everything I know about my mother's hometown

to reach my mother&rsquo;s hometown from my hometown, it takes 2.5 hours by car on a crooked highway carved out of sprawling shale by carved, I mean blown apart with dynamite look closely and you&rsquo;ll see the hillsides shudder you&rsquo;ll know you are there when you see shore butting up against a muddy river my grandfather once swam across the river I do not know how old he was, or whether he…