As We Laid Down To Sleep

By D.B. Sevener

About the Book
In 1920, in a rural mining community, a young twenty-three-year-old widow and her three small daughters are sent off to live with her deceased husband’s family. Once there and settled in, she and the daughters are found dead in the most heinous of ways. A hundred years later, a woman with the gift of psychometry purchases the home where the family was found. Soon she discovers a secret hiding spot and a journal containing tales from the dead.
As We Laid Down to Sleep… is a story of love and heartache, sin and murder, and a woman on a mission to find the truth.
About the Author
D.B. Sevener was born in rural Kentucky in 1955. She lived with her mother and older sister in extreme poverty, usually having nothing for light but a coal lamp. She grew up sitting on the porch with her mother, listening to her tell stories of her family.
Her life is very full – with a husband, three grown children, and seven grandchildren. She has an honorary daughter and two honorary grandchildren. She loves being with her family – they go sightseeing and for rides in the forest. They have parties and play games.
She is not mundane – she is an Eclectic. She is like her mama; she is a storyteller.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Company
• Release date: Sep 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889256458

Book preview

Prologue        

As bad as it was, Beth knew the worst was to come. What will W.L. do if her plan fails and he finds out that she was in the family way?  What would his family do? This would be a huge scandal.  Their son’s widow in trouble by his brother.  Ye will serve me whenever I want!  And the Evil Spawn let a loud and evil laugh. If ya don’t like it git ya ass down the road woman! Jest remember the youngins stay here. Ya was proven to be unfit to be their ma. So if ya don’t like it go! He added, GG is growin’ upright fast. She is goin’ to be a beauty jest like her ma! Another big evil laugh and he continued, Them other two will be ripe for the pickin’ purty soon!  Those girls were her world, and she would endure whatever she had to remain with them. She would not give W.L. the chance to touch her girls!

He roughly grabbed her jerking up her skirt and yanking down her stepins. He roughly and violently shoved himself inside her. His breath in her face smelled of tobacco, booze, and those stinky sardines he was always eating. As he thrust and thrust inside her, she let her mind go to her safe place. She would leave her body and look down at the horror that was happening to her. A voice in the ear would be repeating telling her, It’s only sex. But in her mind she was begging him to stop.

Stop! Stop! Stop! she cried inside. Afraid to make a sound with her little girls sleeping in the next room.  After W.L. had taken his payment from her, he told her, Go clean ya’self. Ya smell disgustin’. She couldn’t get away from her husband’s brother fast enough.

As Beth cleaned the stink of W.L. off herself, she cried, Why?  What did she ever do to deserve this hell?  The only good things in her life were her girls, Georgia, aka GG, Pearlie, and the baby, Ruby. They were her world. She would do anything to keep them safe from their evil uncle while living under the family roof!  They would for sure blame her and call her a Jezebel.  Father Rubin was highly respected in the church community. The tears flowed down her beautiful face.

As she went back to the bedroom she shared with the girls, she stopped to check on them. Her heart swelled with love looking at her babies. There was six-year-old GG. Her redheaded, blue-eyed baby was always looking out for her younger sisters. Cliff used to call her a little mama. Next to her snoring away was Pearlie. She was a little blond girl with her daddy’s dark eyes. She was a mama’s girl that required lots of mama’s attention. At the head of the bed waiting for mama to join her was almost three-year-old Ruby. She had black hair and green eyes like her mama. She was independent like her big sister. That was fine with Pearlie; it left her more mama time! They put a smile on Beth’s lovely face and burst her heart with love.

Beth had to get through all the bad things that were happening. It wasn’t enough she lost the love of her life. It’s not enough she had to watch him suffer for 39 very long days and night. It wasn’t enough that all her friends had moved away. It wasn’t enough that she lost her home and almost all of her belongs. With just the raggedy chair and her sewing box and her treasurer box and journal. That was all they had left. None of that was enough. Now she was being forced to stay so she could be with her girls. Worse yet, she had to pay with her body. She had only Cliff that had cardinal knowledge of her. Now his once handsome brother had changed into this ugly, stinky, violent rapist. Maybe she was being punished for something she did that she felt she had no choice in the matter. She would write all of this in her journal. It was her was of escaping her nightmare.

