After a while, Earl began to lose control over his body. His arms began to feel weak. Coal was falling off his shovel before he lifted it over the side of the car. But his father looked as strong as ever.
“He’s going to beat me,” Earl thought. “He’s going to beat me! And if he does, he knows I won’t leave home. He knows I won’t go because it would look like I was running away.”
So Earl kept going. “One more shovel,” he said to himself over and over. “I’ll do one more shovelful before I quit.” The ones became tens. The tens became hundreds. The hundreds became a thousand. Still his father showed no sign of letting up.