Ludlow’s Child

By Gary Bridges

Baby Tomas escapes from the Ludlow massacre and is raised by his adoptive parents, who flee to Austria-Hungary as WWI ends. Adult Tomas is recruited into Hitler’s army. Wounded and mistaken for a German, the US incarcerates him as a POW during WWII. US Army Intelligence recruits him to uncover a Russian spy at the Los Alamos project. The spy follows Tomas to Colorado and kidnaps Tomas’s son, Gacy, and holds him prisoner in an Indian cave on Trinchera Mountain. Gacy and his dog, Crockett, along with the US Army Special Forces and local law enforcement battle the terrain and the psychopath Russian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984571694

Book preview

LUDLOW’S CHILD

PROLOGUE

The following fictional story is about five-year old Tomas, who is snatched from his dying mother’s arms at the fiery hell known as Ludlow. His adoptive parents, Josef and Sofia, take him with them when they return to Sofia’s home country, Austria-hungary. Their family is uprooted again when world war I ends, And they try to return to the U.S. but Tomas, who is now ten years old, is kidnapped and sold as a child laborer to work in a munitions factory after his parents leave. Despite his travails, Tomas becomes a valued employee, but, as are many young men in Europe, he is swept up in World War II as a recruit for Hitler’s army. Tomas is wounded by U.S. soldiers and is mistakenly captured as a German POW and sent to a POW camp in Uravan, Colorado. Unknown to either of them, Josef, the father and Tomas, the mistaken POW, are working in the same POW camp. Tomas is singled out by U.S. military intelligence to pose as a U.S. operative with vital U.S. secrets about the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. Tomas almost loses his life when a Russian spy becomes suspicious. Tomas eventually reunites with his sweetheart, Eva. However, the Russian spy is bent on revenge and Tomas’ entire family is at risk when they barely escape via an Indian cave high on Trinchera peak near Cuchara, Colorado.

Ludlow, Colorado

Mama! Mama! Wake up Mama!

Five year old Tomas screamed as he patted his mama’s unresponsive face. Her scalp was red with blood. Her auburn hair was knotted with clods of dirt and sticks. Her eyes stared unknowingly into her frightened son’s tearful face.

A Colorado militia bullet had exploded in her brain—mercifully killing her instantly. Young Tomas had dug out from under his mama’s body. She had covered her son to protect him from the flying shrapnel and the screaming bullets. One of the striking miners grabbed Tomas by his overalls and yanked him out of the pit minutes before the tent erupted in flames. Four women and eleven children were hiding in a pit dug beneath the tent. They were trapped when mine guards set the tent on fire. Two dozen miners were shot to death. Four women and eleven children suffocated beneath the burning tents.

The deadly showdown between the coal miners and the owners had been festering since September 1913 when the union (UMWA) of mine workers called a strike. The miners were demanding official recognition of their union, enforcement of the eight-hour work day law, payment for dead work (laying track, timbering, and other ancillary work that was necessary for the miners to dig and move coal), the right to use stores other than those owned and operated by the coal companies, the right to choose their own doctors, and strict enforcement of Colorado’s mine safety laws. The major coal companies, including Ronald D. Rockwell’s CM&I (Colorado Mining and Iron), had rejected the demands.

At its peak in 1910, the coal mining industry of Colorado employed 15,864 employees, making up 10 percent of Colorado’s total work force. The industry was dominated by a small group of operators. Colorado Mining and Iron (CM&I) was the largest operator in the west and was recognized as one of the nation’s most powerful corporations. CM&I employed 7,050 workers and controlled 71,837 acres of coal land at the time.

In 1912, Colorado’s mines suffered 7.5 deaths per 1,000 employees, compared to a national rate of 3.15 deaths per 1,000 employees. In 1913, 104 men died in Colorado’s mines.

Josef and Sofia Strausser had not planned to have children. They were dirt poor having spent their very last dollar on steamship tickets to sail to America and to realize their dream of prosperity and to avoid the coming war in Europe. They had avoided World War I, true, but in exchange they found themselves fighting the coal companies to eke out a precarious existence. If the coal dust didn’t ignite and trigger a massive underground explosion, it settled in the miners’ lungs where months or years later it ripened into Black Lung, which in those days almost guaranteed a horrible, deadly journey.

