The dark against the light. The delicate interplay of these two forces was fascinating. Their constant struggle brought balance to the world.
Edith was stunned by the profundity of her thoughts. The light and the dark, she mused. One could not exist without the other. They occupied separate spaces in the universe, taking turns at dominance. When joy was at its zenith, illuminating the world, the threat of darkness was ever present. It waited in the shadows for an opportunity to conquer the light. To resume its rule.
And this time, its destruction had been all too thorough. Edith stroked her empty womb, fighting back tears. The salty taste of blood was on her lips. She’d bit herself too hard this time.
“Edith, darling, lunch is almost ready. Will you please join me in the dining room?” James asked as he entered the parlor, reaching for his wife’s hand.
“Did Shannon get rid of that dreadful Christmas china with the red poinsettias?”
“Yes. She put it away.”
Edith balled her fist. “Tell her to collect every last piece and add them to the fire.”
“I’m worried about you.” James said, lowering his voice. “It’s Christmas Eve, and we have a wretched bonfire in our front yard. I can’t imagine what the neighbors must think.” He hesitated. “Your behavior is growing more peculiar. Some might even call it frightening.”
“Who said that? Was it my cousin Clara? She’s always sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“No. Let me rephrase. I am frightened by your behavior. You are not well, Edith.” James peered out the window at the blaze and frowned. “Look at our lawn! It should be a delightful, wintry scene with all this snow. Instead, it’s been marred by ashes.”
Edith studied the dark circle surrounding the fire. The ashes extended at least a dozen feet in every direction, blackening the snow. Further out, ash was sprinkled arbitrarily, creating ominous patterns in varying shades of gray. She nodded. “Yes. Your pure white snow has been ruined—like so many other things as of late.”
James squinted in the direction of the front gate. “Who’s that?” he said to no one in particular.
Curious, Edith leaned forward. She could see a man coming up the walk, but could not determine his identity. He was bundled up in a heavy coat, the collar pulled up high over his ears.
“Is that Lukas?” James asked.
Edith stood up. “I cannot see him in this state,” she said, fingering the stubble on her chin. “I’m going upstairs. Tell him I’m not ready for visitors.”
“Since when is Lukas a visitor? He’s family. He’s our son,” James said, his voice breaking.
As Edith climbed the first few stairs, she heard the squeak of the doorknob. She quickened her pace.
“Lukas?” she heard her husband say. “What are you doing here?”
Edith paused at the top of the stairs, eager to know what had brought Lukas to the house on Christmas Eve. He was supposed to be spending the holiday with his family.
“I need to speak with you and Aunt Edith. It’s very important.”
“Is everything all right?” James asked. “Have you been crying?”
Edith rushed down the stairs. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” She put her arms around Lukas, who was standing in the foyer shivering. His entire body was covered with snow, his dark blonde hair now white. “Where’s your hat?”
“The wind took it. I couldn’t chase it because I was carrying this.” He opened his coat to reveal a tiny baby wrapped in a pink, fuzzy blanket.
Edith gasped. “Who is this?”
“Her name is Mary. She’s an orphan in need of a home. Her mother died only yesterday.”
Edith leaned closer to the little angel. She was sleeping peacefully, unaware of the strangers admiring her sweet face.
“Who was her mother? Are you in a position to offer her to us?” James asked, his tone both skeptical and eager.
Lukas nodded as a tear rolled down his cheek. “Her mother was …”
Edith caressed his arm, waiting for him to finish his sentence. He shook his head, the grief apparently still too raw. “You can tell us when you’re ready.” She kissed his cheek and rested her head against his shoulder.
“Her mother was someone I loved very much,” Lukas whispered suddenly. “She’d been gone from my life for so long, I’d forgotten how much she meant to me.” After a quiet moment, he asked, “Would you like to hold her, Aunt Edith? Would you like to hold my baby sister?”
Comprehension dawned on Edith. She turned to James, who was nodding his encouragement, his blue eyes twinkling.
