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Toas catastrophe-quiet The carbide arc streetlao when they had been installed—were lit because people and cars and aniht to find safety in the storm

They walked up Main Street Tuht in the boardwalk Windoere boarded up, from both the Depression and the dust storms

When they neared the train depot, Stella

said, “It’s gettin’ bad, Lolo,” quietly, as if she were afraid her voice would carry all the way to her parents’ house

Loreda had no answer to that In the Martinelli house it had been bad for years She watched Stella walk away, shoulders hunched as if to protect her fro; she climbed over a new dune of sand that had been swept into the street and turned the corner on her way home Sophia followed her sister

Loreda and Ant kept walking It felt as if they were the only two people left in the world

They passed several FOR SALE signs on fence posts, and then there was nothing No houses, no fences, no aniold dirt molded into hills and dunes Sand piled up at the base of the telephone poles One pole was down

Loreda was the first to hear the slow, dull clip-clop of hooves

“Mommy!” Ant yelled

Loreda looked up

Moon toward them; she sat strained forward, as if she wanted Milo towas as exhausted and thirsty as the rest of them

Ant pulled free and started to run

Moon She ran toward the strips fro, her pale blond hair broith dust

Mo, pulled hiht she’d never see hiain, and covered his dirty face with kisses