But Tomas changed their lives. He filled the emptiness in their home that they never knew existed. The first two weeks he woke screaming almost every night, Mama, Mama! Wake up! Sofia would go to him, pick him up and sooth him.

Mama’s here. Mama’s here. Don’t worry. I won’t leave you. She would take him to their old rickety rocking chair and hum one of the old, old songs that Sofia’s grandmother used to sing to her. Soon Tomas’s eyes would slide closed and he would sleep. But Sofia knew that he was not peaceful. His little legs and arms would twitch and he would whisper, Mama until he nodded off again. The constant and unequivocal love and attention and the sands of time slowly but surely drowned out Tomas’s memories of his dying mama who never answered him.

In 1916, Sofia received word from her older sister in Croatia (at that time part of Austria-Hungary); that their father had been drafted into the Army and had gone off to fight in the war. Their father had left Sofia’s mother alone with Sofia’s sister. Austria was aligned with Germany against the allies, which included the United States. Sofia and Josef didn’t want to be stranded in the United States if things got really bad. Plus Sofia’s mother was old and could probably not survive alone with her husband gone to war. So Sofia and Josef packed up their meager belongings, took their life savings, and with Tomas in tow returned to Austria, not quite sure what lay ahead.

Austria-Hungary

Neither Josef nor Sofia could have foreseen the hell that enveloped Europe. It was as if the entire world was at war, and indeed, their world was. More than 70,000,000 military personnel including 60,000,000 Europeans had mobilized in a maelstrom of hate and violence, which transcended into one of the largest wars in history. Over 9,000,000 combatants and 7,000,000 civilians would die as a result of the fighting. The dead included thousands by genocide. World War 1 would prove to be one of the deadliest wars in history.

Sofia’s father was one of the first fatalities of the war. He was bayoneted to death trying to save an injured comrade from suffocating in a collapsed trench on the battle field. Sofia and her mother did not learn of his death until three months later. If Josef was drafted into the Army, Sofia would be left alone to care for Tomas and Sofia’s ailing mother who had slipped into an abyss of grief and sorrow. She had stopped eating so Sofia’s little family took turns spoon-feeding her. Sofia was also determined to continue Tomas’ education instead of getting him a job like many parents did.

Josef tried to intervene. We need every krone we can scratch together. Many of the other boys work at odd jobs. As inconceivable as it sounds, many poor families put their children to work in factories to survive.

But Sofia was adamant. Josef knew that she was close to breaking from her father’s absence and the tenuous condition of her ailing mama. So he let it go. They would have to make do.

Neighborhood mothers had come together and created revolving teams to teach in a different house every day. The school buildings had been occupied by local police and military recruiters who were constantly combing the neighborhoods searching for draft dodgers. Josef kept a low profile and stayed out of sight during the classes at their house. He was afraid that the students might be questioned by the authorities and Josef would be exposed as a draft dodger. He would sometimes sneak out after midnight and visit the after hours shop to stock up on necessities. The after-hours shop owners and their shoppers played a dangerous game. Several had been beaten and arrested. Some shops had been burned. Draft dodgers were considered to be deserters and were shot. The only difference between being shot as a deserter or draft dodger and being shot as a soldier on the battlefield…the draft dodgers and deserters were killed instantly. Soldiers on the battle field were often shot multiple times and left to suffer agonizing deaths as feral dogs tore their mangled and dying bodies.

Sofia’s ailing mother died quietly the morning of November 11, 1918, the day the WWI armistice was signed. Sofia’s small family began preparations to leave the devastation of Europe and return to the United States and to Colorado. Josef and other Austrians with visions of starting over in America had made arrangements with the captain of a decrepit freighter to work in the engine room in exchange for passage. The work would be dirty and dangerous. Sofia was distraught to leave her family house. It had miraculously survived the looting and the wholesale destruction that took place when the defeated Russian army destroyed everything in their path.