Beth went to the way back of her closet. There hidden from view was a wooden box made into the floor. Beth had pried off the lid. It made the best hiding place. She reached in and pulled out her sewing box and the dresses with matching stepins she was making the girls for Easter. Time was growing near to the Easter service at Father Rubin’s church. The dresses were a final gift from their daddy. She headed to the big raggedy old chair that she, Cliff, and the girls would snuggle in, the only thing she had from their old house.

Cliff had bought Beth the sewing box filled with sewing needs plus some pretty light blue material with tiny pink rose buds. Beth needed to put the finishing touches on the dresses and stepins. She had some lace rickrack left over from her wedding dress. She also had enough pearl buttons for each girl to have four a piece to close up the backs. The dresses and stepins turned out to be ever more pretty than she imagined.

She safely tucked away her sewing and grabbed her pen and journal. She loved to write. She could express herself by the written word. She could write of the pain and humiliation she felt. She wrote of her plans to escape with the girls to a better life in the north. She had to remain patient. If anyone caught wind of her plans the plan would be ruined.

When sleep would start to overcome her, she would pack away her thought and journal in her secret hiding place and let sleep take her away until the dawn. Then the nightmare that was her life started over.

1919-1920

Life as Clifton and Bethany Rubin and their children knew came to an end on October 18, 1919. A day that started out as the day before. One filled with love, happiness, and a bright future.  Their plans to escape to a better life in the north...gone.

With a hot breakfast of biscuits piping hot, fresh out of the oven and dripping with fresh churned butter and a slab of bacon, and fresh eggs from their own chickens. The girls loved their biscuits with honey. This morning would be the last morning this beautiful family ever shared the warm feelings of love and security. Their happiness was shattered forever.

After their morning meal, Beth set out to pack some vittles for Clifton to eat for his noon meal. The girls were busy playing with the rag dolls she had made them from some old potato sacks. Everyone looked so happy.

Clifton smoked his pipe while Beth tended her woman work. Watching his girls play. The back breaking work he did five to six days a week was worth it. It gave his girls a good life.  It also helped to save money to move to Michigan and a better way of life.

As Beth handed Clifton his dinner bucket and coffee, they hugged and kissed out of sight of the girls.  Clifton whistled for his hound dog Old Brownie. The two would walk the path to the coal mines together. When it was quittin’ time, like clockwork there was loyal Old Brownie waiting to walk Clifton home. Old Brownie was truly a man’s best friend. Clifton and his girls were blessed with their lives.

Clifton hated working on a Saturday. When he could be home enjoying his girls. He loved playing his fiddle watching his favorite girls dance around the room. Mr. Octavious Pogue wanted to run the mine today because on Monday the men from Todd County were going to blow another shaft. Needing all the money he could get his hands on, Cliff volunteered to work.

Cliff felt he was truly blessed. He had won the heart of his soulmate. The two of them becoming one. He never understood why Beth chose him over his better looking older brother. But she did. And three kids later his ticker still flutters at the sight of her. What a beauty!

Beth went outside with GG and Pearl and Baby Ruby to gather the eggs from the henhouse. Beth and Pearl were both terrified of chickens! The wings flapping, the feathers flying around and those gross feet and sharp beaks! Yuck! Beth and Pearl were grossed out at the thought of chickens. So GG and Baby Ruby would chase the hens out so Beth and Pearl could gather the eggs.

Today Beth and the girls were going to take the eggs to Pogue’s Company Store. Owned by the coal mine as was their home. The Pogues gave her a decent trade for her eggs, berries, or whatever else Beth could do to help out her family. Beth would trade the eggs for some flour and cornmeal. Maybe get the girls a penny’s worth of peppermint sticks. Sometimes Old man Frank Pogue would bring in some fresh honeycomb. The girls loved that sticky stuff! On the way home the kids would enjoy their sticky treat.