As Lukas placed baby Mary in her arms, Edith felt the warmth of the sun upon her face. Its bright rays had somehow pierced through the storm clouds and penetrated the stained glass window above them. She smiled. The light had returned to vanquish the darkness.
Author’s Note
Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash was inspired by my research into my family’s genealogy and my interest in the history and culture of Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2012, I asked my ninety-year-old grandmother a few questions about her childhood and was presented with a scrapbook and several shoeboxes of old photos. I’m not sure why Grandma Pearl had never shown me these treasures until the final months of her life, but I am grateful nonetheless. She opened up to me that day about her childhood and showed me pictures of her Lithuanian parents as well as her Slovak in-laws. She recalled the days of running moonshine for her mother during the Prohibition era and mentioned a young Polish friend of hers who went by the name of Pole. I was fascinated by Grandma Pearl’s stories, but even more captivated by the images of my great-grandparents who arrived in America at the turn of the twentieth century to work in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. I wondered what they were like and what sort of challenges they might have faced. These imaginings inspired me to write the story of the Kovac family.
While the characters in my novel are fictional, the world they live in is not. I read several books about Pennsylvania’s steel and coal mining industries in the early twentieth century as well as excerpts from The Pittsburgh Survey, a sociological study conducted from 1907-1908, which chronicled the living conditions of immigrant families. Thanks to YouTube, I was able to watch silent films of steelworkers and coal miners performing hazardous work during the 1910s and 1920s. And during a visit to the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, my father shared memories of his thirty years of coal mining with me as we stumbled through dark tunnels 160 feet below ground. It was extremely important to me to provide historically accurate descriptions of both the steel mill and coal mine as well as the towns that were built around them. Also important to the telling of this story was an authentic portrayal of the attitudes of both workers and companies like the US Steel Corporation toward unionization. I hope my efforts have been successful.
Residents of Western Pennsylvania may be wondering why I created the fictional towns of Riverton, Abbott’s Hollow, and Beaver Creek. The answer is that I simply wanted to give myself more freedom to write the Kovacs’ story, though I have left clues that point to the inspiration for these settings. I should also mention that Westmont Academy, the boarding school Lukas attends in Johnstown, is also a figment of my imagination, created for the purpose of reuniting Pole and Lukas in Central Pennsylvania.
Because Karina is so central to the story of the Kovac family, it is important to address her mental illness. Most readers probably recognize that Karina suffers from depression during the first part of the book, but they may not realize that her illness was triggered by the birth of her first child. It may sound strange, given that Sofie is ten years old, but there is an explanation.
According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety and depression are common complications of childbirth, affecting as many as one in seven new moms. Fortunately, the majority of these cases improve quickly with time and proper treatment. But for roughly 38 percent of women diagnosed with postpartum depression, the condition becomes lifelong.
Factors that affect the probability that the disease will persist include a woman’s sensitivity to the hormonal shifts of pregnancy as well as the time it takes to diagnose and treat her condition. Environmental stressors like financial hardship, a traumatic birth experience, and the lack of a support system can play a role as well. And, of course, some women may be genetically predisposed to depression and other mood disorders. For these women, the shift in hormones during pregnancy and childbirth trigger a condition that has not yet surfaced. A psychiatrist I spoke with likened this phenomenon to a tulip bulb under the earth’s surface waiting for the right conditions to bloom. As for Karina’s depression, I’ll let readers make their own conclusions about why it persisted.
When Karina returns to her family after her seven-year absence, she is also suffering from dissociative amnesia. This mental disorder occurs when a person blocks out certain information, usually associated with a stressful or traumatic event. The individual is unable to remember important personal information and may suffer memory loss spanning months or even years. In some cases, only the memories involving the traumatic event are blocked. People with this disorder may or may not be aware of their memory loss and may appear confused.