This is our chance to return to America, Josef mused. Now that both of Sofia’s parents are gone we have no ties here. Josef knew that he could support his family in Colorado. He knew the coal mining business and he missed Colorado; the mountains and the clean, clear air. True, the mines are dangerous and they’re owned by ruthless men. Still, Josef and others like him; trying to scratch a living out of the earth, carried high hopes for America. Besides, everyone seems to believe that another European war is brewing; they were all just waiting for the fuse to be lit. That bastard, Hitler, was rattling the chains of war. Josef wanted his family to be far away when it did.

Sofia was terrified by the thought of another ocean crossing but Josef pushed her to return to America.

It’ll take years to recover from the war and we have no assurances that there won’t be yet another one. At least in America we can work. We can survive. We can send our son to school. We can have a life. Josef tried to be rational and calm with his wife but he was growing desperate for his small family.

Sofia was slowly coming around but she wouldn’t leave without providing a proper Jewish burial for her mama. Josef walked to their neighborhood synagogue and lamented to the Rabbi his family’s predicament. The Rabbi took Josef to several Jewish homes and explained what they needed. They all pitched in to help this struggling family. One family volunteered to take care of the Taharah (washing of the deceased). Another promised to get additional help to prepare the traditional Oron (specially constructed casket). The Rabbi assured Josef that they could accomplish the appropriate rituals and burial within twenty-four hours. The participating Jewish families visited Sofia and gave her their blessings and wished them God speed on their treacherous journey. They all secretly wished that they would be boarding the ship with them.

The only problem left was their son, Tomas. He was distraught about leaving his friends.

Papa, please let me stay. Willem’s mama said that I could live with them and share his bedroom. Tomas’s other best friends, Anton and Davey, also had offered living space in their sparse rooms (most of which also housed at least one other sibling). Josef put his arms around Tomas to comfort his son. They cried together for a few moments.

Tomas, I know how much it hurts to leave friends behind. But your mama and I couldn’t live without you. Josef went on to explain about what a burden one more growing boy would be for any of the families who had offered to take him in. One more mouth to feed might take food away from someone in their family.

The nearest harbor large enough to accommodate ocean-worthy ships was on the coast of Croatia. They would travel with a group of families who were also trying to escape the atmosphere of impending war. The beginning of the three-day rolling trek looked similar to the wagon trains featured in many American Wild West movies. Instead of horse drawn wagons though, the caravan consisted of run-down, beat-up trucks. Josef and Sofia, like all the sea-bound passengers had paid exorbitant fees to the drivers of the decrepit trucks which appeared anything but trustworthy. Sofia had been scrimping and saving their meager earnings just for this occasion, returning to America. She silently prayed that the ship that awaited them appeared more travel worthy than the caravan of trucks to which they were about to trust their lives.

Four of Tomas’s best buddies wanted to travel with the caravan and Tomas to say their extended good byes. They planned to ride the first mile with him and then bail out and hike back home. Josef thought that it was a harmless gesture and willingly approved it. Tomas was distraught at leaving his best friends. They were like brothers to him. They did everything together, shared everything and he was going to miss them terribly. Josef sensed Tomas’s anguish at leaving and he wished that he could make it better.

Maybe the excitement of sailing across the ocean will help salve his pain, Josef hoped.

Their ship was the Scorpion and it was the smallest of the ships docked. After almost an hour of trudging through the robust and smelly crowd on the pier, they made it to the gang-plank. Josef presented his Captain’s letter, which stated that Josef, Sofia and Tomas could board the ship.

The Scorpion was a hybrid freighter/passenger ship. It was originally an oiler, which provided fuel for ships while they were at sea. This allowed ships to avoid docking and losing precious cruise time. Many working ships such as the Scorpion, were owned by small companies and operated on a thin financial line. The Scorpion had also been reconditioned to carry a small number of passengers to help their financial bottom line. Another attempt to improve ships’ financial condition included allowing desperate passengers to work their way across the ocean. The ships’ crews often resented that tactic because the ships were, in effect, taking jobs from the sailors. The Captains of these financially-sinking ships made no special effort to help these working passengers. They basically fed them scraps and did not provide sleeping quarters. They had to find nooks and crannies for sleeping. Some of them were robbed during the voyage. Fortunately, Josef was a big man and had a don’t screw with me countenance so there was little risk that he and Sofia would be bothered.