As Beth was putting their purchases away, there was a loud earth-shaking bang! Oh my God, Clifton! She ran out the door and down the path to the mine. There sat Old Brownie crying his heart out and howling  nonstop. Beth fell to her knees. Black smoke was billowing out of the mine shaft. No! No! No! Not her soulmate! Not Cliff! She begged God on her hands and knees, Please dear God, spare Clifton. Please!

She stopped praying and looked up. Still no sign or hair of Cliff. Her eye caught sight of A.O. Pogue. He was foreman of the mines. She runs up to him with pleading eyes; she asks about Cliff. A.O. Couldn’t look her in the eyes. She knew it was bad.

This wasn’t the first mine that brought Clifton harm. In 1910 at only eighteen, Clifton was caught in an underground fire. His face was severely burnt. Which is why Mother Rubin had no photos of him. She was ashamed of his scars.  Now it happens again. Her beloved is still in the mine.  

Running up to A. O., she grabbed his arm. She was not letting go ‘til she got answers this time. She knew enough to know that if anyone knew what was going on it was the foreman who assigned the men to the area they were to work. So again she asked, where was Clifton V. Rubin at?  A. O. couldn’t look Beth in the eyes. He knew he had to tell her so he could do his job. He knew how grim things were looking.

Clifton had been working in the northwest side of the mine. Slate had caved that area in. Men were working to dig the three men left in the mine shaft out. It would be a while. Beth knows she screamed. But she couldn’t hear herself.  She lost it when she saw the dead canary. She knew gases had invaded the shafts.

Oh Clifton! Please God please save him! She was filled with fear. She knew God had never listened to her before. Please, please, please God hear my prayers, she begged!  Then it hit her. Where was Clifton’s family? Why were they not there with her! Then another thing hit her! Where were her girls! She had lost track of time.

Up the hills she ran. Her poor babies. How could she forget them. She knew Cliff would want her with their babies. So as fast as her legs would carry her, she ran the short distance. Passing by Old Brownie, he was still crying and howling. As she reached the house, Mrs. Jones met her at the door. Baby Ruby was in her arms and GG and Pearl clung to her legs.

After hugs and kisses, the girls went to the table to have milk and chocolate chip cookies that Mrs. Jones had brought from her house. Beth updated the older woman on what she knew that happened.  Mrs. Jones handed her a jug of piping hot coffee and a tin cup. She had even packed Beth a sandwich and a few cookies.  Mrs. Jones was a kind lady. She sent Beth back to the mine with a warm blanket. She told her she would watch the girls. Beth gave her a hug. She kissed her girls and headed out into the unknown. She was not leaving until she had Clift. Even if she had to break their stupid rules about women entering a mine was bad luck. How could her luck get any worse? She was about to find out.

As Beth made her way back to the mine shaft, she came across Old Brownie. Still sitting there waiting, he wasn’t making a sound. Just looking sad and exhausted. She gave him a pat on the head and reach in her bag and gave him the sandwich Mrs. Jones had packed her. She knew her mind would not be on eating.

When Beth arrived, she saw that there were tents put up. Doc Rose was there with his doctor’s bag.  She knew that things were not looking good for Clifton or the other two men left in the pocket where slate had crashed down, blocking the entrance.

She watched as friends and neighbors worked together side by side. Women folks brought in hot coffee, bean soap, and cornbread. The men had to keep up their strength to keep working until their fellow miners were out of that hell hole.

There were two of her good friends; Sharon and Catherine were making their way to her. Sharon and Catherine’s husbands were both working to remove the slate blocking the trapped men.  

The friends hugged Beth, both glad it wasn’t their husbands, Wilbur and Claude Johnson. They had married the brothers in a double ceremony in the summer.  The two young couples had plans to move to Evansville in the spring.  They had family willing to put them up until they got settled. The wives wanted to get jobs cleaning hotel rooms. Things were booming in other places.

