NO DAYLIGHT BELOW

I have followed High Grade Jay’s work from the Commonwealth back to West Virginia, but I did not expect to find it down an old mine. The fellow usually has room for a ball court somewhere. This time he put his tools toward a little settlement under solid rock, with iron gates, bare trees, and a pale wooden building that looks ready to give up its roof.

I walked the stone paths between low brick walls and took a closer look. Jay had fitted porches and fenced passages into the uneven cavern, leaving just enough light to see where your boots were going. Pumpkins and painted Halloween figures stood near the boards. Farther in, a great saw hung over a metal table. I could have done without that display, and the bones on the gateposts did nothing to improve my opinion of it.

Whether he meant to finish those broken rooflines or built them that way, I could not tell you. His claim of being an architect seems less far fetched when you see how much he has fitted into this hole. There is patient work here, even if I would choose a much friendlier place to spend my evenings. I checked the path back to the entrance and thanked the Lord when I reached daylight.