As for Edith, she suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). It’s a hormonal disorder common among women of reproductive age. It can affect a woman’s ability to have a child as it stops her periods or makes them difficult to predict. PCOS can also cause acne, weight gain, unwanted body and facial hair, and a deep voice due to the excess of male hormones associated with this condition. Because of the hormonal imbalance in women with PCOS, their ovaries may develop numerous small collections of fluid and fail to regularly release eggs. Polycystic ovary syndrome is one of the leading causes of female infertility, affecting as many as one in ten American women of childbearing age (ages fifteen to fifty).
On a final note, I would simply like to share that the writing of the Kovacs’ story impacted my life in unexpected ways. I set out to recreate the world of my great-grandparents and gain a deeper understanding of American labor history and mental illness, but never imagined I would come away with such a profound appreciation for the human condition.
Acknowledgments
I have so many people to thank for guiding me along the path to publication. I am extremely grateful for the editorial expertise of Kathryn Johnson. Her insights helped me make significant improvements to the early drafts of my novel. Jane Friedman, Arielle Eckstut, and David Henry Sterry were instrumental in helping me revise my opening chapters. They also provided sage advice about the querying process and the publishing industry in general. I can’t recommend their services enough.
Very critical to my writing process was the arsenal of family and friends who were willing to read my novel and provide feedback. I am grateful to my parents, Joe and Linda Pasterick, as well as my friends, Melissa Whitlinger, Marcy Bradley, Alicia Kavulic, and Ulrike Bussmann, for their honest assessments and enthusiastic support. My writer friends, Jennifer Jabaley, Christy Maguire, and Elizabeth Conte Torphy, provided invaluable critiques as well as sympathy and humor when my journey got bumpy.
I owe a special thanks to my dear friend, Stacy Riggle El Sabbagh, whose belief in this novel never wavered. She was the ultimate cheerleader and even went so far as to recruit her colleagues at Pittsburgh Public Schools to serve as beta readers for me. The feedback I received from Stacy and her coworkers, John Masilunas, Andrea Harhai, David and Colleen Pilarski, Kathleen Hammer, Jackie Kimmel, and Ron Stein, was essential to the final round of revisions to my novel.
I would like to thank Professor Michael Kopanic, Jr. of the University of Maryland Global Campus for reviewing the final version of my manuscript and providing many helpful suggestions relating to Slovak culture and the history of Western Pennsylvania. I am also grateful to Professor Marcela Michalkova of the University of Pittsburgh for her assistance with the Slovak language.
I am so happy I found a home for my novel at She Writes Press. Brooke Warner, Shannon Green, Julie Metz, and the entire team have been a dream to work with. Crystal Patriarche, Tabitha Bailey, and Hanna Lindsley at BookSparks have also been amazing. Their publicity services far exceeded my expectations.
I would like to thank my husband, Jon, for reading every draft of this novel and believing so fiercely in my writing. I couldn’t ask for a more supportive partner. And last, but certainly not least, I am grateful to my children, Ethan and Morgan, who endured years of me bouncing story ideas off them on the way to soccer practice. I hope they will read this novel someday and be proud of their Slovak and Lithuanian heritage.
Questions for Discussion
1. Karina is especially vulnerable as an attractive young woman working in the home of a bachelor with a prominent position at the Riverton mill. Should she have quit her job instead of submitting to Henry’s sexual advances? Would she have been less susceptible to her employer’s abuses had she not been an immigrant?
2. At the end of the first chapter, Karina has a flashback of being groped by drunks at the boarding house. Compare the behavior of these immigrants to that of Henry Archer. Given the scarce employment opportunities for a woman of Karina’s status and means as well as the lack of legal recourse for sexual harassment and assault during the early twentieth century, what could Karina have done to stop these abuses?
3. Janos’s work at the steel mill is incredibly dangerous and has taken a terrible toll on his health. Were you surprised by the deplorable working conditions at the mill? Did anyone in your family immigrate to America to work in the steel industry?