Josef went immediately to the engine room to learn from the Chief Engineer what his duties would be. The Chief Engineer would rule Josef’s life for the duration of the trip and it was important to make a favorable first impression. In the meantime, Sofia was frantically searching for Tomas. They had agreed to meet on the bridge at the front of the ship which was packed with bustling crew members rushing to ready the ship for departure and irate passengers whose cabins had been given away. Most of the cruise liners overbooked because of traditional no-shows and other passengers who boarded but had not made their room deposits.

Time was growing short and there was no sign of Tomas. Sofia was running from side to side and front to back of the ship. She desperately stopped passengers and crew members to ask if they had seen a young boy with a single suit case. She shoved her way through the milling crowd to look below deck. She overcame her anxiety about interrupting the Engineer and burst into the engine room.

Josef! Tomas is not on board, she sobbed and screamed at the same time. Josef ran to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. What do you mean, he’s not on board? Sofia was sobbing uncontrollably and barely could find enough air to respond. The Engineer, who was a father himself, immediately sprang into action.

Tell me what he looks like. What’s his size? Is he carrying any luggage? What’s he wearing? He directed the questions to Josef because Sofia was incoherent. He scribbled the descriptions on a greasy piece of paper and darted from the room. He ran to several crew members and repeated Tomas’s description. He sent two men below deck to search every cabin.

And hurry! We have less than an hour before casting off! He dismissed Josef. Find your boy first. I can teach you how to run the engines anytime. Josef ran down the gang plank and began searching the immediate area around the ship in case Tomas had been attacked and robbed (a common event around the ship docks). He questioned every dock worker to no avail. He saw the ship’s crew throw off the lanyards. The Engineer was standing on the deck yelling to Josef, We’re casting off! Hurry!

There was no such thing as delaying a ship’s departure for a single nine year old boy. The Captain had to cast off while the tide was in.

Josef was panicked. Dear God! I can’t let Sofia sail alone. He knew that she would be raped and savaged the entire trip with no one to protect her. When Tomas realizes that he missed the ship (Oh, God. What could have happened?)He’ll get a ride home and go to one of his friend’s house and their parents will take care of him. He can sail on another ship and meet us in Colorado.

Josef was desperate and he could not, no, would not let himself think the worst. His mind screamed at him. I must leave Tomas and sail away. We will learn what happened and whatever it takes we will bring Tomas to Colorado.

He could see the ship edging away from the dock. He ran up the gang plank just in time to jump onto the deck. He turned to the dock and yelled as loud as he could.

We’ll find you Tomas! Keep your faith! Josef stood and watched the dock as it grew smaller and smaller. He sobbed loudly. Sofia came to him. She was cried out and her soul was wrung dry.

Where is God when we need him the most?

Tomas woke to a screaming headache. He felt the top of his head, which was wet and throbbing.

It must be blood. His left hand was bound tightly to some type of metal pipe. He opened his eyes to total darkness. The air was damp and heavy with a rancid odor. He sensed the presence and movement of other bodies. He also could hear sobbing, some of which turned into loud yells.

Mama! Papa! Please come get me. The cries became louder. More voices joined in the panic. Tomas began to remember what had happened on the way to the ship. A dirty old van had followed their truck which was at the tail end of the caravan. Their truck driver stopped and picked up a hitch hiker. Then two men jumped out of the van and began grabbing Tomas’s friends and threw gunny sacks over their heads. Tomas never knew if their truck driver was in on the kidnapping. He remembered that Davey twisted away from one of the men and ran as fast as he could. Tomas was able to kick one of the men squarely in the crotch. He remembered the man falling to the road clutching his crotch and screaming loudly. That’s the last thing he remembered.