The women sat with Beth trying their best to comfort their dear friend. Beth was numb. She just wanted her beautiful life back. She had prayed herself out. Only time will tell if God was listening.

The other two men trapped had no wife or kids. They were from the next county over. They had come here to oversee the dynamite that was being put in place on Monday to start a new dig. Thinking the men had nobody there, she said another silent prayer for the men. She didn’t even know their names.

She looked up just in time to see Cliff’s older brother and Father Rubin pulling up in a carriage. W.L. headed in her direction. He started blaming her for Clifton being in that mine. If it wasn’t for you and your sinful ways, my brother would not be in this predicament. He would be living and working on the family farm. But no! You used your feminine wiles to trap him! Once trapped you kept havin’ kid after kid and not one boy to carry on the Rubin name. You are nothin’ but a Jezebel!

Hot tears sprang from her eyes. How she wished it was W.L. trapped in that mine instead of her Cliff! About that time Sharon and Catherine came to her rescue. Letting W.L. know he had better leave Beth alone before their husbands had a talk with him. W.L. was a lazy coward that lived off his ma and pa. He wanted no part of a physical confrontation with two angry husbands.  He glared at Beth; pausing next to her face, he whispered, I am not done with ye yet, as he slithered away like the snake he was.

Father Rubin, seeing what was going on, just hung his head. He knew how jealous W.L. was of Clifton. He always wanted anything Clifton had. He had wanted the beautiful, young Beth. But she only had eyes for Cliff. It was love at first sight. That festered at W.L.. He was older and much better looking. Clifton had got his face burnt some time ago. Beth acted as though she did even notice.  

Father Rubin learned years back to just keep his thoughts and opinions to himself. He ran his farm, and he had a congregation at the Missionary Baptist Church in Patton Holler. He let his wife run the rest. Otherwise he would know no peace at all.  She always said that Clifton was weak like him and W.L. was strong like her.  She got the part right that she and W.L. were alike. Between the two of them, they drove Clifton and his family away.  They both had the devil in them.

After W.L. And Father Rubin got back in their carriage, Beth grabbed a cup of hot coffee. Even though she normally didn’t like coffee, this was not a normal day. She needed something to warm her up and give her a spark of energy. She curled up in the corner of the canvas tent with the tattered quilt the kind Mrs. Jones sent her off with. The coffee did warm her, but sleep still overcame her.

She dreamed of happy times at the river fishing with Cliff and the girls. Of falling to sleep in Cliff’s strong arms under the stars.

Noises from the people working tirelessly outside woke Beth with a fright! Cliff. She looked out to see the sun rising over Haus Hill. People were scurrying about in a frenzy! She heard A.O. Pogue shout to get out of the way, they were bringing the men out!

Please God please! Let her Cliff be ok! Please, she begged. She pushed her way through the crowd so she would be able to see Cliff. Both the men from the next county were out. Both looked worse for wear but otherwise ok. Where was Cliff! Now she feared that worse thoughts were coming true!

Finally after what seemed an eternity, one of the Johnson brothers came up to the mouth of the mine. He was ordering a stretcher and a sheet to be brought to him ASAP. Beth’s heart sank. She knew it had to be her beloved and that it was bad.

A short time later, someone shouted, They’re bring him up! Beth wanted to go to the mouth of the mine to wait for Cliff. She felt a tug on her arm. It was their family friend Doc Rose.

"No, chile, stay back. I will send for you as soon as I know something. With that he motioned for her friends Catherine and Sharon to shield her from the sight of her husband who was busted up mighty bad.

Once Cliff was out, Doc Rose told the Johnson brothers to put Cliff gently on the buckboard. He sent for Beth as he promised. He told her to run home and make sure it was warm. He told her to get a pot of water hot and as many rags as she could. They will be there soon with Cliff.

Beth ran as fast as she could home. She didn’t pay any mind to Old Brownie looking so sad.

Chapter 1

Behind the buckboard