very welcome as they had finished the lunches that they had brought from their homes, as well as the few emergency foods stocked on the shelves by the company. But even better than the food was the arrival of the plans for their rescue. The borehole that had brought them air, water, and food was being expanded to allow an emergency rescue capsule that would take the men, one at a time, to the surface.

On the tenth day, Eduardo awoke early, as was his custom. The air was thin again and he felt lightheaded. It was pitch dark as it usually was; sometimes he felt like a bat in a cave. He heard the soft breathing and snores of his crew and he heard the heavy breathing of the elephant as it moved restlessly in the cave. He was getting used to it now after all it was the tenth day that they had been trapped down in the mine. No! Not trapped. Merely detained. Ten days of refusing to let his men even whisper the words “what if.” There was no uttering of this phrase. The only thing he would allow his men to say was “when”. He had faith in the company they all worked for, and he had faith that his country would give the necessary funds to perform the rescue. He knew it would not be easy, and he knew that it would not be cheap, but he knew his family would see that all parties involved, did their due diligence when it came to dealing with the situation. He knew they would literally move mountains to carry out their mission.

 Day eleven began and as instructed by the message sent down the borehole, the crew had moved as far as possible from the site of the borehole. Shouts of joy erupted when a large drill burst through the roof of the cave. Junior ripped off a piece of his shirt and ran to tie it to the drill. A few hours later the escape capsule was lowered, and the still wounded Manuell was quickly put into the pod.

 It seemed like a long time before the capsule returned. Eduardo turned to Junior and motioned him towards the capsule. Junior looked at the capsule with longing but shook his head.

“I’ll wait till you are ready to go, send Cruz next, his wife is pregnant.”

 Eduardo felt the lump grow in his throat and a lone tear trickled down his cheek before he motioned Cruz into the capsule. One by one the men traveled up the emergency exit shaft until there was only Eduardo and his son left. When the capsule arrived, Eduardo hugged his son and told him how proud he was of him and then kissed him and said, “I'll see you shortly. I love you.”

The air was becoming stale and thin again. The emergency rescue capsule was using the same borehole as the one where their air, water, and food had come down. Eduardo light-headed, turned to say goodbye to his friend the elephant who raised his trunk in a mock salute. The capsule returned for its final voyage and Eduardo hurried over to it with a staggering pace. He sighed when he opened it and found it empty. An empty capsule meant that Eduardo Junior had made it safely to the surface and was now reunited with his family. As he stood there, preparing to enter the capsule, a mighty rumble shook the cave, and seconds later the rescue capsule crashed to the floor of the cave. He jumped back and his headlamp picked up the miles of broken steel cable that trailed behind the pod. Rocks followed in its wake, filling the borehole.

Eduardo hung his head for a few moments then he raised it and looked directly at the elephant in the room and said in a gasping voice, “Well my friend I guess it's only me and you now”.