There had been rumors when Cole Galloway stopped coming to school two weeks before the end of the school year.
The first that anyone heard was that Darcy Galloway had run off with one of her druggie boyfriends, and the three of them simply packed up and left overnight. But that wasn't juicy enough. The real story - according to the lunch lady, allegedly - was that she'd finally snapped and OD'ed, but not before drowning her son. But that wasn't grisly enough, and anyway, who drowned 13-year-olds? She'd bashed his face in, but when she saw it, it reminded her of what her husband's body looked like the night of the accident, and she couldn't live with what she'd done. But that couldn't be right, because someone's uncle had seen Cole out sitting on the train tracks one night and chased him off, but no one had seen him since. None of it was too surprising. He'd been a weird kid since Grade 5. Though, anyone would be, losing their dad like that. How was anyone supposed to talk to him, after what happened? What could anyone say to a classmate who even the teachers treated with delicate care, like every word they spoke to him for the rest of the year was carefully selected, then wrapped in an awkward tissue-paper lining? He didn't look as fragile as they acted like he was, but in the end it was easier just to avoid him altogether.
And then there was his mother, who seemed to believe that with enough shouting and petition-pushing and sign-waving she could change the way the mines were. It clearly hadn't made a difference, considering the explosion two years back. Unless you counted her efforts to be among the numerous fatalities. As far as anyone could tell, she just gave up after that.
Of course, there were those who claimed they saw her run up and punch the one survivor square in the jaw right after one of the TV interviews when he was out of the hospital -- not that anyone had caught it on camera, or had any other verifiable proof. If life hadn't been difficult enough being "the kid whose dad died," that summer turned Cole into "the kid whose mom went crazy." The rumors didn't die down once the truth was out about her attempted overdose and his temporary placement into another home, but it would be months before he caught wind of those anyway.