Somebody once said, War Is Hell. Maybe it was God who said it. He certainly has the best view of it.

As if millions of soldiers being shot, bayoneted, bludgeoned, trampled, buried alive and permanently disabled weren’t enough, another form of hell was visited on thousands of children as a result of the war. The soldiers in battle left not only their families behind but many of them left their factory jobs unoccupied. Many factory owners went to the streets and found orphaned children to fill some of the vacancies. Some menial tasks could be performed by children and even though the children weren’t paid as much as the grown-ups were, many of them could at least put food on the table to replace their fighting fathers’ and brothers’ contributions to their families. The children worked in factories and on farms. Most factory owners paid their child employees and treated them responsibly. However, others paid rustlers to kidnap children, usually orphans or runaways, but as the factories’ orders began to pile up (mostly military goods) the owners began to pay rustlers to snatch children off the street and deliver them to the factories where the children were forced to work ten or twelve hours a day without pay. The owners would feed them just enough to keep them healthy enough to work. The children slept in large dormitories hastily built next to the factories. The living conditions were deplorable and even inhumane. The factory owners rationalized that the country was at war and they were providing needed supplies for the war effort. The practice of recruiting child workers was society’s slippery slope and it got even more slippery when gangs of unemployed draft dodgers began kidnapping children and selling them to factories. The government and society turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the humane groups and the parents who protested the treatment of child-workers.

Anton and Willem squirmed their way out of the kidnappers’ grasps and ran like hell when they saw the kidnappers grab their friends. They ran home and told their parents but their friends were long gone by the time that Willem’s and Anton’s dads arrived at the scene.

Davey was also a fighter. He made the rustler who grabbed him pay dearly. Davey rammed his thumb into the rustler’s eye and ground it in until the screaming rustler was able to disengage from the devil child; by then he was able to see out of only one eye. He never regained his sight in that eye. He probably would have killed Davey if the other kidnappers hadn’t held him back.

Dummy, we don’t get paid for injured or dead kiddos. Use your head, man. What’s left of it. The rest of them laughed at the pitiful sight of the bleeding eye socket. From that moment Tomas and Davey became family, watching out for each other and constantly planning on making their escape.

Tomas was shattered. He knew that Mama and Papa were not his natural parents but he also knew that they were his PARENTS, the loving grown-ups who loved him and who were teaching him how to care about your family and how to treat people. He was heartbroken to be separated but his granddad had once told him that sometimes you had to deal with adversity (that meant bad things, his granddad said) even if it wasn’t fair. Sometimes you just had to wait it out. You had to have patience and you had to ignore how unfair things were and not dwell on why bad things or bad people were causing you pain.

The adult factory supervisors knew that they not only had to supervise the child labor, they also had to protect them from delinquent child workers. There were plenty of trouble makers. The kids who were trouble makers, at school or at home, did not become model citizens in the factories. Unfortunately, the adult supervisors could not always prevent bullies and miscreants from fighting and bullying other children. Tomas learned early that his fists spoke much clearer and louder than reasoning. And it didn’t take long for the child bullies to learn who to avoid. Tomas and Davey decided that it would be to their advantage to not wait for a Bully. They went looking for one. They wanted the largest and the loudest Bully in the factory to send their message.

They found him on Sunday morning. The factory worked only half a day on Sundays so the kids lolly-gagged around the play area most of the day. These kids were also the most inviting targets for trouble makers. It didn’t take long for a fat, slovenly big kid to pounce on one of the smaller, more timid kids. The big kid was carrying a toilet bucket. There was one toilet bucket assigned to every three kids. They took turns emptying the bucket when it got nearly full or smelled so bad that they couldn’t stand it. Tomas began watching the fat kid because it looked like he was on the hunt for a victim. Sure enough.

Hey, punk. Fatso grabbed a much smaller kid who was trying to play with his friends.

Go empty my shit can. He pushed it into the kid’s arms spilling some of the contents on the little kid’s shirt. None of the little kids’ playmates were big enough to challenge the shit-can kid. The smaller kid had no recourse. His eyes welled up with tears and he almost gagged from the foul odor on his shirt. So Tomas and Davey decided that this would be a good learning moment for the factory bullies.