4. Sofie is an anxious ten-year-old who worries about her father dying in an accident at the mill. She resents her neglectful mother and wonders why she never pays her any attention. In what ways has the outside world impacted Sofie’s family dynamics? How have Janos and Karina contributed to Sofie’s unhappiness? What role does Pole play in Sofie’s life?
5. Karina’s relationship with her family is complicated. She loves her husband and children, but rarely shows it. She is fixated on her family’s lack of money and status and is overburdened by her affair with her employer. What impact does Karina’s depression have on her interactions with her family? How does it affect her decision making, especially as it relates to Henry and her plot to escape Riverton?
6. Janos is often frustrated and hurt by Karina’s unpredictable behavior. He resents the fact that she neglects him and the children and wants a more intimate relationship with her. When talking about moving to the glass town, he tells Karina, “Once we get away from Riverton, we can forget about the past and wipe the slate clean. We’ll build a new life for our family” (p. 104). Do you think Janos suspects Karina has been unfaithful? Is he a fool to want to start over with her?
7. Karina and Henry are both ambitious and desperate to escape Riverton. Their actions are often motivated by their deep desire for upward mobility. Compare and contrast these two characters. Does Henry deserve Karina’s wrath when he ditches her for Edith? Is his ending satisfying, given that his negligence led to the death of Tomas Tomicek? If Henry hadn’t abruptly ended their relationship, would Karina have gone through with her plans to leave Riverton with him, or would she have chosen to stay with Janos and her children?
8. Seven years after leaving Riverton with his father, Pole is stuck in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania, mining coal to support his sister, Lily, and her mother. Were you surprised by the descriptions of life in the patch village and the ways the miners were exploited by the coal company? Did anyone in your family immigrate to America to work in the coal industry?
9. Since Karina’s disappearance, Janos, Sofie, and Lukas have moved on with their lives and are doing quite well in Beaver Creek and Johnstown. Discuss the ways their lives have improved in the past seven years. Are they better off without Karina? In what ways has Karina’s disappearance traumatized the family? Is she to blame for the loss of Lukas’s leg?
10. Edith suffers from a my
sterious medical condition, which is interfering with her ability to have a baby. Were you able to diagnose her without googling her symptoms? Were you surprised that Edith became Lukas’s benefactor after the train accident? How has her infertility impacted her relationship with her husband, James, and with Lukas?
11. When Pole is trapped in the coal mine for five days, he is forced to consider his mortality and weighs the option of a slow and painful death versus drinking piss and eating raw rats—or possibly even Gus—in order to survive. How would you cope if you were in Pole’s situation?
12. After seven long years, Karina returns to her family pregnant and on the verge of insanity. What do you think happened to her? What role do you think Victor played in her absence and trauma? Do you agree with Janos’s decision to care for Karina until her baby is born?
13. When Sofie and Pole reunite after their seven-year separation, they quickly rekindle their friendship, and a romance blossoms. Why do you think Sofie opens her heart to Pole, given that she had absolutely no interest in boys prior to Pole’s arrival? What is so special about their relationship?
14. Janos has fallen in love with Concetta and desperately wants a future with her, but Karina’s unexpected return jeopardizes his plans. Should Janos have been honest with Concetta about the situation with Karina instead of trying to hide it from her? How does Janos’s relationship with Concetta compare to his marriage with Karina?
15. Edith is overjoyed to learn that she is pregnant, but utterly devastated when she loses the baby. When she discovers blood all over her nightgown and bedding, she instructs James, “Get every last bit of it out of this house.… Red. The color red” (p. 335). What do you think of her reaction to her miscarriage and her behavior in the weeks that follow? Is she losing her mind?
16. Lukas follows his mother across the icy train bridge because he fears for her safety as well as baby Mary’s. When Karina refuses to take Lukas’s hand and becomes defensive, a struggle ensues, and Karina falls off the bridge. Do you think Karina’s death was an accident, or do you think Lukas pushed her?
Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash Page 32