Tomas walked up behind the fat kid. Hey Fatso. I’ll go empty your shit can for you. Tomas held out his hand. Fatso was surprised and assumed that Tomas was simply trying to get into his good graces so he handed the can to Tomas.

Be sure you wash it out good, Fatso smirked. Tomas took the toilet can and immediately poured the contents on the fat boy’s head. The rancid urine and the days-old feces soaked his shirt and got stuck in his hair. The fat one immediately gagged and vomited. The putrid smell set off a chain reaction of vomiting from the kids closest to the toilet event. Davey grabbed one of the fire buckets, which held two gallons of water and poured that over Fatso’s head. Fatso continued to heave. When Tomas was sure that he was through vomiting, he grabbed Fatso’s nose and squeezed as hard as he could.

Ahhhh. Ahhhh. That hurts! Fatso was near tears.

Tomas released the nose while Davey made sure that none of Fatso’s friends tried to intervene.

He then spoke to Fatso. If I see you anywhere near that little kid again, I will make today look like a picnic. Next time I will hurt you really bad. Now you clean up your mess.

The laughing and the gagging had ended. Nobody stepped up to challenge Tomas. Tomas was not a big kid but he could take care of himself. Look into his eyes and there was a fierce determination there that made you glad that he was on your side. It took only a few factory bullies with broken noses, broken fingers, crushed testicles and a missing ear lobe to solidify Tomas’s reputation. Tomas’s heartache for his family never dimmed nor did his hope of being reunited with them. But for the time being, he needed to survive. Managers of the ammunition factory soon took notice of Tomas. By the time that Tomas was fourteen years old it was apparent that he had garnered more respect than most of the adult supervisors and many believed that he was smarter than most of them.

At first the plant supervisor used Tomas primarily to enforce discipline among the child workers but it soon became apparent that Tomas was talented. He could spot minor glitches in the manufacturing process and quickly correct them. So he became the plant’s first inspector. He would stroll up and down the plant looking for potential weak points such as a worker not paying attention or a sloppy worker who just didn’t pay attention to the safety rules. Inattention could create mayhem on the assembly line and slow down the entire manufacturing process and/or cost workers valuable time or in drastic cases a finger or two.

Sofia felt like she had truly landed in Hell. For three days, ever since the ship had left port, the seas had been high and choppy. The ship would ride a large wave to its crest, almost turn over on its side, barely right itself just before plummeting to the trough of the wave—a good thirty feet thrill ride. Sofia had never ridden or even seen a roller coaster but she now knew what it felt like. She wanted to die. Grief over her lost son hung over her like a funeral shawl. She blamed Josef for Tomas’s disappearance and they had not had time to talk about it. Josef had barely shown his face since they left port. He was desperate to learn his Engine Room duties and was, like his wife, in a period of deep guilt and mourning. Fortunately, the Chief Engineer, Viktor, took a liking to Josef because he was so attentive and was learning so quickly. The Engineer allowed Josef and Sofia to sleep in the bunk bed that was adjacent to the Engine Room. It was normally used by crew members on the midnight shift. The Chief Engineer had in effect promoted Josef to an official position which entitled Josef to two meals a day. So at least they wouldn’t starve to death on their voyage to America. Josef faithfully shared each of his two meals a day with Sofia. Even with his good luck finding a paying job including meals, Josef was concerned about Sofia. She would spend hours standing by the railing staring at the sea. He was worried about her accidentally washing over board or, God forbid, jumping over board to end her suffering. She had not spoken to Josef since their departure and Tomas’s disappearance. Josef knew that he must do something to save Sofia…from herself.

He completed his Engine Room duties early and headed for Sofia’s spot on the deck. As always he brought her share of their evening meal. She didn’t acknowledge him but she did accept the plate of bread, cheese, and pickled meat and began to pick at it.

"You’re wasting away, Sofia. You’re starving yourself. I know that it was my fault that Tomas is not with us but I still haven’t given up on him.